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Florida v. Zimmerman

Case Number 592012CF001083A

State of Florida v. George Zimmerman was a criminal prosecution of George Zimmerman on the charge of second-degree murder stemming from the shooting of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012.[Note 1]

On April 11, 2012, George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In support of the charges, the State filed an affidavit of probable cause, stating that Zimmerman profiled and confronted Martin and shot him to death while Martin was committing no crimes.[1] Florida State Attorney Angela Corey announced the charges against Zimmerman during a televised press conference and reported that Zimmerman was in custody after turning himself in to law enforcement.[2][3] Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self-defense.[4]

After sixteen hours of deliberations over the course of two days, on July 13, 2013, the six-person jury rendered a not guilty verdict on all counts.[5][6]

On March 22, 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced his appointment of Angela Corey as the Special Prosecutor in the Martin investigation.[7] She is the State Attorney for Duval, Clay and Nassau counties.[8] When Corey took the case, she chose Bernie de la Rionda as lead prosecutor. De la Rionda was an Assistant State Attorney in Corey's office and had been a prosecutor for 29 years.[9][10] Prosecutors John Guy and Richard Mantei assisted, with Guy making the opening statement.

The prosecutor initially responsible for the case was Norm Wolfinger, a State Attorney whose jurisdiction included Seminole County where the shooting occurred on February 26, 2012.[11][12] On March 22, 2012, he requested to be removed from the case to help "tone down the rhetoric" for the public good.[13]

On April 11, 2012, Mark M. O'Mara announced that he was the attorney representing Zimmerman. O'Mara is president of the Seminole County Bar Association, is a legal commentator for WKMG news, and had previously tried cases that involved the Stand-your-ground law.[14] When he took the case, O'Mara said that Zimmerman had no money and that the state may help pay the costs. When reporters asked why he took the case, O'Mara said, "That's what I do."[15]

On May 31, 2012, Orlando attorney Don West left his job as a federal public defender to join the defense team led by O'Mara. West specialized in murder cases and had been a board certified criminal trial specialist for 25 years. He and O'Mara had been friends for a long time.[16]

In September 2013, O'Mara announced he had signed on to be a legal analyst for CNN.[17]

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Trial of George Zimmerman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Just last week, newly christened Fox News media-analyst Howard Kurtz broke down the evolution of the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case with colleague Bret Baier. The topic was the same one that everyone had been chewing on, namely the great deal of coverage accorded to the trial.

Heres part of the discussion:

BAIER: Do you think this trial would have gotten as much coverage from the beginning had a lot of the activists not really got into the game in the beginning?

KURTZ: Bret, I dont think even it ever would have become a national story. It never would have been on the radar. It was the issue of race and the activists descending on Sanford, Florida that catapulted this. And really, you know, there seems to be this hunger in cable news land for the what I call a soap opera spectacle. Before this, there was the Jody Arias trial. Before that, it was the Amanda Knox trial.

Variations on this strain of thought have circulated in the media in advanced of the widely expected not-guilty verdict announced on Saturday night. On Fox & Friends this week, Geraldo Rivera, for instance, held the Rev. Al Sharpton of MSNBC responsible for serving as a catalyst for the prosecution of George Zimmerman. On the Fox News show The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld declared, the media right now is on trial for those first three to four months after this crime occurred, of all of the race-based content they ran with, without facts, but emotion, because it created ratings.

Get used to this line of reasoning, for its likely to spill into the public via self-satisfied, I-told-you-so professions in newspapers and TV monologues in the coming weeks. Hell, it may not subside till Labor Day.

Dont believe a word of it, however.

Indeed the media committed atrocities in covering the encounter between Zimmerman and Martin. Most notably, NBC News mal-edited a police audiotape that portrayed Zimmerman as an out-and-out racial profiler.

Yet to posit that the media and activists orchestrated a national issue gives too little credit to the nation. Simply put, people across the country were horrified that a 17-year-old kid walking through a neighborhood with candy and a soft drink could have ended up shot to death. They didnt need the media to tell them to get out and demand Zimmermans arrest, or simply to express solidarity with the victim.

Toggle back to that tumultuous period after the killing and before Zimmermans arrest. On March 31, 2012, the News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware) carried a story documenting how around 300 students at William Penn High School wore hoodies in a silent demonstration. More:

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The George Zimmerman not guilty verdict: Dont blame the ...

The George Zimmerman shooter, who fired on the former neighborhood watchman last week, reportedly had a "fixation" with his intended victim, according to a police report released Tuesday.

Apperson, who has been charged for shooting at Zimmerman as he sat in his pickup truck in Lake Mary, Florida, reportedly yelled You remember me, you fat mother f***er? at Zimmerman before ambushing him, the New York Daily News reported. You owe me your life. The only reason I didnt press charges on you is because I wanted to kill you myself," Apperson continued, apparently referencing a road rage incident between the two men last year.

Apperson then proceeded to fire his gun at Zimmermans truck. The bullet just missed Zimmerman's head as it went through the windshield, the Daily News noted. Police reportedly recovered two weapons at the scene.

According to the police report, Apperson was recently in a mental institution to be treated for signs of paranoia, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. He is currently facing aggravated assault charges.

A $35,000 bond has been set for Apperson. A judge also ordered him to stay away from Zimmerman, and to turn over any firearms he owns to the Seminole County Sheriffs office.

"I don't care whether you've been shopping at Publix for two hours and have a full cart of groceries or whatever. You see Mr. Zimmerman walking through that door, you're the one that has to leave," the judge reportedly told Apperson.

Zimmerman was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

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Man Who Shot at George Zimmerman Had Beef With Him Before

Authorities have said little about what led to last week's violence on Lake Mary Boulevard, but a police report describes the person charged with shooting at George Zimmerman as a mentally unstable man with a possible obsession with the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer.

Other details about Matthew Apperson's past have emerged as well. Law enforcement records show several instances in which Apperson portrayed himself as the victim in calls to Winter Springs Police Department since 2005 including two separate occasions where he said a neighbor's boyfriend threatened to kill him.

The May 11 shooting on Lake Mary Boulevard was the third altercation between Apperson, 35, and Zimmerman since their first encounter during an alleged road-rage incident in September.

It also came a day after a neighbor in Winter Springs accused Apperson of behaving strangely and killing a squirrel in her backyard with a BB gun, records show.

"During the investigation, I learned that Apperson has exhibited unusual behaviors in which he had recently been admitted to a mental institution," an officer wrote in Apperson's arrest report. "It appears that Apperson has a fixation on Zimmerman and has displayed signs of paranoia, anxiety and bipolar disorder."

Apperson was arrested Friday. He is facing several charges in the shooting, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and firing a deadly missile into an occupied conveyance.

He is currently out of jail on bond. A judge ordered him to avoid contact with Zimmerman. He turned in his guns to deputies on Sunday.

In the first two encounters Apperson told police that he felt threatened by Zimmerman, but Apperson didn't press charges.

Apperson said Zimmerman pointed a gun at him while both were driving on West Lake Mary Boulevard on May 11. "I hope I got him this time," an officer overheard Apperson say after the shooting, according to the police report.

Apperson and his family's attorneys have not shared many details about his background or whether he is, in fact, obsessed with Zimmerman. According to his Facebook page, Apperson is from San Diego, Calif.

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George Zimmerman shooting suspect has 'fixation,' other ...

Feb. 19, 2012 -- Trayvon Martin, 17, and Tracy, his father, travel from Miami Gardens to Sanford, Fla., to visit the elder Martin's fiancee in her townhome at The Retreat at Twin Lakes. Photo courtesy of globalgrind.com

Feb. 26, 2012 -- Trayvon Martin is walking to the home of his father's fiancee after purchasing items from a 7-Eleven store in Sanford. George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, spots Martin at approximately 7 p.m. and calls police. "We've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy," Zimmerman tells police.

Feb. 26, 2012 -- Roughly seven minutes after Zimmerman's call to police, authorities receive a 911 call from an individual reporting a fight. During the call, the dispatcher hears a gunshot in the background and sends police units to the location. Responding officers discover that Martin has been shot in the chest. The teen is unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene. Police find no identification on Martin and label him a John Doe.

Feb. 26, 2012 -- Questioned by police, Zimmerman informs them that Martin attacked him and he fired his gun in self-defense. Authorities confiscate Zimmerman's 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and take him to the Sanford Police Department for further questioning.

Feb. 27, 2012 -- Following a lengthy interview, George Zimmerman is released from the police station at approximately 1 a.m. Hours later, Tracy Martin contacts police to report his son missing. Investigators soon connect the dots and inform the elder Martin of his son's death. After receiving treatment from a family doctor, Zimmerman meets with investigators and reenacts the events of the shooting at the crime scene.

March 8, 2012 -- Tracy Martin holds a press conference, during which he criticizes the investigation into his son's slaying. "We feel justice hasn't been served," Martin tells reporters.

March 9, 2012 -- Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump tells the Miami Herald he is filing a lawsuit for the release of public records in the case.

March 10, 2012 -- Members of the New Black Panther Party, contending there has been a "miscarriage of justice," rally outside the Sanford Police Department.

March 12, 2012 -- Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee holds a press conference, at which he claims that investigators were unable to arrest Zimmerman because he was protected by Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which allows residents to shoot someone if they reasonably believe they are being threatened. "There is no evidence to dispute Zimmerman's assertion that he shot Martin out of self-defense," Lee says. In response, Martin's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, post a petition on the Change.org website calling for State Attorney Angela Corey to prosecute Zimmerman. The petition quickly garners support from multiple celebrities and receives nearly 900,000 signatures the first week.

March 13, 2012 -- In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the NAACP expresses doubt in the Sanford Police Department's ability to appropriately handle the investigation, asking the Department of Justice to review the case. "The NAACP has no confidence that, absent federal oversight, the Sanford Police Department will devote the necessary degree of care to its investigation," the letter says. Sanford police announce the completion of their investigation and turn the case over to the State Attorney's Office for Brevard and Seminole Counties. "Trayvon Martin and his family, interested persons, and the public-at-large are entitled to no less than a thorough, deliberate and just review of the information provided, along with any other evidence that may or may not be developed in the course of the review process," State Attorney Norm Wolfinger's office says in a statement.

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Man Who Shot At George Zimmerman Released On Bond