George Zimmerman gave an exclusive interview to Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday, telling the conservative commentator he had no regrets about the incidents surrounding the shooting of Trayvon Martin, but that he was sorry for Martin’s family. Prosecutors have now added transcripts of the Hannity interview to their packet of evidence in the case, and that means some of Zimmerman’s statements on Fox could resurface in his second degree murder trial.
So what did Zimmerman say that could have piqued the interest of prosecutors?
1. Trayvon wasn’t running.
Hannity seemed taken aback when Zimmerman repeatedly insisted that Trayvon Martin wasn’t running, since Zimmerman told the police dispatcher that he was. The Fox News host asked Zimmerman to try to “get into the mind-set” of the teen, and questioned whether he might have been running from Zimmerman because he was afraid of him and didn’t know who Zimmerman was. Zimmerman’s one word response to that proposition: “no.”
“You don’t think — why do you think that he was running then?” Hannity asked, to which Zimmerman replied that maybe he “said running,” but that Martin was “more … like skipping, going away quickly. But he wasn’t running out of fear.”
“You could tell the difference?” Hannity asked, to which Zimmerman replied more emphatically: “He wasn’t running.” Hannity asked again: “So he wasn’t actually running?” And Zimmerman reiterated, “No, sir.”
Hannity, who has been sympathetic to Zimmerman and didn’t cross-examine him forcefully during the interview, eventually gave up on that line of questioning, but not before adding, “OK. Because that’s what you said to the dispatcher, that you thought he was running.”
Meanwhile, Zimmerman said on the 911 tape, as he was describing where he was inside the gated community the Retreat at Twin Lakes on February 26th:
“… you go straight in, don’t turn, and make a left. Sh*t, he’s running.”
The dispatcher asked, “he’s running? Which way is he running?” to which Zimmerman responded, “down towards the other entrance to the neighborhood.” A few seconds later, Zimmerman tells the dispatcher, “he ran,” and then begins trying to give directions to where his truck is parked.
2. He didn’t pursue Trayvon Martin
Zimmerman told Hannity he didn’t follow Trayvon Martin, despite telling a police dispatcher that he was doing so on the night of the shooting.
After telling the dispatcher that Martin was running “toward the back entrance,” and muttering a garbled epithet, that Zimmerman told Hannity was “f–ing punks,” the dispatcher asked Zimmerman, “are you following him?” Zimmerman answered, “yeah,” and was told, “we don’t need you to do that.”
That’s not how Zimmerman described what happened during his Hannity interview:
HANNITY: Let me ask you this. At that point, we can hear the unbuckling of the seatbelt, hear you opening the car door, and this dispatch asked you at that point, and this became a very key moment that everyone in the media focused on, and the dispatcher asked you, “are you following him?” And you said yes. Explain that.
ZIMMERMAN: I meant that I was going in the same direction as him, to keep an eye on him so that I could tell the police where he was going. I didn’t mean that I was actually pursuing him.
HANNITY: So this moment where someone suggested you were out of breath on that tape, you yourself were not running?
ZIMMERMAN: No, sir.
HANNITY: And you I think made a statement to the police that it was the wind as you were getting out of the car and moving, and that was the sound we hear, not you out of breath?
ZIMMERMAN: Yes, sir.
Listen to the call here. The relevant section occurs at about 2:06.
3. Zimmerman was “never more than 100 feet from his car.”
Zimmerman told Hannity that after losing sight of Martin, and during the 1-minute gap on the dispatch call tape, he began walking to a place where he could meet the police who were on their way to Retreat View Circle. Zimmerman told the police dispatcher his car was parked not far the community clubhouse, which was on the opposite side of the houses where the confrontation with Martin took place.
Here’s what he told Hannity:
HANNITY: What did you do from that moment forward? Because this is where we get into this minute gap in this case, you know, and what did you do from that minute forward when the dispatch said “we don’t need you to follow him?” What did you do next?
ZIMMERMAN: I walked across the sidewalk on to my street, Retreat View Circle, where I thought I would meet a police officer that I had called.
HANNITY: So you did not continue to follow him at that point?
ZIMMERMAN: No, sir. No, sir.
Zimmerman told Hannity that Martin surprised him less than 30 seconds after he began walking to where he could meet the police:
HANNITY: How long was it, George, after that, that you saw Trayvon again? Because you said you stopped, that you did not continue pursuing him. When did you next see Trayvon Martin?
ZIMMERMAN: Less than 30 seconds.
HANNITY: OK. Where were you? Where exactly were you at that point, and how far away were you from your car at that moment?
ZIMMERMAN: I’d guess about 100 feet or more.
HANNITY: So you never went further than how far approximately from your car?
ZIMMERMAN: I would estimate it to be approximately 100 feet.
HANNITY: So you never went further than that from the car?
ZIMMERMAN: No, sir.
HANNITY: OK. And so at that point, Trayvon is — all of a sudden you turned around and there he was?
ZIMMERMAN: Yes, sir.
Zimmerman did not explain how, if he was not following Martin, he wound up confronting Martin around the back side of the townhomes, rather than in front, where his car was parked. Below is a map of the Retreat at Twin Lakes, showing where Zimmerman’s car was parked, and approximately where Marin fell (Source: Miami Herald)
4. Trayvon had his hand over Zimmerman’s mouth near the end of the confrontation
Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda hinted during the June 29 bond hearing that he plans to bring up the question of whether Zimmerman could have been the one heard screaming on the 911 tapes, if he was also being smothered by Martin. Here is what Zimmerman told Sean Hannity:
ZIMMERMAN: I felt him take — he had — after he couldn’t hit my head on the concrete anymore, he started to try to suffocate me. And I continued to take — push his hands off of my mouth and my nose, particularly because it was excruciating having a broken nose and him putting his weight on it.
And that’s the point in time when he started telling me to shut up, shut up, shut up.
There is also a dispute among multiple witnesses about who was heard calling for help, and at least one witness has changed their account of who they thought they heard screaming. Another witness told state attorneys investigators that her son, who was walking his dog on the night of the shooting, felt pressured by police to say that it was the person in the red jacket — meaning Zimmerman — crying for help, when he was not sure that was the case.
5. He didn’t know he’d shot Trayvon
Zimmerman told Hannity:
HANNITY: When you think back, there was one report or police report that actually said you didn’t know after you fired, you didn’t think — you thought you missed?
ZIMMERMAN: I didn’t think I hit him, yes.
HANNITY: Yes.
So what happened immediately after the shooting, then, George? I understand one guy came out and he said he had a flash light, that he spoke to you, and you said to call your wife, tell her what happened, “that I shot somebody.” Do you remember that conversation?
ZIMMERMAN: The conversation I had with the gentleman or —
HANNITY: Yes.
ZIMMERMAN: Yes, sir.
HANNITY: You do remember that conversation?
And he did talk about it, and his suggestion was — that you were very matter of fact about it. Do you remember what you said to him? Do you think you were in a state of shock? Did you know that Trayvon — when did you know that Trayvon had died?
ZIMMERMAN: When I — probably about an hour after I got to the police station.
But the witness in question, who was the first person on the scene after the shooting, told police Zimmerman told him he’d just shot someone, and asked him to call his wife.
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