The evidence continues to roll in on the Zimmerman case. While the new evidence is not entirely bad for the prosecution, it does contain some evidence that will likely bolster the defense of George Zimmerman in the second degree murder trial over the killing of Trayvon Martin. Regardless of the ultimate impact, the evidence again shows (in my opinion) that prosecutor Angela Corey over-charged the case in Florida.
Some of the new evidence shows that Martin had traces of THC (the active ingredient of marijuana) in his blood stream and urine. Martin was suspended from school due to a marijuana offense (though it involved an empty marijuana baggie). Another benefit to the defense is that Martin father is shown denying that the voice calling out for help was his son — though he later changed that view when he says he was given a better recording. Other witnesses have indicated that it Zimmerman who was calling for help.
Generally, the existence of drugs in the system of a victim or defendant is admissible. The suspension would appear inadmissible under standard evidentiary rules.
There is also evidence that some neighbors described Zimmerman as a bully and a racist. That would help bolster the reported hate crimes prosecution being considered by the Obama Administration, though I still have reservations based on the evidence as it currently stands. Also the police viewed the shooting as “avoidable” — if Zimmerman had left the matter to the police.
I am not sure how much of the neighbor’s view of Zimmerman as a bully or racist could come into evidence. Such accounts, however, can have the benefit of further discouraging Zimmerman from taking the stand as a witness — always a benefit to the prosecution because (while they are told that a defendant has a right not to testify (jurors expect to hear from defendants).
On the whole, however, I would view the evidence as more positive to the defense. First, I have previously said that I was most interested in the distance of the shot and forensics. It now appears that Martin was shot from an intermediate range (no more than 18 inches and as little as an inch away). That would support the claim of Zimmerman that they were in a wrestling fight when the gun was fired. The greater the distance the stronger the case for the prosecution. The defense will likely present expert testimony to try to reduce the range further on the stand. Also, the report does have people at the scene saying that Zimmerman’s nose appeared broken — supporting the later medical report of the family doctor (though such injuries could occur from Martin defending himself).
Moreover, at least two witnesses appear to support Zimmerman in describing the man in the hoodie at straddling the other man and throwing punches. The report state that the man in the “‘hoodie’ [was] on top of a white or Hispanic male and throwing punches ‘MMA (mixed martial arts) style.’ He then heard a pop. He stated that after hearing the pop, he observed the person he had previously observed on top of the other person (the male wearing the hoodie) laid out on the grass.” One report also says that Zimmerman can be heard yelling for help 14 times on a 911 call recorded during the fight.
While the reports blame Zimmerman for getting out of his vehicle (he says that he was trying to get a house number for the police), that is not itself a crime. Of course, none of this means that Zimmerman was not the aggressor. Given the presumption of innocence and the need to prove the elements beyond a reasonable doubt, this evidence presents an added problem for the prosecution in my view. I have expressed skepticism over the way the case has developed and how it has been charged from the outset. As a criminal defense attorney, I would view this as a strong defense case even on the manslaughter charge, particularly given the poor police work at the scene.
What do you think?
Here is the police report.
Source: ABC and NY Daily News
If M had circled the car Z would have told the dispatcher. M also wouldn’t have gone directly home with a creepy guy following him for the same reason Z didn’t want the “kid” to know where he lived. You just don’t know what the creepy guy is up to.
Hi Malisha – You leave out another possibility
4) Kid coming home from 7/11, chatting on the cell phone who noticed a concerned citizen “watching” him after he displayed unusual behaviour. Even though the kid was well on his way to being home (T-Junction) and out of any potential harms way and our of “the guys” sight, he chose to double back into sight and confront the guy because he felt disrespected by being watched like that for one reason or another and he decided to “teach this guy a lesson” in respect punk teenager style. Unfortunatley he was not smart enough to consider the possibility that the guy was armed in order to protect against vicious dogs in the neighborhood and he was the wrong one to take out his angst or imagined disrespect on.
Forgot to explain the above comment. It goes like this.
Trayvon Martin was either a violent thug who wanted to kill George Zimmerman, or a sneaky burglar who wanted to break into Taaffe’s or Zimmerman’s home and steal their stuff (and/or maybe rape their wives and contaminate their blood), or a kid coming home from 7/11 and chatting on the cell phone who got freaked by being followed by a creepy guy.
If he was the third option, he certainly would not have circled Zimmerman’s car. He was freaked out by Zimmerman following him; he wasn’t gonna follow his car or circle his car. In fact, as it turned out, Zimmerman followed him, scared him, threatened him somehow (whether he intended to or not) and killed him.
If one of the prior two possibilities had been true (Martin was a violent killer or a practiced criminal), he also would not have circled the car, for the following reasons: [return to prior comment to see two reasons].
Thank you.
Only Zimmerman saying Martin “circled the car” says that Martin “circled the car.” No physical evidence says that Martin “circled the car.” Common sense does not say that Martin “circled the car” either. If Martin meant to attack and brutally kill this innocent driver, he would NOT circle the car; that would put Zimmerman on notice that he — the thug — wanted to hurt him — the victim in the car. Any normal victim would have driven away PRONTO so as not to be hurt. So if Martin intended to hide, spring out and brutally beat to death Zimmerman, he would not have circled the car first. Also, if Martin simply intended to burglarize houses he would not have circled the car. Clearly, there was a person IN the car; circling the car would give a witness the ability to i.d. the burglar who was about to commit a burglary.
CIRCLING THE CAR DID NOT HAPPEN. It did not happen during the non-emergency call; it did not happen AFTER the non-emergency call. It happened only in Zimmerman’s florid imaginary “excuse for why i had to shoot a thug” story that he has now repeated to himself so many times that he probably believes it whole-hog. People like Dershowitz and Jeralyn whatever-her-name-is can believe it as whole as the original hog, too.
Manny, Your version would be really creepy and provocative toward Martin.
Shano, in Serino’s questioning of Zimmerman, he is asking about the exact details of George reaching for his gun, while being smothered/headbanged/whatever by Martin, and George gives him a detailed description of reaching for his gun and pointing it to make sure he doesn’t shoot himself in the arm and then he says he shoots, and Serino asks:
“at point-blank range?” and Zim says:
“Yeah,”
No — “well not exactly at point-blank range, I’d say more like intermediate…”
Autopsy report: Bullet entered straight, no angle, intermediate range.
Put that together with Serino saying, “[anonymous caller, female] says you were trying to restrain him” —
Hmmmm.
Yea, if someone did that to me, followed me in their car slowly and parking twice, it would make me think he was a creep, up to no good, one of those a55holes who rape young men.
Zimmerman just gets lucky that he is going Martins way, which ends up being very unlucky for Martin. George got a few scratches and not even a black eye out of his confrontation of Trayvon. No, I do not see the tell tale black eyes that signal a broken nose on this re-enactment.
Martin was killed, shot dead through the heart with one shot.
Sling –
Going through more of The Walk, you repeatedly try to make a thing of the dispatcher never really asking where Martin/Zimmerman is or went or in what direction, but its blatantly incorrect, just see the 11 questions asked by the dispatcher. it is patently obvious that the dispatcher is interested in WHAT martin is doing (more than one question/ask about him), WHERE martin is and WHAT direction Martin went, even what specific entrance.
Seriously, you should remove all the posturing speculation about Walk through zimmerman not matching up to Call zimmerman or that the dispatcher was only trying to facilitate a meetup with Zimmerman. There are multiple queries to Martin’s behavior, location, and direction by dispatcher prior to Zimmerman even being asked if he wanted a meet up at the end of the call
Again, as said before its not a verbatim recall on the walk through, but it 100% is in line with what happened on the call given he is not a robot, but human. Any fair minded juror who sees the 11 dispatcher questions/asks to Zimmerman about Martin/Zimmerman’s location/actions/direction is going to see congruency in the narrative and the call with no smoking gun deception whatsoever
Regarding the section of the distances, connecting the events to the timeline of the call, etc.
You say that Martin was at (C) by 0:42 in the call, but I think this is at best a bit off.
Zimmerman stopped at the clubhouse to dial the non-emergency number. Martin passes him and continues out of sight towards twin trees.
Here is the timeline as I see it after listening to the Call and Walk through more times than I care to admit
0:00 to 0:20 – Zimmerman is at the clubhouse and seeing Martin from his current position. Getting the call dialed and connected from the parked clubhouse position
0:20 – Zimmerman is in motion heading eventually towards point(C) in order to keep eye on Martin. Motion is intermittent depending on the Martin’s moves
0:28 – Zimmerman loses sight of Martin momentarily between RVC and Twin Trees road.
0:31 – Describes what Martin is wearing from memory
0:40 – Zimmerman is just now on Twin Trees road initially behind Martin. When Z says “he is here now” it means they are both on the same Twin Trees street “now” after the short period of time Zimmerman could not see him before he drives from clubhouse to here. Zimmerman has visual contact with Martin again now
0:42 – Zimmerman sees Martin casing the houses on Twin Trees
0:45 – Zimmerman passes by Martin just prior to the X by your point C and stops. Brake lights on. Not in Park yet as Zimmerman waits to see what Martin is going to do
0:49 – Martin is staring at Zimmerman from the X, Zimmerman sees in rear view mirror or is turned to watch Martin
1:01 – Martin is coming towards Zimmerman from the rear as Martin proceeds to C(1)/D. Here is where the circling/goes by occurs
1:10 – You hear the gear shifter…I believe this is Zimmerman putting his truck in park close to (C) as he now realizes martin is going off the road and going towards the dogwalk T-Junction
1:23 – He’s coming to check me out. This is where Martin comes back towards Zimmerman from C(1)/D
1:25 – He’s got something in his hands
So it doesn’t really require that Zimmerman’s “circling” happened at the Clubhouse
I guess the other question is what time was it taken? If taken by Taafe, would it put him at the scene or nearby at the time of the shooting. Just some followup questions re: 3rd person. I would expect Taafe to have a police scanner so he would know to cops were coming before they got there.
Bettykath — my bet is on Taaffe.
Manny O — when they asked where Martin ran, George answered that he ran toward the back entrance of the neighborhood. No mystery and no need to go searching for street names.
Guys, do you think the SPD is unable to call up Google Maps and see street names? Do you think George is unable to do that himself on the GPS? Do you think there’s any real issue about a street name? C’mon.
It is interesting to me that now, O’Mara won’t even put George on the stand to talk about money or BOND based on the notion that he can’t risk ANY cross-examination.
The self-defense claim is utterly dependent upon George’s own testimony unless Taaffe wants to come out of his closet and say, “I was there and I saw what happened from the beginning.”
O’Mara’s going to be unable to risk the cross so he won’t put George up there for the direct. Plea deal, Plea deal.
Who took the picture of Z at the scene? Do we know?
Hi Sling – I finally got a chance to start going through your site.
I haven’t gotten through all of it yet, but I did go through the call page and part way through the walk page all the way up to your “Something very strange” assertion which I wanted to reply to
You say there:
** Start Sling **
In this section of the Walk Through, while he is parked at the clubhouse (B), Zimmerman says:
“Then the dispatcher said “Where did he go? What direction did he go in. And I said I don’t know.
Because he cut down here and made a right And that’s Twin Trees Lane”
And they said what direction did he go in? and I said I don’t know. I can’t see him
And they said can you get to somewhere you can see him
And I said yeah I can, so I backed out, and I made this right here.”
This exchange with the Dispatcher never happened
** End Sling **
This did happen, thought not verbatim, and it’s not strange at all I would counter
Dispatcher asks/says all of these to Zimmerman:
Call 00:45: He’s just walking around the area[you are at]?
Call 00:52: Hey so y’said its 1111 Retreat View or 111?
Call 00:55: Thats the clubhouse?
Call 00:56: Do you know…he’s near the clubhouse right now?
Call 01:28: Ok, Let me know if he does anything, okay?
Call 01:32: Ok, just let me know if this guy does anything else
Call 01:56: Ok, you say he’s on the left hand side from the clubhouse?
Call 02:09: He’s running? Which way is he running?
Call 02:15: Ok, which entrance is that that he is heading towards?
Call 02:59: Ok, where do you want to meet with [police] at?
Call 03:21: Ok, what address are you parked in front of?
Clearly….Clearly….the dispatcher was entirely interested in the location of Martin/Zimmerman. He asked/clarified 11 times! different ways to get an idea of where he was
So its no stretch and not strange at all for Zimmerman to paraphrase those 11 different queries into
Where did he go
What direction did he go
When the dispatcher, twice in rapid fire at 1:28 & 1:32 drills into Zimmerman that he want’s Zimmerman to tell him if Martin does anything it pre-supposed that he want’s Zimmerman to keep any eye on him, stay where he can see him
So its all perfectly logical. You might want to just remove that part from “The Walk” page as it’s so obviously not strange
Will continue reading through your site and post more
Thanks
Manny
Malisha: the A55holes have always gotten away from George, but not from some anonymous roofers just visiting Georges patrol route. They do not even know anything about criminals or the neighborhood like George does! Such indignities poor George has to suffer.
That must have lit his Adderal soaked fuse.
Sling T, something just occurred to me and I cannot (STILL!) figure out how to put comments on your excellent evidence website.
George calls non-emergency at about 7 pm on 2/26/2012.
One of his most telling comments — not said in answer to any question, by the way — is, “These a55holes, they always get away!”
Now, if he had previously gotten satisfaction and acclaim from the Neighborhood Watch and Taaffe and the police because someone that he had identified was arrested in connection with all those open burglaries (note they are BURGLARIES, not ROBBERIES) and if his call on 2/2/2012 had resulted in an arrest,
WHY * * * * OH WHY * * * * would he be bemoaning, three weeks later, that “These a55holes…always get away”?
Naturally, he would be saying, in his initial call, “Hi, there have been some burglaries in my neighborhood and previously, when I called in a suspect, he was arrested and charged, and now I think I have found another one…”
Not:
“These a55holes…they always get away.”
“Hi, this is george Zimmerman, the guy who handed you the perp on the previous burglaries in this neighborhood…”
NOT:
“These a55holes…they always get away.”
See, the stories told by George and Taaffe and the woman who backs up their stories and “represents” the Neighborhood watch — they’re false.
As of 2/26/2012 when George made his “kill,” none of the perps had been turned over to the cops by Hero-Zim-Man. Prior to that night when George SCORED, the a55holes had always GOTTEN AWAY.
Hey check it out:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57463338-504083/greyston-garcia-who-won-fla-stand-your-ground-case-killed-in-suspected-gang-crossfire/?tag=re1.channel
DANGEROUS WORLD OUT THERE!
Lucky there are lots of neighborhood watch folks protecting us!
I wonder if Taaffe was the one who took the photograph of the bloody head.
We had a storm here (East Coast) last night that brought down a lot of trees and knocked out the power. A friend of mine went out and scratched his head on a branch. He came in laughing, covered with blood from a tiny head wound (bandaid size, not deep at all, scratch from a branch) and his kid asked, “How come you look worse than George Zimmerman?” He explained that because of the rich blood supply to the brain, head wounds bleed profusely. Hmmmmm…
He’s fine now, washed up and put on a little bandaid. Still cheereful. Never killed anyone. Unarmed when he came into contact with the branch; lost visual.
An example of how inaccurate reporting can get, and how infrequently it is corrected. Ashley Hayes of CNN writes on June 22, 2012, about George Zimmerman:
“As he spoke to the dispatcher, he told police Martin circled his vehicle, but he could not hear whether Martin said anything because his windows were up and he was on the phone. Afterward, he said, he “lost visual of (Martin).” At the same time, he said the dispatcher asked him his location. He said he wasn’t sure of the name of the street he was on and got out of the vehicle to look for a street sign or an address on a home.”
This is as “true” as the NCB reporter who said Zimmerman said “He looks suspicious…he looks Black,” but it’s even less true.
As Zimmerman spoke to the dispatcher, on 2/26/2012, before killing Martin, he did NOT say that Martin circled the car. THAT fiction came afterwards, when he was being interviewed at the station. NOT during the phone call to the dispatcher.
Phone call to the dispatcher said, in order:
He’s there
He’s checking me out
He ran
(in response to WHERE DID HE RUN? he says)
toward the back entrance of the neighborhood.
NOTHING about circling the car.
Now, the questions about WHERE that would lead to giving an address had nothing to do with WHERE MARTIN was headed — only about where George Zimmerman could be found when the police arrived.
George decided to evade those questions by saying, in effect, let them call me when they get here and I’ll let them know where I’m at.
Goerge did not get out of the car to look for an address; Trayvon Martin did not circle the car while George was on the phone with the dispatcher.
George got out of the car to find and restrain (at LEAST) Martin; Martin was “running” and trying to “get away” — both of these actions were narrated by George to the dispatcher. No circling of the car was narrated to the dispatcher.
Just posting hastily, will enlarge later today or tomorrow, but:
My present theory of the case is that GZ was completely wrapped up in his need to show TM who was boss here. Not only did he not want TM to get away, but he wanted to exact revenge for the guy he tried to report on 2/2/2012 who was leaning up against Taafe’s house and either apparently, or in GZ’s mind, taunting GZ with the fact that there wasn’t a thing GZ could do about not liking his being there and not being answerable to GZ for his presence and his “not-niceness.”
GZ was on a mission to straigten out something that was not right in the world. What was that “something” that was not right in the world? He GZ was not getting the respect he should have gotten. TM was going to buckle under to him; TM was going to be suitably afraid of him and suitably submissive to him; TM was going to say, in effect, “Yes Massa” to him.
More later.
Two voice analysts say the calls for help were not Zimmerman. With no comparable sample of Martin, they couldn’t say it was him.
I was impressed with both investigators. Singleton really seemed to have a good handle on the details. Both of them worked to keep Zimmerman talking. Serino took it to the DA for a manslaughter prosecution. The DA said there wasn’t enough evidence for conviction. Zimmerman is an accomplished liar. I just read about adderol (sp?) It’s a speed cocktail, nasty stuff.
Read about a guy who took 15 pills of his 30 pill prescription. He was picked up after driving erratically, hitting a car, refusing to pull over, resisting arrest, etc. He was beaten very badly by the cops who use resisting arrest as an excuse to go postal on perps.