Zimmerman trial, George Zimmerman, the neighbourhood watch leader who shot dead an unarmed teenager in his Florida housing development in a case that sparked controversy across the US, believed it was "his right to remove anyone he believed didn't belong", a jury heard on Monday.
"When he saw Trayvon Martin, he didn't see a young man walking home," assistant state attorney John Guy told the court in Sanford, Florida, describing the moments leading up to the defendant's fatal encounter with the 17-year-old on 26 February last year. "He saw someone that was 'real suspicious', someone that was 'up to no good'."
During a lively opening statement on behalf of the prosecution, Guy told the all-female jury of six that Zimmerman, who is standing trial on charges of second-degree murder, had already profiled the hoodie-wearing youth, a stranger to him, because of a series of recent burglaries at the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community.
"'Fucking punks. These assholes, they always get away.' They were the words in this grown man's mouth as he followed in the dark a 17-year-old boy he didn't know," Guy said.
"Excuse my language, but they were his words, not mine. Those were the words in that man's chest when he got out the car armed with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to follow on foot Trayvon Benjamin Martin, who was walking home armed with 23 ounces of Arizona brand fruit juice and a small bag of Skittles candies.
"As the smoke and the smell of that fatal gunshot rose in a rainy Sanford night, Trayvon Martin, 21 days removed from his 16th year, was face down in the grass, labouring through his final breaths on this Earth."
Guy said that through phone records, physical evidence and the testimony of eyewitness accounts, the state would prove that Zimmerman intended to kill Martin, who was returning to the house of his father's friend after buying the drink and sweets at a 7-Eleven shop a mile away.
"You will know in your head, in your heart and in your stomach that George Zimmerman didn't shoot Trayvon Martin because he had to. He shot him for the worst of all reasons, because he wanted to," he told the jury.
Zimmerman, 29, denies murder and has always insisted it was Martin, from Miami, who instigated their confrontation and attacked him. Zimmerman's lawyer, Don West, repeated the claim during the opening statement for the defence, saying that his client "got his butt beat" for at least 40 seconds before firing the gun to save his life.
"George Zimmerman is not guilty of murder," West said. "He shot Trayvon Martin in self-defence after being viciously attacked."
West began his opening statement with a joke, poking fun at the two weeks of jury selection that delved deeply into what prospective panel members knew of the case. "Knock, knock," he said. "Who's there? George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman who? Good, you're on the jury."
There was little reaction in the courtroom and West acknowledged that his joke had fallen flat.
During his presentation, West produced slides of the layout of the community and played a recording of a call Zimmerman made to police, pointing out that he called a non-emergency line rather than 911. The defendant, he said, was on his way to a Target shop to buy groceries and was not acting in any kind of neighbourhood watch role other than being a responsible member of the community who reported what he saw.
"George Zimmerman was not patrolling this night or any other night," West said. "People were told: 'If you see anything suspicious call it in. If you think there's a threat or a crime, call 911'."
Zimmerman, who has been free on bail for more that a year, closed his eyes and sighed heavily as West played another recording to the court, of a 911 call made by a resident that captured screams followed by a single gunshot. The identity of the person who was screaming was a contentious issue in pre-trial hearings.
"Everyone agrees those are the screams of someone in a life-threatening situation, someone screaming over and over and over for help needing someone to desperately come to their assistance," West said.
Another emotional moment came when Guy described efforts by police officers first on the scene to try to save Martin's life, at one stage using a plastic carrier bag to stop air escaping from his chest. It brought tears from the boy's father, Tracy Martin, who was sitting in the public gallery.
West referred to injuries Zimmerman sustained that he said were consistent with his head being hit on a concrete pavement.
In outlining their cases, both Guy and West mentioned Witness 8, a 19-year-old girlfriend of Martin who says she was on the phone to him prior to the shooting, and whose testimony could prove crucial.
No mention was made of the race either of Zimmerman or Martin during opening arguments, despite the shooting stoking racial tensions and prompting civil rights protests attended by thousands in Sanford and elsewhere last spring.
Zimmerman, who is of white-Hispanic parentage, was initially released without charge, angering many who saw it as an example of the death of a black youth going unpunished and prompting Florida's governor, Rick Scott, to appoint a special prosecutor. Zimmerman was arrested and charged six weeks after the shooting.
It took two weeks of questioning and a pool of 500 prospective jurors to reach the panel of six – five white women and one Hispanic – who will decide the case.
Circuit court judge Debra S Nelson has indicated that she expects the trial to last between two and four weeks. Zimmerman faces a sentence of at least 25 years if convicted.
Before the hearing began, Martin's parents appeared briefly before reporters to express their relief that the trial was finally under way. "As I have been every day, I will be attending this court to try to get justice for my son. I ask that you pray for me and my family, as I don't want any other mother to have to experience what I am going through now," said Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother.
West resumed after the lunch recess by countering elements of what prosecutors said was "a tangled web of lies" spun by Zimmerman to escape responsibility. "If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times that Trayvon Martin was unarmed," he said.
"The evidence will tell you that's untrue. Trayvon Martin armed himself with a concrete sidewalk and used it to smash George Zimmerman's head, no different than if he'd picked up a brick or used a wall."
Guy's claim that Zimmerman pushed the gun into Martin's chest and fired could also be debunked on scientific grounds, West said. Martin's clothing was scorched by gunpowder while the bullet hole in his chest was not, he said, proving that there was "at least an inch, or two or three" separating his clothing from his skin.
He said this also supported the account of a witness who said he saw Martin "straddling Zimmerman mixed-martial arts style" and pummeling him until the older man was able to get his gun out.
As for the gun, West noted, Zimmerman had obtained the weapon and a permit for it soon after moving into the development, as protection against a neighbour's out-of-control dog. The prosecution could not prove that the screams on the 911 recording were Martin's, West insisted.
"A 50-year-old man can sound like a 14-year-old girl, there's nothing there scientifically to help whose voice it is. What we're left with is people familiar with the voice," he said, pointing out that Tracy Martin told investigators "No, that's not my son" when he first heard the tape.
The fact there was no DNA or blood on Martin's hands, West said, meant nothing. "If I touch anything I might leave a fingerprint and I might not, but it doesn't mean I didn't touch it," he said.
Additionally, the laboratory that processed the forensic evidence made a mistake by placing Martin's wet clothing in a sealed plastic bag instead of wrapping it in paper to dry out, as regulations required when it had been raining, West said. "The biological evidence degrades. It's clear the clothes were packaged improperly."
West said it was "a sad case". "There are no monsters here. A young man lost his life, another is fighting for his," he said.
Nelson sent the jury out to rule on a complaint by the defence that it was unfair for Martin's parents to be allowed in the courtroom while Zimmerman's were excluded because they were on the witness list. Expressing some impatience, the judge told defence attorney Mark O'Mara that a Supreme Court ruling allowed a victim's family to be present even if they were expected to testify, while a defendant's family was not.
The first day of evidence ended with four prosecution witnesses on the stand. Chad Joseph, 13, said he was playing video games at home with Martin before the older boy left to buy him sweets; Andrew Gaugh, the 7-Eleven cashier, said he served Martin on the night; and Sean Noffke, a 911 dispatcher for the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, testified about Zimmerman's non-emergency call.
"You don't want to give direct orders to someone, you can make suggestions for their own safety," he said. "We're trying to avoid any kind of confrontation," he added, explaining why he had asked Zimmerman if he was following Martin and then said "We don't need you to do that" when Zimmerman said he was.
Ramona Rumph, deputy director of the sheriff's office communications division and its records custodian, recalled several other non-emergency calls made by Zimmerman since August 2011, reporting break-ins and crimes in the neighbourhood. Nelson adjourned proceedings for the day to consider O'Mara's objection to their relevance.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was holding a town hall meeting in Sanford on Monday night, to update the community on developments in the case. Turner Clayton Jr, president of the group's Seminole County chapter, called it "an opportunity to talk about what happened and voice any concerns". About a third of the city's 53,000 population is African-American.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Zimmerman Trial
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