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Prosecutors Release More George Zimmerman Evidence

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Prosecutors released more evidence in the George Zimmerman case Tuesday afternoon including an unredacted police report and the results of a voice stress test given the day after he shot Trayvon Martin.

The supplemental discovery was released at 1 p.m. and includes video and audio recordings of police interviews with Zimmerman, a 29-page Sanford Police report without statements redacted and an exemption list that notes redactions to the evidence.

Portions of the unredacted capias request and report of investigation, prepared by police Investigator Chris Serino, seem to question some of Zimmerman's accounts of the shooting.

"Investigative findings show that Zimmerman admitted to avoiding a confrontation with Martin while Zimmerman was observing Martin from his vehicle, because, as he told investigators, was afraid of Martin," the capias request reads. "Later in the encounter, Zimmerman exited his vehicle, in spite of his earlier admission to investigators that he was afraid of Martin, and followed Martin in an effort to maintain surveillance of him while Zimmerman awaited the arrival of law enforcement officers. His actions are inconsistent with those of a person who has stated he was in fear of another subject."

In the report, Serino notes that Zimmerman had two chances to speak with Martin before the shooting and "defuse the circumstances surrounding their encounter.

"On at least two occasions, George Michael Zimmerman failed to identify himself as a concerned resident or a neighborhood watch member to Trayvon Benjamin Martin. Investigative findings show the physical dimensions of Trayvon Benjamin Martin, and that of George Michael Zimmerman, coupled with the absence of any specialized training in hand to hand combat between either combatant, did not place George Michael Zimmerman in an extraordinary or exceptional disadvantage of apparent physical ability or defensive capacity," Serino wrote. "Investigative findings show the physical injuries displayed by George Michael Zimmerman are marginally consistent with a life-threatening violent episode as described by him, during which neither a deadly weapon nor deadly force was deployed by Trayvon Martin."

The investigator concludes the shooting may have been avoidable.   READ MORE

Pages From Police Reports Without Statements Redacted

The Absurd Things George Zimmerman And His Wife Did To Try To Keep Their Money Secret

Nick R. Martin June 18, 2012, 8:22 PM

It didn’t take an expert cryptographer or even a secret decoder ring to figure out George Zimmerman really wasn’t talking about Peter Pan during jailhouse phone calls with his wife in April.

In hushed conversations from a Seminole County, Fla., jail, the man charged with second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin was instructing his wife how to transfer huge amounts of money between bank accounts and allegedly out of the gaze of local authorities.

The name “Peter Pan,” in this case, appears to have been code for the company PayPal. Zimmerman was using the online banking service to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from supporters who believed he was either a hero of gun rights or a man being railroaded by a corrupt justice system.

Clumsy and obvious, the code was just one of several tactics that verged on the absurd that the Zimmermans used to try to keep their fundraising secret from authorities. The tactics were brought to light on Monday when prosecutors released audio recordings of six jailhouse phone calls between Zimmerman and his wife.

The calls, along with dozens of pages of bank records, showed the contortions the couple went through in April to keep their fundraising on the down low.

“Um, I asked Ken to double up on it, do, you know, $10 in the morning and then $10 in the evening,” George Zimmerman said to his wife during one of the calls released Monday. “And that way you can put, you know, into mine and then you can take uh 10 for you and 10 for her for Susie.”

“Okay, why can’t he just do both of ‘em?” Shellie Zimmerman replied.

“Because he can only take it from Peter Pan to mine.”

“Oh okay, okay, right.”    READ MORE

Annotated Re enactment video:

 

Zimmerman rode with cops, ripped department

This Feb. 27, 2012 photo released by the State Attorney's
Office shows George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch
volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin. The photo and reports
were among evidence released by prosecutors that also
includes calls to police, video and numerous other documents.
The package was received by defense lawyers earlier this
week and released to the media on Thursday, May 17, 2012.

In a city hall forum in 2011, George Zimmerman criticized Sanford police as lazy, saying he knew because he had ridden along with cops.


A year before George Zimmerman killed a Miami Gardens teenager, he stood before a City Hall community forum with a grievance: Sanford cops are lazy, he told the then-mayor elect.


The community college criminal justice major said he knew because he went on ride-alongs with the Sanford Police.


“And what I saw was disgusting,” Zimmerman said, according to a clip of a recording of the January 2011 meeting obtained by The Miami Herald. “The officer showed me his favorite hiding spots for taking naps, explained to me that he doesn’t carry a long gun in his vehicle because, in his words, ‘anything that requires a long gun requires a lot of paperwork, and you’re going to find me as far away from it.’


“He took two lunch breaks and attended a going away party for one of his fellow officers.
  READ MORE

Zimmerman: "This Will All Work Out For Me"

Zimmerman leaves Jail

In letter from jail, accused killer pitched donation to his web site 

MAY 17--Days before bonding out of a Florida jail, George Zimmerman wrote that he believed “this will all work out for me in the future,” adding, “I have given my burden to the Lord and he has blessed me with tremendous patience!”

In response to a letter of support sent by an Ohio man who sought to deposit money in his jail account, the accused murderer of Trayvon Martin explained that he was only allowed to accept funds from individuals on his approved list of visitors.

“The best way to send your support is through prayer!” wrote Zimmerman, 28, who noted that, “if you insist on sending funds, the best way is through my website.”

He added that the site, therealgeorgezimmerman.com, “accepts checks and credit card payments via PayPal.”

Zimmerman wrote that, “My attorney seems cautiously optimistic about me receiving bond tomorrow and I will put funds received through my website towards my bond.” However, during Zimmerman’s April 20 bond hearing, no mention of the web site’s substantial revenues was made by the accused killer or his lawyer. Zimmerman, who was freed on $150,000 bond, had already raised about $200,000 by that time, his lawyer subsequently acknowledged.   READ MORE

 

George Zimmerman’s lawyers hope to win trial by social media in Trayvon Martin case

 by Adam Hochberg Published May 7, 2012 10:43 am Updated May 7, 2012 10:48 am
In the Trayvon Martin case, the court of public opinion has moved online.

Late last month, attorneys for George Zimmerman – the Sanford, Florida man facing second-degree murder charges in Martin’s killing – launched a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account devoted to the case. So far, they’ve used the social media platforms to comment on developments in the case, solicit money for Zimmerman’s defense, and interact with the public.

“[S]ocial media in this day and age cannot be ignored,” wrote Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara in an introductory blog post. “It is now a critical part of presidential politics, it has been part of revolutions in the Middle East, and it is going to be an unavoidable part of high-profile legal cases, just as traditional media has been and continues to be.”

O’Mara called his social media presence “new and relatively unprecedented,” and legal experts I spoke with could recall no previous case where a defense team has employed such tactics in a high-profile prosecution.

But some say the strategy makes sense as Zimmerman seeks to protect and bolster his image in preparation for a jury trial.  READ MORE

What Zimmerman Really Told Police About Trayvon... (DETAILS)

Posted April 19, 2012 by The Decider for Global Grind Staff

[excerpts]

Now new details have been uncovered by the Daily Beast's Aram Roston, who spoke with an unidentified source about the night Zimmerman was questioned by Sanford police.
According to the source, Zimmerman told Sanford police investigators that Trayvon’s final words were ‘Okay, you got it.'
As reported by the Daily Beast:

A law-enforcement source familiar with Zimmerman’s account, but not directly involved in the case, said that in his statement to police, he said Martin’s final words after being shot were, “Okay, you got it.”
According to The Daily Beast’s source, Zimmerman told police that when he was on the ground, Martin straddled him, striking him, and then tried to smother him.
Zimmerman claimed that he yelled for help, and that various neighbors who peered out to see the fight from their backyards didn’t get involved.
Zimmerman, the source said, told officers he was so paralyzed by fear that he initially forgot he had a gun, but he said that after Martin noticed his 9mm pistol, Zimmerman pulled it out of his belt holder and fired one round, a hollow-point—the round that killed Martin.

[emphasis mine]

Zimmerman told police that Martin’s last words after the shooting were, “Okay, you got it," which he repeated twice, before turning and falling face down on the ground.  

The source continued:

Zimmerman told police he didn’t realize that Martin was seriously injured, and that he lunged to get on top of him after the teenager fell to the ground. Moments later, a police officer from Sanford arrived, placed him in handcuffs and took his gun.
The law-enforcement source said Sanford police investigators interviewed Zimmerman three times about the shooting. The last time followed a walk-through of the shooting site. Afterward, three detectives grilled Zimmerman at police headquarters in their most thorough and hostile questioning, according to the source. They told Zimmerman they didn’t believe him, the source said, and tried to poke holes in his story.
The source familiar with the case said that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators had Zimmerman lie on his back in another location in an effort to recreate the position he said he had been in during the shooting. Then, the source said, investigators recorded Zimmerman as he shouted what had been heard on the 911 calls: cries such as, “Help me!” Read more: 

Frank Taaffe Mugshot

George Zimmerman Tells Trayvon Martin's Parents 'I Am Sorry'

Miami Herald, other media outlets sue to unseal George Zimmerman court documents

George Zimmerman, right, stands with a Seminole
County Deputy during a court hearing Thursday
April 12, 2012, in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman has
been charged with second-degree murder in the
shooting death of the 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
(AP Photo/Gary W. Green, Orlando Sentinel, Pool)
Gary W. Green / AP

Zimmerman’s lawyer also is asking the judge on the case to disqualify herself after she revealed her husband works with a lawyer who is providing on-air analysis on the case for CNN.

BY DAVID OVALLE

The Miami Herald and other media outlets are asking a judge to unseal court documents in the case of George Zimmerman, charged with the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin in Sanford.

In a motion filed Monday, the press asked that a Seminole County circuit judge reconsider a decision made last week to seal the court file, which in Florida is normally a public record.

The request came the same day Zimmerman’s lawyer filed a motion asking Circuit Court Judge Jessica Recksiedler to recuse herself from the case. The judge last week revealed a potential conflict of interest: Her husband works with an Orlando-area lawyer, Mark NeJame, who was originally approached to represent Zimmerman on the case. NeJame, who is providing on-air legal analysis for CNN on the case, declined and referred the case the Zimmerman family to defense attorney Mark O’Mara.  READ MORE

 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/16/2751754/miami-herald-other-media-outlets.html#storylink=cpy

Trayvon Martin: Timeline of February 26

This is,  without a doubt,  the best timeline of that night,  I've yet to see.

Much has been writ­ten by now about the shoot­ing of Trayvon Mar­tin by George Zim­mer­man in the Twin Lakes dis­trict of San­ford, Florida. But it seems that there has yet to be any­where that some­one has cre­ated a time­line of that evening. Yet, a time­line is cru­cial to under­stand the rela­tion­ship among the known events, where the knowl­edge gaps are, and how the dif­fer­ing accounts fit together — or don’t.
So here I present the most up to date time­line I can piece together, for the night of Feb­ru­ary 26.
  READ MORE


And Another good timeline:

Trayvon Martin George Zimmerman Crime Scene Map Analyzed

Murder charge is filed in killing of Trayvon Martin

Prosecutor Angela Corey announces a second-degree
murder charge against George Zimmerman. (Gary W.
Green, Orlando Sentinel / April 11, 2012)

George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

By Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times

April 11, 2012, 5:25 p.m.

SANFORD, Fla. — For weeks, protesters around the nation have demanded the arrest of George Zimmerman.

A Florida special prosecutor made that happen Wednesday. She announced that Zimmerman — the neighborhood watch volunteer who admitted to fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager on a rainy night here in February — had turned himself in and would be charged with second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

"We did not come to this decision lightly," said Florida State Atty. Angela Corey at a news conference in Jacksonville.

Alluding to the intense publicity surrounding the case, she added, "Let me emphasize that we do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition."

Corey declined to discuss the details of the investigation that led her office to charge Zimmerman, who had claimed self-defense — and who had been free, though in hiding, for weeks. Nor would she say where he was being held, "for his safety as well as for everyone else's safety."  READ MORE

Zimmerman called Sanford police seven times since Aug. 2011

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LAWYERS WITHDRAW, WEBSITE video:

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Trayvon Martin and the American Lynch-Mob Mentality

Trayvon Martin, 17, was fatally shot by George
Zimmerman. (photo: ABC News)

By David A. Love, Guardian UK

08 April 12

Prosecutorial misconduct, police corruption and 'stand your ground' laws are part of the lingering lynch-mob mentality.

he shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, has exposed the issue of official misconduct, as police have failed to arrest, and prosecutors have refused to indict, George Zimmerman, Martin's self-professed killer. Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch volunteer, claimed Martin looked suspicious and that he shot him in self-defence. Although a federal investigation is under way, Martin's parents have asked the US department of justice to investigate possible meddling by the state's attorney's office with investigations by Sanford police the night of the killing. Martin's family believe that state attorney Norm Wolfinger and Sanford police chief Bill Lee overruled the recommendation of the chief homicide investigator that Zimmerman be arrested and charged with manslaughter. Further, the "stand your ground" law implicated in this case enables vigilantes who wish to perform private, extrajudicial executions and become a legalised lynch mob. The law breaks with centuries of legal tradition by allowing a person to "stand one's ground" and use deadly force wherever he or she feels threatened, without a duty to retreat.
  READ MORE

Trayvon Martin Video Shows No Blood or Bruises on George Zimmerman

Screen Capture

Blow up of Zimmerman's Head

By MATT GUTMAN | Good Morning America – Wed, Mar 28, 2012

Video

A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who says he shot Martin after he was punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground.

The surveillance video, which was obtained exclusively by ABC News, shows Zimmerman arriving in a police cruiser. As he exits the car, his hands are cuffed behind his back. Zimmerman is frisked and then led down a series of hallways, still cuffed. 

Zimmerman, 28, is wearing a red and black fleece and his face and head are cleanly shaven. He appears well built, hardly the portly young man depicted in a 2005 mug shot that until a two days ago was the single image the media had of Zimmerman. 

The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was bleeding from the back of the head and nose, and after medical attention it was decided that he was in good enough condition to travel in a police cruiser to the Sanford, Fla., police station for questioning.

His lawyer later insisted that Zimmerman's nose had been broken in his scuffle with 17-year-old Martin.
In the video an officer is seen pausing to look at the back of Zimmerman's head, but no abrasions or blood can be seen in the video and he did not check into the emergency room following the police questioning.   READ MORE
 

TRAYVON MARTIN: The 9 Most Striking Cartoons about the Florida shooting tragedy

(courtesy of ROB ROGERS / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette )

By Michael Cavna

THE NEWLY OPENED FILM “The Hunger Games” has caused many parents, pundits and cultural critics to consider the depiction of fictional teens being slaughtered in the name of popular entertainment. But in Pittsburgh, the depiction of a real-life teen being killed has sparked controversy and explanation in the name of journalistic opinion.

Some readers of Rob Rogers, the editorial cartoonist for the city’s Post-Gazette, are upset that in commenting on the fatal shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, the artist has invoked the visceral imagery of a lynching, and has delivered his opinion by drawing the boy’s shooter, George Zimmerman, in the clothes of a Klansman.

Rogers stands staunchly behind his illustrated editorial.

“The killing of African American teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Florida last month was not an act of self-defense,” Rogers tells Comic Riffs, noting that Martin was unarmed, toting only iced tea and Skittles. “Zimmerman had a history of reporting black males to the police. I believe he is a racist who was acting out his racism in the name of neighborhood watch.

“Now he is using Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law as an excuse for his racist violence,” Rogers continues, adding that “many feel the actions by the local police [in Sanford] were also racist.”

With that in mind, Rogers wasn’t about to pull any editorial punches as he rendered his judgment in ink.

  READ MORE ABOUT THE CASE
THE MAP OF THE RETREAT AT TWIN LAKES
LOTS MORE 

Character of Florida shooter pondered

10:18 PM, Mar. 21, 2012  |  

SANFORD, FLA. — George Zimmerman once took criminal justice classes at the community college and was practically a one-man neighborhood watch in his gated part of town, calling police close to 50 times over the past eight years to report such things as slow-driving vehicles, strangers loitering in the neighborhood and open garages.

Now, suddenly, people are wondering if the 28-year-old Zimmerman is an earnest if somewhat zealous young man who was just looking out for his neighborhood, or a wannabe cop who tried to take justice into his own hands.



He has been at the center of a growing furor over vigilantism, self-defense and racial profiling since he shot and killed an unarmed black teenager who was walking through his neighborhood Feb. 26 carrying only a bag of Skittles and an iced tea.   READ MORE