A new report shows that the day after killing Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman passed a police lie detector test. He registered truthful in stating that he was afraid for his life before shooting the teen. The report does not materially affect the trial since such tests are not admissible but may explain the the resistance of local officials to bring the case. It also further supports the view, again, that Angela Corey overcharged the case. She was no doubt aware of the test which, while not admissible as evidence because their reliability is questioned, can be considered by the prosecutors in determining the appropriate charge. UPDATE: A police report shows a critical view of Zimmerman’s account and says that he missed two opportunities to defuse the situation.
Zimmerman willingly submitted to a computer voice stress analyzer (CVSA) “truth verification” on February 27 and the test “was classified as No Deception Indicated (NDI).” This included the question of “Did you confront the guy you shot?’ He answered, “No.” He was rated as telling the truth in both saying that he did not confront Martin and that he was in fear of his life.
Also released recently are further details from Zimmerman to the police. Zimmerman insisted that the teen knocked him down and began to pound his head in the sidewalk while telling him “You’re going to die.” Zimmerman claims Trayvon reached for the gun and that he grabbed it to protect himself.
Both the question of fear and the party responsible for the confrontation could be distorted by Zimmerman’s perspective and not accepted objectively by third parties. Of the two questions, however, the confrontation question is the most interesting. It is rare for targeted suspects to agree to lie detectors, though I have agreed to such tests in past cases.
Once again, this evidence does not rule out the basis for a criminal charge, but in my view strongly militates against a charge greater than manslaughter. In fairness to the local officials, the evidence also offers support for their view that no charge was appropriate. One can disagree with that conclusion, but they may have had solid reasons for opposing a charge. That does not excuse sloppy police work and there was still a basis to detain Zimmerman at the scene. However, the case has become more muddled with such new evidence. As a criminal defense attorney, I have always viewed this case as one with strong defense arguments for trial. While the odds always favor the prosecution, the factual record has a number of elements that could create reasonable doubt. Obviously, the trial itself can present facts in different light and the prosecution has yet to be fully heard in the case.
Source: NY Daily News
or maybe his jacket was on backwards….
maybe his jacket sleeve was twisted around his arm? only explanation I can think of….
“But how do you explain the lack of reasonable amounts of gun powder and Pb residue on his right-side?”
I don’t see an explanation. The only residue on his clothing was a single small spot on the back of his right sleeve. I don’t recall any residue on his hands, but maybe I’m remembering incorrectly. He probably had blood on his hands that got wiped off by the emts. His hands were clean appearing when they were photographed in the police station.
OK I understand everyone’s comments about GZ’s possible ambidexterity. But how do you explain the lack of reasonable amounts of gun powder and Pb residue on his right-side? There was not enough to claim that that hand shot Trayvon. The other arm (left) had none at all.
The Kel-Tec pistol he had ejects the cartridge up and to the right. The safety and releases are on the left making it easier to thumb with your RIGHT hand vs left (so you make have a point there). However, his holster is a leftie. It’s belt-clip makes the pistol grip point backward on his left side but frontwards on his right side. That’s if he doesn’t clip it INSIDE his right waistband (which he evidently did that night I guess).
So it seems to me that he purchased a leftie holster for a reason. They are cheap and not a point you need to think heavily on. His Kel-Tec seems perfect for a rightie though as you can get hit by your own spent casings if you fire it leftie.
During the NEN video he could have been just doing that as it occurred to him that his hand orientation may become an issue in the future. I truly think his cellphone was ALWAYS in his dominant hand even when he CONFRONTED Trayvon. He was constantly using it so why put it away on his hip?
When he was driving he had to use his left-hand to make the 911 calls as the shift lever is on his right-hand side in his truck. He was not using a headset or you could tell.
In the NEN video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qfkRTC5gF4) he doesn’t DRAW his weapon 09:55. He was describing (lying) about how he used his right hand to deflect Trayvon from getting his pistol. I think in GZ’s natural drawing maneuver he would use his left hand to reach across and pull his pistol which was inverted in a leftie-holster. Many 19th century wild west cowboys (and detectives today) enjoyed this particular maneuver as they said they could draw faster like this (with pistol inverted and reaching across their body). Others preferred otherwise (normal holstering mounted high up on belt for ease of drawing fast). All a matter of perspective I guess…
No they are NOT in protective custody… Judge Lester just released their name and addresses (and five others) for the public and they moved out of RATL. They are very angry at Lester: http://www.wogx.com/story/19115782/george-zimmerman-case-witnesses-furious
The left-handed thing is a bit odd.
If you look at videos where Zimmerman mentions his gun or his phone, his right hand goes to his right hip – in both cases.
He does this unconsciously. It’s reflex.
He write left-handed though. There are people who are ambidextrous or who have a mix.
It’s entirely possible that Zimmerman took out the gun even before he encountered Martin.
I also sense that it is entirely possible that he actually reached for his phone when he encountered Martin. He really is that messed up.
Very early on, Zimmerman’s parents (and to a lesser certainty, his brother) indicated that the fight started because Martin saw the gun when Zimmerman went for his phone.
Certainly, they were all agreed that the trigger for Martin punching was Zimmerman reaching for his phone.
There’s this “hand in his waistband” thing that Zimmerman thought so significant that he mentioned it in the NEN call – and is the only detail of the approach/circling that he repeats in the walk-through.
Would it be so surprising if Martin had the same sort of reaction to weird people in the dark in a tense situation reaching for their waistband – even *if* what Zimmerman *was* reaching for (rather stupidly in the circumstances) was his phone?
Or, to answer the query..
Yes, left-handed writer Zimmerman would use his right hand to draw a gun from his right hip and shoot.
From what I see in the videos, it’s automatic for him
Another possibility. GZ is naturally right handed but had a serious injury to his right hand at the time when he was learning to write and had to use his left hand. This learning could have stayed with him and then whatever he learned afterward he learned with his right hand.
sonofthunder, GZ is left handed. In the walk-thru he demonstrated reaching for his gun with his right hand and later he demonstrates, after shooting TM, that he still has his gun out – in his right hand. He writes as if his left-handedness is pretty strong but it isn’t unusual for a certain amount of ambidextrousness. I’m left handed in all things, but I swing right handed (golf, baseball), left handed for bowling.
Frank Taaffe is MAD at us: boo hoo
http://skeweddistribution.com/2012/07/26/did-frank-taaffe-admit-he-uses-trayvon-martins-death-for-fame-an-email/
Oh I forgot… if GZ is left-handed why did the very ‘small’ amount of residue show up on his right-arm coat sleeve and right hand? If he fired the residue would be heavy. If someone were standing next to his right-arm and fired the weapon maybe that’s how the residue got on GZ’s right sleeve & hand? Maybe GZ was worried about his “other” (right-hand) because HE was holding Trayvon’s shirt while Frank was firing the shot. Like “Hey Frank watch out for my hand dude!” The eye-witness M* & her girlfriend roommate said she heard Trayvon pleading for his life and he was on his knees. The 3rd 911 caller said she saw a man with a “white” t-shirt at the scene. Neither GZ nor TM had a white T-shirt on.
My theory was that the LOUD “HELP HELP HELP” was coming from M* not Trayvon nor George. She must have seen all of the other witnesses onlooking from various vantage points (FBI says 21 now) and asking for them to help.Tim (aka John) ran back inside his adjacent house and watched from upstairs window while calling 911.
I sure would like to know what M* has to say about a 3rd person at the scene…
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M* is the South American woman (and with her American female roommate) who lives on RVC at the kill site in her back yard. Her and her girlfriend confronted GZ right after the shot. And they had a flashlight. They don’t mention a 3rd person but SPD is arguably trying to silence them as they don’t like their testimony. Why? because it changes everything about how they want to see it. I have a feeling they will be Angela Corey’s and FBI Ibison’s star witnesses. They should be in protective custody by now.
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Can you imagine what his Army Ranger babysitters are teaching him right now? Maybe hand signals so he can speak non-verbally with Shellie next time as “verbally” has caught his ‘t*ts in a ringer’ once too many times.
Here’s some more fodder for your analysis:
1. I think George is left-handed.
2. I think he wore his holster on the right-side so he had to reach over for the pistol.
3. Trayvon’s wound is on the right side of his chest (our right his left).
4. My watching Frank in videos he APPEARS to be right-handed but not sure. And Frank appears to be as tall if not taller than George and Trayvon (not sure).
5. There appears to be no angle of trajectory from a left-handed prospective. Just maybe a slightly higher angle possibly suggesting the shooter shot downward (I could be mistaken about that).
6. George is capable of physical violence as demonstrated against a woman at his job in where he forcibly picked her up and threw hr out the building. And again in 2005 where he slugged a SPD undercover officer. And he also hit his girlfriend a few times – which prompted the SPD UC to intervene. So George knows how to get physical when it calls for it.
7. IMO he does appear slightly intelligent as I believe he was enrolled in college at the time of the shooting. But he’s only 29 and does not have much street savvy but has learned a few ‘tricks of the trade’ from Mark, Frank, Shellie, and his dad. I believe he does have trouble thinking “outside the box” and depends more on his skills from rote learning in dealing with his environment. He is definitely a follower and not a leader.
Sling, you’ve done a great job on the time line. how does it work if Zimmerman, with purpose, goes thru to RVC, turns right toward the back entrance and then cuts thru to the path, either between two blocks of houses or at the end where Martin was headed? Do either of those paths help account for the 2 minutes? One witness seeing someone (two?) running toward the T.
Maybe there is a tiny shred of truth in Georges statement. Didn’t some people hear the fight start at or close to the T- junction? But then it moved down the path to the place where Trayvon was killed. Maybe Trayvon was trying to retreat to where he was staying,with George continuing a verbal fight, with some contact at times until the real struggle on the ground started.
I just read a comment on the Colorado Shooter news (one of the Fox or Fox-like threads) that said the commenter wished Trayvon Martin’s parents had been killed in the movie theater that night. Reading it, I realized that all the pro-Zim folks who put in these psycho-comments really believe that there would never have been any problem with the “kill” if only those terrible parents hadn’t fussed so much about their little thug being eliiminated. And if you see the way Zimmerman reacted to the event BEFORE IT SEEMED CLEAR THAT HE COULDN’T JUST WALK AWAY UNTOUCHED you see that he also felt there was no problem at all from the “kill.” He felt like he had a confirmed “kill” to make him a righteous member of the Brotherhood, that’s all. Eliminated a thug, got his badge, he’s a made man.
Taffe gets a mention for different reasons in my (Zimmerman’s) Elephants page.
http://zimmermanscall.blogspot.com/p/elephants.html
Zimmerman does not appear to be the brightest of individuals.
He does have an instinctive cunning though.
It seems clear from the time gap and his own words in the NEN call that he went in search of Martin.
However justified he might have felt in doing that, he seems to have realised immediately that being actively in search of Martin would be damaging to him.
Right from the start he claims that he was simply walking back to his truck, and that there was no question of him being South of the East-West path.
He even claims that he only got out of the truck and got into that area due to demands for information by the dispatcher.
By the time of the Hannity interview, he seems to recognise that his words in the call are problematic. He has to change their meaning.
He and O’Mara must be well aware of the time gap of over 2 minutes. They can’t address it. One can make an attempt to unsay things. Turning back time isn’t so easy though.
Lock him up. When George is faced with jail time. will he rat out Taaffe?
yes, why, yes I think he would if he could get a reward of some kind
BettyKath, yes, I get it, I agree.
Malisha, Just b/c I think he should own up to it doesn’t mean that I think he will. i’m sure he believes he was justified in all that he did, including the tale that he told.
BettyKath, the problem is that George Zimmerman doesn’t believe there should BE punishment for what he “had to do.” Chief Lee didn’t believe there should be punishment for what Zimmerman did. Wolfinger didn’t believe there should be punishment for what Zimmerman did. Probably half the white people in Florida don’t believe there should be punishment for it. This has made Zimmerman try to change the story about what he did to fit into the legal definition of a “non-crime” — because he doesn’t think that killing a “guy” he finds suspicious and calls a “punk” and an “a55hole” should be punishable. Taaffe doesn’t believe it; Zimmerman doesn’t believe it; Osterman doesn’t believe it.
What Trayvon Martin did that night to get George mad enough to kill him was to NOT PLAY THE SUBSERVIANT, SELF-CRIMINALIZING SNIVELING COWARDLY BAD BOY, so Zimmerman felt his “authority” being challenged and he couldn’t allow that because he’s a punk and an a55hole.
Anybody who thinks my calling Zimmerman a punk and an a55hole is unfair, disrespectful, a sign of malice, a depravity, a sign of ill will on my part — YEAH, I AGREE. My calling Zimmerman a punk and an a55hole is a sign of malice, a depravity, and a sign of ill will on my part. SEE?
And killing someone with malice, depravity and ill will is, in Florida, SECOND DEGREE MURDER. I have not done that to Zimmerman, but I will admit the negative feelings on my part toward him. Precisely those he expressed to the police toward Trayvon Martin (whether deserved or not) BEFORE SHOOTING HIM DEAD.