The murder trial of George Zimmerman just got a bit more complicated after an attorney revealed in open court that the girlfriend of teenager Trayvon Martin, known as Witness 8, is believed to have lied about her whereabouts following his death. The girlfriend has supplied a key account that portrayed Zimmerman as the aggressor from a brief telephone call with Martin. However, Mark O’Mara revealed in court that she is believed to have lied in stating under oath that she did not go to Martin’s funeral because she was hospitalized. While that does not change the account of the telephone call, it would be a lie under oath that could be prosecuted and would chip away at her credibility, particularly with another witness saying that Martin was seen on top of Zimmerman shortly before the shooting.
News accounts report that defense attorney Don West in court said that the girlfriend “lied” and that “[s]he, in fact, did not go to the hospital as she stated under oath.” West is quoted as saying that “[prosecutor] Mr. [John] Guy represented there would not be hospital records confirming her sworn statement, because, in fact, she lied.”
A lie in a sworn statement is a crime and we have previously discussed how prosecutors are often inconsistent in who they choose to charge — sometimes giving a pass to false accusers in high profile cases like the one involving the Duke Lacrosse case.
The lie, if proven, will add to the difficulty in the case. I have previously expressed my view that the prosecutors have yielded to public pressure in over-charging the case. Prosecutors will be in a tough position if a key witness made up her hospitalization under oath.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
I was surprized that Zimmy’s lawyers did not exercise the right to the Stand Your Ground Hearing afforded by Florida Law. -Dredd
My understanding is that they can still use the “Stand Your Ground” defense at some point down the road. I don’t recall the source.
And what lottakatz said.
Other news sources state that the adult girl was 18, that she was first found by Trayvon Martins family lawyer and talked with him first. She lied about her age to the cops, saying she was 16. Thus this adult (18 Up and Out since the 26th Amendment to the Constitution) is not a kid and her name can be revealed. Why did she lie about her age? And the hospital crap? If she lied about those two things the rest is a lie. Liar, liar, your pants are on fire. There are no witnesses to the so called crime unless it is the one who says that dead hoodie guy was on top of Z and pounding his head in the ground.
So, in court, under oath, you have Z and the witness who say the dead guy pounding his head in the ground. If the State puts on the liar then ya got the big issue before the jury about the liar and the fact that she spoke with fat guy lawyer fro mommy and daddy. If the state puts on liar adult female age 18 plus, I would put on the lawyer for the family and make him say what he has revealed thathe has said to the liar. Why he was there instead of telling the cops where she was and who she was. Put his motive on the case to the jury. Mommy and daddy of dead guy wont look so hurt there in the front row crying.
What else do they have in evidence against him? Nuthin. Jury will be out about two hours and that is if they eat lunch or dinner. Not guilty.
Then fat guy lawyer and dead guys bad child raising parents will have a rough go suing Z and the gated community. Perhaps Gated Community ought to be suing dead guys parents for putting him on the street with his hoodie and for raising him so poorly. Punks like dead hoodie need to get shot before they knock someone down and start beating their heads into concrete. A 17 year old male can be a lean mean fast machine. Us old farts need guns to slow em down and to stop em if they assault and batter with intent to kill or steal.
I thought you were talking about Zimmy’s wife — she has been indicted for perjury.
I was surprized that Zimmy’s lawyers did not exercise the right to the Stand Your Ground Hearing afforded by Florida Law.
I have a comment waiting in moderation. I made the mistake of using a word which suggests Mr. Z’s parents were not wed at the time of his nativity.
You better buy a gun now and you better carry it at all times. You better be quick on the draw because even if you didn’t start the confrontation you could be killed simply by trying to defend yourself or if the eventual shooter can claim he thought you were intent on defending yourself. The only safe bet is to shoot first since the Shoot Your Guns laws make prosecution for murder impossible if you claim you felt threatened.
Is this a great country or what?
So what…. But witness credibility is an issue….
Lottakatz makes a very compelling argument with the social grace issue.
What Mespo said, Zimmerman’s atty. does not want to open the ‘who lied about what’ door.
Beside that, hasn’t anyone in the legal profession heard of good manners? You can’t say ‘I’m just not that into you’ so you say, ‘I have other plans for Xday’. You can’t say ‘I don’t want to attend the wedding, shower, anniversary party, funeral because (come up with about a dozen good reasons in the next 10 seconds)’ it would be rude or perceived as rude so you say something socially acceptable including ‘I was sick’. I can easily see how a teenager would rather tell the socially acceptable white lie than what she perceived as a potentially less socially acceptable reason, of which there could be many.
Big mess.
BarkinDog, You obviously haven’t looked at any of the discovery information. Let me save you some time.
“What witnesses to the event do the prosecutors have? ”
They have Trayvon’s body, the shell casing, the 911 call where the scream of the victim and the voice of the killer are heard. They also have the tape of the non-emergency call and the tape of the walk-thru done by the defendant. These two tapes don’t come close to matching each other or the physical evidence.
“Are they gonna put on multiple photos of young trayvon looking cute? Are his parents gonna get n the stand and talk about him going out for Skittles? Are they gonna put a map up and explain why Trayvon detoured into the gated community?”
He was a cute kid, wasn’t he? Trayvon didn’t detour into the gated community, he was staying there.
“Are they gonna argue that Zimmerman banged his own head on the ground and got those injuries?”
I don’t know how he got those superficial lacerations that didn’t require a single stitch, but it wasn’t from having his head banged on concrete.
“Cross examination of witness 8: So witness 8, you were 18 years old when this happened and the lawyer for Trayvon’s family happened upon you. Why did you lie and tell the cops you were only 16? So, witness 8, what is your real adult name? Have you voted? Are you in psychiatric treatment? What other lies did you tell the cops after talking to Trayvon’s parents’ fat lawyer guy? So, why did Trayvon say he was in the gated community to begin with? Skittle machine in there? Trayvon had a cell phone on him and the cops have it? Does it show a phone call to you that night? So, Miz 18 up and out, what other lies did you tell the cops?”
DeeDee never talked with the cops. Her identity is being withheld b/c she is afraid. Two other young women have been falsely identified by supporters of the defendant and have been doxed and otherwise harassed. And, yes, her phone and his show multiple calls between the two on that day, including one that shows that they were talking when the altercation began.
Obviously its taking longer than everyone except the lawyers & officials would like, as justice in America & the West usually does, but you have to let it go to trial before rushing to judgement. Certainly the defendant would not want to obscure the witnesses lies, if lies they were, just to not talk about his own. Yes, Zimmerman’s lie about money is probably taken very seriously by the court; its understandable, rather than excusable: any time you have to go to court as a defendant or a hospital as a patient, it means big money, sometimes of the bankrupting kind.
For pictures of Trayvon at various ages:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-trayvon-martin-pictures-20120328,0,3247003.photogallery
Pictures 10-13 (the ones where he is wearing a Reese’s T-shirt) were taken within the month before he was killed.
I can’t vouch for any facebook or twitter pictures. Most of those claiming to be Trayvon are of another person, one whose family lives in GA.
Mespo, Absolutely. I was speaking of confirmed lies of fact.
I just read on ABC that Zimmerman’s attorneys are giving up “Stand your ground” defense. They apparently don’t want to “shoot their wad” as it were. If you lose that defense the prosecutor then knows your strategy. Interesting!
nick spinelli:
“you know the credibility of a witness goes in the toilet once there is a substantiated lie.”
*******************
I do know that but the operative question, as bettykath so concisely points out, is did Dee-Dee miss the funeral because she had high blood pressure or not. Spun lies don’t count as much as proven lies and you, of course, know that.
Mespo, Come on..you know the credibility of a witness goes in the toilet once there is a substantiated lie. The cross examination question is boilerplate and damn effective: “We know you lied about that, how do we know this is the truth?”
The defense attorneys have taken great liberties with the truth on more than one occasion. In this case, they have taken the prosecution’s statement that there are no hospital records and turned that into perjury. The exchange from the transcript which was released months ago show a
question: “OK, did you end up going to the hospital or somewhere?”
response: “Mmm..Yeah, I had high blood pressure.”
A somewhat ambiguous question and an ambiguous response. Is she agreeing that she went to the hospital or that she did something else?
Here is the exchange. BDLR is the ADA. DeeDee is the pseudonym of the witness.
BDLR:_ OK._ I’m not saying that they did._ I’m just making sure the records’ clear on that….Um…you obviously found out about what happened to Trayvon, right?_ And at some point you ended up knowing that he was killed, right?
Dee Dee:_ Yeah.
BDLR:_ Were you able to go to the funeral or to the wake?
Dee Dee:__I was goin’ to go, but…
BDLR:_ OK, what happened?
Dee Dee:__I didn’ feel good.
BDLR:_ OK, did you end up going to the hospital or somewhere?
Dee Dee:_ Mmmm…Yeah, I had high blood pressure.”
What Mespo said. Zimmerman is a murderer.
I’d say lying about not going to the funeral pales in comparison to lying about how much money you have and what you did with it at your bail hearing. Does Zimmerman really want to get into a lying contest?
What witnesses to the event do the prosecutors have? Are they gonna put on multiple photos of young trayvon looking cute? Are his parents gonna get n the stand and talk about him going out for Skittles? Are they gonna put a map up and explain why Trayvon detoured into the gated community? Are they gonna argue that Zimmerman banged his own head on the ground and got those injuries?
Cross examination of witness 8: So witness 8, you were 18 years old when this happened and the lawyer for Trayvon’s family happened upon you. Why did you lie and tell the cops you were only 16? So, witness 8, what is your real adult name? Have you voted? Are you in psychiatric treatment? What other lies did you tell the cops after talking to Trayvon’s parents’ fat lawyer guy? So, why did Trayvon say he was in the gated community to begin with? Skittle machine in there? Trayvon had a cell phone on him and the cops have it? Does it show a phone call to you that night? So, Miz 18 up and out, what other lies did you tell the cops?
JT: if you go on Google Images and bark in: Trayvon Martin older images, you will find older images than the baby photo that you produced above. How about publishing the one where he is giving the finger. The family of Trayvon is looking for money outta this deal and they are using chumps like this forum. This 18 year old adult who lied and said she was 16 when interviewed must be capable of lying ab out everything that Trayvon’s greedy parents’ greedy lawyer told her to lie about if she cant get her age right.
Use of the kid photo on this blog of the dead guy is offensive to us readers. There is a kindergarten photo of Trayvon on Google Images if you want to use that.