Zimmerman trial: Monday, July 8 morning testimony, key points, As the George Zimmerman trial began on Monday, July 8, 2013, the defense started the courtroom procedure by calling the wife of a United States Air Marshal to the stand.
Sandra Osterman, the wife of Zimmerman's friend, reaffirmed for defense attorney Mark O'Mara that, like Gladys Zimmerman and Jose Meza before her, Osterman believes it was Zimmerman heard screaming on an important 911 tape.
CNN reported that prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda asked Osterman if it was also Zimmerman heard saying these, "(expletives) always get away," and she said it was.
Monday morning testimony then moved to Osterman's Air Marshal husband Mark, who gave a matter-of-fact account of why Zimmerman would have a round in the chamber of his gun the night the neighborhood watchman shot an unarmed teen. He said he advised him to, just as he advises his own wife too, for their own personal sake, according to THV11.com live coverage.
Defense attorney Mark O'Mara ran interference with this witness when the prosecutor De La Rionda sought to give the impression an internal holster was a problem and may have spoke of malicious intent by the defendant the night he shot Trayvon Martin.
Mark Osterman stated that carrying an internal holster could be construed as attempting to keep violence down, since it hid the presence of a gun and was allowed by law when someone had a concealed and carry permit, as Zimmerman did.
Geri Russo was the next witness called by the defense, a woman who had worked with the accused at a mortgage company prior to the incident, but who admitted she did not speak to him about the case until a couple of months after it happened.
Like those before her on Monday, Russo confirmed the voice heard screaming on the 911 call was that of George Zimmerman, just as the defendant's mother Gladys Zimmerman did on Friday for the court. Prosecutor John Guy did his best to undermine her testimony, but he revealed nothing that could effectively do that, as the witness told the court she knew the moment she heard the tape played that it was George's voice.
Lee Ann Benjamin was next up in court, an older woman who owns her own real estate company, which had professional ties to the man on trial for his life. Taking care of her father during his ill health initially kept her from conversing with the defendant about the shooting, she said. But that changed about two weeks after the shooting, when she was finally able to talk.
Benjamin confirmed in court Monday that the 911 tape screams were from George in her opinion. And she based her testimony upon her familiarity with his political activities in the past, in which he had been expressing himself loudly at a rally, and so she knew how he sounded in noisy settings.
Bernie De La Rionda asked her if she had heard the other 911 tape made in the case, the one in which Zimmerman uses profanity, possibly hoping to unnerve the defense witness in making a slip in her testimony. But she didn't falter, enlightening him that "cussing" does not necessarily convey anger, as her children do it and they aren't always angry as a result.
John Donnelly, Lee Ann Benjamin's husband, who has contributed approximately $4,500 overall in funds and clothing and food to George Zimmerman during the course of the past year, didn't take offense at the prosecutor's efforts to focus on his potential bias as a result. And he never pointed out that the Trayvon Martin family enjoyed a million dollar settlement allegedly after the shooting, as a result of a lawsuit against the homeowner's association where their son was killed.
Instead, Donnelly let the prosecution paint a picture of him to the jury that showed Donnely supported the criminal justice student's efforts to better educate himself in the past, and that he supported him enough now to finally listen to the 911 tape two days earlier.
He said he wanted to be able to accurately discuss what he heard on the tape for the benefit of justice, since he used to serve as a combat medic in Vietnam, and he had to differentiate between screams of help and other noise heard over transmissions in the "den of war."
This courtroom is about truth. This is where truth is supposed to come out," he stated on Monday.
Prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda asked for a sidebar during the course of Donnelly's testimony, and Judge Debra Nelson allowed defense attorney Mark O'Mara to continue his line of questioning afterward.
O'Mara pointedly asked Donnelly when he listened to the 911 tape for the first time, what prompted his actions to do so after refraining for over a year, and to tell the court when he notified the defense that he had done so.
This was important in light of the fact that the prosecutor appeared to be going to contest this witness' testimony over his hope that George Zimmerman's benefactor had planned all along to give a deposition in which he admits not listening to the tape, yet then does so late enough in the proceeding to avoid advance questioning by the prosecution.
Whether by intent or happenstance, the jury was given an emotionally-charged testimony prior to the lunch break (from a qualified combat medic qualified to differentiate distress cries from other noise), which left little room for doubt that the voice heard on the 911 tape screaming for help was that of the defendant.
And that is a testimony that the prosecution will likely seek to have excluded from the proceedings when the jury finally goes into deliberation--if he can do it.
Follow the Atlanta Top News Examiner Radell Smith's column for more Monday coverage on the George Zimmerman trial by clicking on the "subscribe" link at the top of this page. Smith's qualifications include a degree in criminal justice and behavioral forensics.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Zimmerman trial: Monday, July 8 morning testimony, key points
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