LIVE BLOG: George Zimmerman trial in the Trayvon Martin case
LIVE BLOG - George Zimmerman trial in the death of Trayvon Martin...
UPDATE, 5:45 p.m.: Judge Nelson has called for a recess for the weekend. Court will resume Monday morning at 9 a.m.
UPDATE, 5:40 p.m.: Ms. Folgate confirmed that Zimmerman was “already established with a psychologist”.
UPDATE, 5:31 p.m.: Folgate said “it seemed that he was neurologically in tact”.
UPDATE, 5:19 p.m.: The witness is examining pictures of the injuries Zimmerman sustained and determining their severity.
UPDATE, 5:10 p.m.: Folgate said that after trauma, blood or fluid can collect beneath the scalp to produce bumps (hematoma) like ones Zimmerman had in pictures after the shooting.
UPDATE, 5:00 p.m.: O’Mara is now questioning Folgate.
UPDATE, 4:58 p.m.: Folgate suggested that Zimmerman go see an ear, neck, and throat (ENT) doctor, and said Zimmerman refused. She also mentioned that the head has a lot of blood vessels, and that could cause a small cut to appear to bleed a lot.
UPDATE, 4:49 p.m.: Folgate said that Zimmerman told the physician’s assistant that he was told by EMTs that his nose was broken. He also said that he had nausea, and she attributed that to psychological issues. Folgate testified that Zimmerman denied many of the symptoms of a concussion such as hearing loss, ringing in the ears, headaches, etc. She said the largest laceration that Zimmerman sustained was approximately two centimeters and did not require sutures. Folgate also said that he did not have a deviated septum and his nose was still straight.
UPDATE, 4:33 p.m.: Folgate confirmed that Zimmerman is a previous patient of hers, and came into her office to get a note for work. She has been provided Zimmerman’s medical records which she confirmed said that he was training in mixed martial arts three days a week.
UPDATE, 4:27 p.m.: After a long discussion at the bench, Ms. Folgate is being brought back onto the stand.
UPDATE, 3:53 p.m.: The state has called their next witness, Lindzee Folgate. She is a physician’s assistant at Altamonte Family Practices.
UPDATE, 3:45 p.m.: Smith said that Zimmerman was given a bottle of water and some tissues to clean himself off at the police station.
UPDATE, 3:37 p.m.: Smith said that soon after he first interacted with Zimmerman, Zimmerman said “I was screaming for help and no one helped me”. Smith said it came across to him as though Zimmerman was confused. He noted that the back of Zimmerman’s jacket was significantly more wet than the front, as if he had had been laying on his back in the grass.
UPDATE, 3:25 p.m.: Mark O’Mara is now questioning the witness. Smith said that Zimmerman told him that he was armed, and at that point Smith took out his service weapon. O’Mara pointed out that Smith pulling out his gun was a part of protocol, not a signal of Zimmerman posing a threat.
UPDATE, 3:19 p.m.: Court is back in session. Officer Smith is still on the stand.
UPDATE, 3:00 p.m.: The judge has called for at 15 minute recess.
UPDATE, 2:58 p.m.: Smith said that Zimmerman has no trouble walking when they arrived at the station, even while handcuffed. He said that Zimmerman was afforded the opportunity to go to the hospital, but did not go. Smith said that Zimmerman did not complain of any injuries other than those already sustained at the scene of the shooting.
UPDATE, 2:51 p.m.: Officer Smith explained the way he submitted the firearm into evidence. He was shown that firearm at the stand and confirmed that it was the same. He said he turned over the firearm and all evidence to his wife Diana Smith, who was the crime scene technician for the case.
UPDATE, 2:44 p.m.: Officer Smith is walking the court through his actions with the aid of the diagram of the complex.
UPDATE, 2:38 p.m.: The next witness, Officer Timothy Smith, is now on the stand. He is a police officer for the Sanford police department that was the first officer to arrive on the scene.
UPDATE, 2:37 p.m.: Livingston said that after Zimmerman mentioned that he was dizzy, the EMTs asked him to stand to asses his potential concussive injuries. She said he stood up without trouble. The witness said that the paramedics were happy to take Zimmerman to receive more medical care, but it was decided that on that night the police would transport him if it was needed.
UPDATE, 2:23 p.m.: Livingston said that she tried to “clean up his [Zimmerman’s] injuries to see them better”. She said that she treated the defendant for about 5 minutes, and he was not actively bleeding at the time of the treatment.
UPDATE, 2:18 p.m.: Livingston was one of the medical professionals that examined Trayvon Martin. She said they hooked him up to a cardiac monitor and discovered that his “heart rhythm was incompatible to life”. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:30 p.m., according to her reports.
UPDATE, 2:14 p.m.: The next witness, Stacy Livingston, has taken the stand. She is a firefighter and EMT with the Sanford fire department.
UPDATE, 2:10 p.m.: Ayala said that his main concern was protecting his fellow officer, but it did not seem that the other officers had difficulty securing Mr. Zimmerman.
UPDATE, 2:06 p.m.: O’Mara is now questioning the witness.
UPDATE, 2:02 p.m.: Ayala said that Martin did not respond verbally or physically to his commands, and saw the gunshot wound when turning the body over with Sgt. Raimondo.
UPDATE, 1:58 p.m.: The officer said that he was not more than 5 minutes away when he received the dispatch.
UPDATE, 1:56 p.m.: The next witness, Ricardo Ayala, is a police office for the Sanford police department.
UPDATE, 1:50 p.m.: In re-direct, Manalo said that the defendant appeared to be coherent, calm, and cooperative.
UPDATE, 1:31 p.m.: Defense attorney Don West is now questioning the witness.
UPDATE, 1:26 p.m.: Manalo is recounting the sequence of events after law enforcement arrived. He said that when he saw Zimmerman, Mr. Zimmerman did not appear to be in shock. Manalo said that as he was trying to call Mrs. Zimmerman, Mr. Zimmerman cut him off by saying “Just tell her I shot someone”.
UPDATE, 1:14 p.m.: The witness confirmed that he was the first person to come in contact with the scene and people involved, even before law enforcement. Manalo is being shown pictures of his neighborhood and the individuals involved in the shooting.
UPDATE, 1:09 p.m.: Manalo said he went outside after the gunshot with a flashlight. He said that Mr. Zimmerman has a bloody nose and was walking toward him. He said he also took pictures with his cellphone of various parts of the scene.
UPDATE, 1:06 p.m.: The witness said the he and his wife were at home on the night of the shooting. Mr. Manalo and his family lived in Zimmerman’s community, and he is married to one of the previous witnesses. He said his wife looked out of the window but, he never did.
UPDATE, 1:01 p.m.: Court is back in session. The state has called their next witness, Johnathan Manalo.
UPDATE, 11:27 a.m.: The judge has called for a recess for lunch. The court will resume at 1:oo p.m.
UPDATE 11:25 a.m.: The defense is going through Mr. Good’s previous interviews. O’Mara read a interview that put the “ground and pound” statement into context.
UPDATE, 10:49 a.m.: The witness was shown pictures of Zimmerman and Martin to try to help him identify them and their positions in the fight. After being shown his own drawing (made after the shooting), Good confirmed that Zimmerman was the one “in the red shirt on the bottom” and Martin was in a dark shirt on top. He said that he was on the phone with 911 operators when he saw Martin’s body.
UPDATE, 10:31 a.m.: The defense attorneys played Mrs. Lauer’s 911 call again for Mr. Good. He said the screams and the shot did not sound the same on the recording as they did to him on the night of the shooting. Mrs. Lauer’s recording also did not pick up Mr. Good yelling to the men who were struggling when he was outside.
UPDATE, 10:25 a.m.: The witness described the struggle as a mixed martial arts style “ground and pound”. He explained the position where the person on top has more power to punch the person on the bottom. He said that he thinks that the cries for help came from Zimmerman because of “common sense”. Good said that he could not see or hear the person on top striking the person on the bottom.
UPDATE 10:05 a.m.: O’Mara is now cross-examining the witness.
UPDATE, 9:55 a.m.: The state attorneys played the 911 call placed by Mr. Good. Good confirmed that he has also heard the 911 call placed by his neighbor Mrs. Lauer, and said that he does not think the screams they heard sounded the same.
UPDATE, 9:46 a.m.: Good said that he called out to the two people saying, “What’s going on” loud enough for them to hear. He said he heard someone yell for help but he could not tell for sure who it was.
UPDATE, 9:40 a.m.: Good said that when he saw the struggle and could tell it was two people, one person was “straddled” on the other. He said he remembers the person on top with dark clothing and arm movements going downward. Good said it was a possibility that the person on top could have been holding the person on the bottom.
UPDATE, 9:33 a.m.: Good said that when he and his wife heard a noise behind their house it was “faint”. He said that he continued to hear noises and went to the sliding glass door to look outside. He said that he went outside after demands from his wife not to.
UPDATE, 9:28 a.m.: The next witness, John Good, has taken the stand. He was a resident of Zimmerman’s community at the time of the shooting. Good described the layout of his living room at the time that he heard a noise.
UPDATE, 9:25 a.m.: McKinney said that he first went to the community last night to familiarize himself with the community around the club house. He explained that the time on the surveillance cameras was eighteen minutes off at the time that he checked them.
UPDATE, 9:20 a.m.: Mr. McKinney is looking at videos from cameras inside and on the exterior of the community club house.
UPDATE June 28, 9:10 a.m.: Court is back in session. The next witness is on the stand. Greg McKinney is a video surveillance technician.
UPDATE, 5:40 p.m.: Judge Nelson has called for the evening recess. Court will resume tomorrow at 9 a.m.
UPDATE, 5:36 a.m.: Mora is describing Zimmerman’s movements as “confused” and said he walked back and forth with his hand on his head twice before being approached by someone.
UPDATE, 5:23 p.m.: Mora has stepped down from the stand and is now reenacting her reaction to the gunshot and her movement to the patio.
UPDATE, 5:08 p.m.: O’Mara is now questioning Mora for cross-examination.
UPDATE, 5:00 p.m.: Mora said that the person on top eventually responded to her and told her to call the police and then walked toward the dog receptacle. She said the person on the bottom did not speak or move.
UPDATE, 4:54 p.m.: When describing what she saw, Mora said that one person was on the ground and the other person was on the top like a “rider”. She said that the lighting was poor so she could not see much of their race or clothing. She did not hear anything. She said that she spoke to them in English, but neither person responded.
UPDATE, 4:51 p.m.: Mora said that the sounds she heard were coming from her right. When she looked to her right, she said that she saw two people.
UPDATE, 4:45 p.m.: Mora said that she heard crying behind her home on the night of the shooting. When she heard the sound she said she ran to the screen of her back porch.
UPDATE, 4:36 p.m.: New witness, Selma Mora is giving her testimony in Spanish and will him an interpreter whose name is Jaime Sotomayor. She is from Colombia and has been in the U.S. for 9 years. She lived in the Twin Lakes complex at the time of the shooting with her two children.
UPDATE, 4:10 p.m.: Outside of the presence of the jury, the attorneys asked Mrs. Lauer of her knowledge of Mr. Zimmerman’s prior offenses that are unrelated to the case. Also, it has been revealed that Mrs. Lauer follows Mr. Zimmerman’s brother on Twitter though she does not believe she followed him on purpose.
UPDATE, 3:57 p.m.: When asked about a neighboring community, Lauer said that that community was not completely gated and that residents and non-residents of her community could have walked through that path.
UPDATE, 3:46 p.m.: Lauer said that she requested a photo from the officer after the shooting so that she could identify the person in question. When a picture of Zimmerman with a bloody and swollen nose was shown to her, she said she did not recognize him.
UPDATE, 3:41 p.m.: Lauer said that the voice screaming for help was the same voice each time. She said that the only thing that she heard other than the screaming was the voice of her neighbor John Good, but his voice did not appear on the recording presented in court.
UPDATE, 3:33 p.m.: Defense attorney Mark O’Mara is now questioning the witness.
UPDATE, 3:31 p.m.: Lauer said that she recognized Zimmerman from community meetings and remembers his emails regarding the neighborhood watch.
UPDATE, 3:14 p.m.: The prosecutor is playing the 911 call placed by Mrs. Lauer.
UPDATE, 3:09 p.m.: Lauer said that the gunshot went off while she was on the phone with the 911 operator and trying to stop her husband from going outside where the altercation was happening.
UPDATE, 3:02 p.m.: Lauer said that the struggle sounded like it started standing up, and then moved like they were rolling on the ground. She said the sound moved from “grunting” to “yelping” and sounded like the people outside were getting closer to her home. She said there was about “30 seconds” between when she muted the TV to hear the scuffle and when her call was picked up by the authorities.
UPDATE, 2:57 p.m.: Lauer said that her loveseat faced the sliding glass door, which was open on the night of the shooting. She said that she could hear voices in the backyard, and described it as “3 part exchange” between them. She said after the voices she heard a scuffle, and noises like running on the pavement and grass.
UPDATE, 2:48 p.m.: The state has called their next witness, Jenna Lauer. She lived in Zimmerman’s neighborhood with her husband at the time of the shooting.
UPDATE, 2:41 p.m.: MacDonald is explaining the phone records that have been introduced into evidence. The most detailed kind of records care only kept in the system for six months.
UPDATE, 2:26 p.m.: The next witness, Raymond MacDonald, is the manager of the T-Mobile phone company in the legal department.
UPDATE, 2:15 p.m.: The jury has been asked to leave to room momentarily so that council could convene. Jeantel is being released for the day, but she is stilll under subpoena and could be called back to court.
UPDATE, 2:00 p.m.: Jeantel told the court that the first language she learned was Creole.
UPDATE, 1:52 p.m.: Court is back in session.
UPDATE, 12:45 p.m.: Judge Nelson has called for a recess for lunch until 1:45 p.m.
UPDATE, 12:14 p.m.: Jeantel said that she did not think Martin approached Zimmerman. West is asking Jeantel questions about the altercation.
UPDATE, 12:03 p.m.: West asked if Jeantel was doing anything while listening to Martin. She answered that she was fixing her hair.
UPDATE, 11:47 a.m.: The defense is playing the audio recording of Jeantel’s interview for the jury. Jeantel confirms that she is sure that the voice she heard was Trayvon Martin.
UPDATE, 11:42 a.m.: After playing an audio recording of Jeantel in questioning by De la Rionda several times, the attorneys are disputing whether she said that she “could” or “could not” heard Travyon Martin on the phone before it cut off. Jeantel said that she could hear Martin, though the audio recording and written transcript are jumbled.
UPDATE, 11:10 a.m.: Court is back in session. Don West, the defense attorney, is questioning Jeantel while an image of the Twin Lakes community is being shown to the court room. He said the image is being shown to give Jeantel’s testimony “context” for the jury who has seen the image, even though Jeantel has never been to the community.
UPDATE, 10:35 a.m.: The court has called for a 15 minute recess.
UPDATE, 10:27 a.m.: The defense is now questioning Jeantel about the frequency of the cell phone disconnections when she was talking to Martin. West is asking step by step questions about what happened that night. She claims that she told Martin to “run home” and that Martin changed his direction to “lose” Zimmerman.
UPDATE, 10:07 a.m.: Jeantel said that she heard Martin say “Get off, get off” when they were on the phone. She said that she did not volunteer that information until a later interview with the state because she was not asked about that comment by her previous interviewers.
UPDATE, 10:01 a.m.: Jeantel confirmed that she lied about going to the hospital so that she would have a “plausible excuse” for being absent at Trayvon Martin’s wake and funeral.
UPDATE, 9:55 a.m.: Jeantel confirmed that she cleaned up some of the language when retelling what she heard from Martin on the night of the shooting because she was being sensitive of Ms. Fulton’s feelings, who was present during the questioning.
UPDATE, 9:45 a.m.: West is now questioning Jeantel about a preliminary interview she had with the state attorneys and law enforcement. The interview took place at the home of Trayvon Martin’s mother.
UPDATE, 9:37 a.m.: Jeantel said that she would turn off her phone because of the call volume after the incident. She confirmed that she did a phone interview with ABC after receiving a text from a reporter.
UPDATE, 9:24 a.m.: Rachel Jeantel claims that she does not watch the news. She said that she thought that the case was racially motivated before the case was broadcast on national news. Jeantel claims that she though that the exchange was racially motivated by the way Martin described Zimmerman to her.
UPDATE, 9:13 a.m.: West is now reading a letter that Jeantel wrote to Trayvon Martin’s mother after the incident. Jeantel signed the letter with another name.
UPDATE June 27, 9:01 a.m.: Court is now in session. Rachel Jeantel is back on the stand. She is being questioned by defense attorney Don West. West is recounting some of the inconsistencies in Jeantel’s story.
On Wednesday June 26, the key witness for the prosecution took the stand after the lunch recess. Rachel Jeantel, 19, was the woman on the phone with Trayvon Martin moments before he was shot and killed. During her questioning on Wednesday afternoon she recounted how Martin told her he was being followed on his way home from the store. For full coverage of her first day of testimony click here.
