Tag: George Zimmerman (page 5)

During the Zimmerman trial today, Medical Examiner Shipping Bao, who conducted the autopsy of Trayvon Martin, took the stand. He surprised both the prosecutor and defense when he changed his opinion on two matters.

Bao testified Trayvon Martin could have live up to 10 minutes after being shot. Up until three weeks ago, his opinion was that Martin could have lived 1 to 3 minutes.

Bao also changed his opinion about whether the level of marijuana in Martin's system could have affected his physical or mental condition. Previously he said it would not. Now he says the level of marijuana could have impaired Martin, but he can't say for sure. He changed his opinion on this within the last 60 days.[More...]

The state may rest today.

The judge seems to be in rush to conclude the trial. It's beyond strange that the parties haven't even concluded discovery and the state is resting. Depositions are still being taken at night. Today the judge told the defense it has tomorrow, the 4th of July, to prepare.

If this is all the state has, I don't see a case. I'm looking forward to hearing the judge's explanation for denying the defense motion for judgment of acquittal when the state rests.

The state tried its hardest this morning to walk back the damage from yesterday's testimony of two of its own witnesses, Officers Chris Serino and Doris Singleton. I don't think it succeeded.

Yesterday, officer Serino testified that he believed George Zimmerman was telling the truth. Both he and Singleton testified the inconsistencies in Zimmerman's statements to them the week of the shooting and during his re-enactment of the event did not amount to significant differences. Serino and Singleton both testified to a point I have made here repeatedly: No one recounts an event the exact same way every time. If they did, it would be suspect. Variations are not the equivalent of significant differences.

Serino testified yesterday that when he told Zimmerman that Martin may have videotaped the encounter (a police ruse to get him to think he wouldn't get away with lying), Zimmerman's response was, "Thank G-d, I was hoping someone had videotaped it." It was after this that Serino said he thought GZ was telling the truth. [More...]

After losing the battle to present expert voice testimony, the state's first witness is FBI senior scientist Nakasone, who is testifying as he did before, that the 911 call by Jenna Lauer in which cries for help and the gunshot can be heard, is inadequate for analysis. Prosecutor Mantei is trying to get him to say he can determine age by pitch. Nakasone so far isn't going along. He's giving him a little bit on familial (lay) voice identification, but I don't know what that gets him. Zimmerman has as many lay witnesses that will say its his voice as the State has that says its Martin's voice.

Here's a thread to discuss today's developments. You can watch live here. For more detailed analysis, visit our forums. You can find the discussion of today's witnesses by name here.

The Court has published the cell phone records for Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.

There are a few things to know when examining Martin's records. First, the two columns on the right represent minutes and seconds, respectively.

Second, according to this site, the outgoing calls to 1-805-637-6249 represent incoming calls that go to voicemail.

When you travel with your phone, as soon as you roam on a foreign network T-Mobile knows that you are roaming. From then, anytime somebody leaves you a voicemail, they will register it as a roaming call to 805-637-7249 and will charge you at $.99 per minute.

[More...]

Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune, who has been following the George Zimmerman case since its inception and carefully reviewed the discovery as it became available, has a new article today, Zimmerman Trial Has All the Ingredients for a Miscarriage of Justice.

It builds upon his article about Rachel Jeantel's testimony written earlier this week, The State's Star Witness Testifies Against George Zimmerman, which is a must-read. ( In re-reading it just now, I see he has added a quote from TalkLeft, but I recommend reading it for his words, not mine.)

Once you read his article on Jeantel, you will understand why he concludes in today's article:

...if they [the presumed-guilty crowd]can just take a few steps back for perspective, my friends will see in themselves here the very police and prosecutors whom they've justly criticized in so many other instances. They will see a rush to judgment, tunnel vision and an almost desperate attempt to sidestep accumulating reasonable doubts. They will see that skepticism about the legal process is not something to be set aside when a prosecution suits your politics.

[More...]

Lawyers for the Martin family now say the case is not about racial profiling or race.

An attorney for Martin’s family, meanwhile, suddenly declared Thursday that the high-profile case was not about race.

“It’s not about racial profiling,” Daryl Parks told reporters. “He was profiled (criminally). George Zimmerman profiled him.”

....Asked why he changed his take on the matter, Parks replied: “We never claimed this was about race.”

Really? Then why did Benjamin Crump say race was "the elephant in the room." Racial injustice was the core of their argument. It was always about race to them. Race was what they used to transform this local shooting into a case of national importance. [More...]

Rachel Jeantel was grilled again today on the witness stand by George Zimmerman attorney Don West. The above is a five minute clip about her reference yesterday to Trayvon Martin calling Zimmerman a creepy as* cracker. West asked her whether she thought that was a racial comment and whether it wasn't really Trayvon Martin who profiled George Zimmerman rather than the other way around. (she answered no.)

There was some disagreement between lawyers at the end of her testimony, the judge sent out the jury and the judge dismissed her, telling her she could be recalled and was still under subpoena.

I will watch her entire testimony before posting an update and analysis. You can also read the comments on her testimony today on our forums. They begin here.

Rachel Jeantel was a train wreck as a witness. She did not help the state's case. She exposed the manipulations of Team Crump. She was impeached on a few significant matters (see below the fold.) And she admitted multiple lies. It was cringe-worthy but you couldn't take your eyes off it.

Most strikingly, she made Trayvon Martin out to be the profiler of Zimmerman. She said (on direct exam no less by the prosecutor) that shortly after first spotting Zimmerman, Martin described Zimmerman to her as a "Creepy-A*s Cracker" and later, described Zimmerman a few times as "this ni*ga" (as in this ni*ga following him.) The two minute clip above is of Rachel and the prosecutor repeating creepy a*s cracker over and over as the court reporter struggles to make out what she's saying; Rachel explaining that creepy as* cracker means a white person; and then expressing concern the creepy guy might be a rapist.

At her deposition, she couldn't identify Trayvon as the person crying out for help. Today, she tried to deny it, but when impeached with the transcript, admitted she told the defense, "It could be, like I said, I don't know. He has a baby voice some days, you know it's not." (Added: This friend of Trayvon Martin says he had a deep voice. " I remember those nights where I use to wait for him to call. I loved his deep voice."

Her answer to why she didn't tell the police about her being the last one to speak with Trayvon was laugh-out loud funny: "They said they got the guy, I thought they were supposed to call me." [More...]

Rachel Jeantel, identified by the State and defense in opening statements as the young woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin minutes before the shooting, is ready to take the stand. (She tweeted the photo above this weekend, with the caption "court nails.") Apparently, the state intends to call her as a witness after all.

So who is Rachel Jeantel? Smoking Gun reviews her twitter account, but only tells half the story. [More...]

Selene Bahaddor testified today in the George Zimmerman trial. She has previously been known as witness 1 while her sister, who lives with her, has been known as Witness 2. Sister/Witness 2 has previously said in interviews that that she saw shadows running from left to right . Today, for the first time, Selene Bahadoor said she heard figures moving from left to right. She never mentioned movement before.

On March 1, when she gave her first statement to Detective Chris Serino, Selene Bahadoor didn't see anything moving from left to right or moving in any direction. She said she only saw flailing arms. Even after Serino told her that her sister saw someone chasing someone else, she said she didn't see that.

On March 20, when Selene Bahadoor was interviewed by FDLE Agent John Batchelor, she didn't mention a direction of movement, either one she heard or one she saw. Nor did she mention it when deposed by the defense. Why? [More...]

After 15 months of following the George Zimmerman case here and at our forums, the time for trial has arrived. Opening arguments begin at 9 am ET, 7 am MT. Virtually every station in mid Florida is carrying a live feed online. I recommend skipping the shows with commentary.

Don West will open for the defense. I'll be covering significant developments here, and there will be much more detailed coverage at our forums. I doubt I'll have time to follow the trial, work and blog, so you may see a lot of open threads until evening during the trial.

I'm sending good thoughts to Mark O'Mara and Don West. I think they are ready, and I hope they win. [More...]