George Zimmerman will be at the Seminole County Courthouse on Tuesday morning for the latest hearing in his second-degree murder case.
It’s the last scheduled status hearing before Zimmerman stands trial for the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford. The trial is scheduled to begin June 10 with jury selection.
Zimmerman’s defense attorney, Mark O’Mara, said his client is ready to answer questions if prosecutors want to ask him anything.
The defense team will address the court about several motions filed on Friday. O’Mara says he wants everything the prosecution has on his client including all the 911 calls made the night Trayvon Martin was killed.
Read more here:
Special Section: Coverage of Trayvon Martin case
Hat tip- Xena @ Blackbutterfly7
audio clears up around the 6:15 mark
Full George Zimmerman April 30 2013 Hearing
Judge: Zimmerman jury will be sequestered
I have mixed emotions about this. As long as the State agreed, I’ll live with it.
No this is a disaster.
This is why I don’t have as much confidence in Bernie as others do. He doesn’t seem as prepared as he should be.
When the Sleazebag Defense brought up the issue of whether DeeDee went to the hospital or not Bernie should have been ready to explain with a PowerPoint presentation that he asked her if she went to the hospital or SOMEWHERE. Instead he gave the defense a public relation win by admitting on tv and in front of the potential jurors that DeeDee told at least one untruth ( however irrelevant) and gave life to the idea that if someone lied or mislead about one thing that the person may lie about another.
We may shrug off the lie as irrelevant but a juror who is looking for an excuse to aquit George will hang his hat on anything, and Bernie seems to not have spent much time attempting to rehabilitating DeeDee’s reputation, and why in God’s name didn’t he object to all of the nonsense O’Mara and West were doing to expose DeeDee’s identity?
Is he going to ask for sanctions again the defense?
I am not happy about the jury being sequestered.
O’Mara is using the OJ Simpson trial as a template and although I believe the A.B.C. and Bernie have more definitive evidence of Porky’s guilt than Marsha Clark had of OJ’s O’Mara is going to make this trail a war of attrition.
This is what I believe will be O’Mara’s trial strategy:
Overall make the defense case as long and confusing as possible so that the jury forgets as much of the State’s case as possible.
The defense will attempt to make Serino’s and DeeDee’s credibility of the trial and not Porky’s.
The centerpiece of the defense case is that George is a sacrificial lamb caught in a political game to appease the Darkies so we won’t riot and that’s why there are so many Sanford policemen on the defense witness list- to repeat police office gossip.
Unfortunately Serino played into that scenario by telling certain witnesses at the beginning of the investigation that George was the one screaming for help and that blacks within the Sanford police department were the ones pushing for George’s arrest and the defense will use his contradictory statements about George being arrested and not being arrested and his vacillating between charging George with Murder 2 and manslaughter.
O’Mara is attempting to keep DeeDee off the stand by any means necessary (intimidation and humiliation) because she’s a sympathetic figure and O’Mara knows he can’t cross-examine her too strongly or the jury will have a strongly negative reaction to the defense (besides the State’s evidence).
O’Mara knows that he plans to prolong the trial and he wants the jury sequestered so he can frustrate them hoping that at least one of them will invoke jury nullification.
Mark O’Mara was on HLN whining about Zimmerman gaining 110lbs from being stressed and can’t go out without body armor…. then don’t chase little boys down in the dark & shoot them in the heart, mofo!
George Zimmerman answers questions under oath
Jury will be sequestered in the Zimmerman murder trial.
There was NEVER any DOUBT that the jury in this murder trial would sequestered. Too much fuckery’s gone down already, with Zimmerman not being arrested immediately for murdering Trayvon.
George Zimmerman April 30 2013 Post-Hearing Press Conferences
Zimmerman voluntarily waived his right in court today to an immunity hearing
http://frederickleatherman.com/2013/04/30/zimmerman-voluntarily-waived-his-right-in-court-today-to-an-immunity-hearing/
Today’s hearing was a judicial slam-down of the defense motions.
The most important thing that happened was the defendant’s waiver of the immunity hearing. After Judge Nelson placed him under oath, he acknowledged that he knew he had a right to a pretrial immunity hearing and he voluntarily waived that hearing.
In my opinion the waiver is bullet proof and will withstand appellate scrutiny.
At the press conference following the hearing, Mark O’Mara said that they had decided to waive the hearing because it would be better to let a jury decide the case. In my opinion, his explanation is pure spin designed to conceal that he knows his client’s credibility will be destroyed on cross examination. In other words, the defense has no defense.
BOTTOM LINE: He would not have waived the hearing, if he thought he had any chance to win. That overwhelming case for self-defense that O’Mara has been bragging about for almost a year is a bust. He folded when Bernie called his bluff.
Judge Nelson also ruled that the defense was not prejudiced by any of the alleged discovery violations, but she postponed consideration until after trial of whether to order the State to reimburse the defense for fees and costs incurred by alleged delays in providing discovery.
After Mark O’Mara questioned Don West on direct regarding the alleged discovery violations, Bernie de la Rionda did a nice job cross examining him by getting him to admit that the prosecution and defense discovered some information simultaneously, as in the case of Dee Dee’s hand written letter to Sybrina Fulton that she had placed in the family Bible together with other letters of condolence.
West’s effort to make an issue about BDLR failing to disclose that Sybrina Fulton sat next to Dee Dee when she was interviewed also came across as irrelevant nitpicking rather than a Brady violation.
BDLR also nailed West making him look foolish when West could not explain how Dee Dee’s hospital excuse about missing the funeral and wake because she could not face looking at Trayvon’s dead body had anything to do with whether the defendant murdered Trayvon.
We also learned today that the State recently sent the recording of the 911 call with the terrified-fear-of-death shriek to an expert to clean/enhance. The expert has not completed the process or issued a report.
Trayvon Martin case: Zimmerman waives ‘stand your ground’ hearing
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-immunity-hearing-20130430,0,1858059.story
SANFORD, Fla. — The former neighborhood watch leader charged with fatally shooting Trayvon Martin told a judge Tuesday that he agrees with his defense attorneys’ decision not to seek an immunity hearing under the state’s “stand your ground” self-defense law.
Under questioning from Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, Zimmerman repeatedly said “yes” to a series of questions asking if he was aware he was giving up the right to a hearing before his second-degree murder trial in June. A judge would have sole discretion in an immunity hearing to decide if Zimmerman is exempt from culpability in the shooting. A jury would make the determination in the murder trial.
“After consultation with my counsel, yes, your honor,” Zimmerman said.
The judge had set aside two weeks at the end of April for an immunity hearing should Zimmerman want one. Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda had filed a motion asking that Zimmerman make clear his intentions on whether he wanted the hearing.
@NatJackEsq at Press Conference: “Today everyone who protested to arrest Zimmerman and bring him to trial was vindicated”.
**BOOM**!
4/30/13 Press Release From Benjamin Crump
http://tmwarriors.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/43013-press-release-from-benjamin-crump/
There is no doubt that the legislature intended that a Stand Your Ground Immunity Hearing should be decided before trial. Because ultimately, the Stand Your Ground Statute grants immunity from civil lawsuits, arrests, and trials, if a defendant prevails.
Therefore, while it may be theoretically possible for George Zimmerman to merge his Stand Your Ground Hearing into the trial, there is really no advantage to a defendant with a strong defense to do so.
The fact that George Zimmerman has decided to now waive his right to a stand your ground hearing before trial is very telling of his defense or lack there of. We believe the Defense’s decision to waive a pre-trial hearing and to merge the Stand Your Ground Hearing into the trial is to prevent putting George Zimmerman on the stand and to preclude the public and the potential jury pool from previewing the many inconsistences in George Zimmerman’s story.
It has and continues to be our position that the Stand Your Ground Immunity Statute does not apply to the actions of George Zimmerman on the night that he shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Further, the decision made by the defense to waive a pretrial hearing and to solely continue on to trial vindicates the many thousands of protesters who demanded George Zimmerman be arrested for the killing of Trayvon Martin. After all, to have a felony criminal trial an arrest must first be made.
Court is in recess..
Judge Nelson delayed ruling on sanctions for the video taping of deposition delay.
Judge Nelson: No discovery violations and No prejudice.
O’Mara is being disrespectful to the Judge. He’s trying to correct her on the meaning of ‘procedural prejudice’.
Bernie is kicking West ass forty ways to Sunday and this is just the beginning.
Bernie is working West over. GET HIM, BERNIE! GET HIM!
LOL WTF has Zimmerman been wolfing down? He looks like the Good Year blimp!
The stress of killing an innocent boy, is much too much, isn’t it, Georgie?
Yep! He’s stressed out big time. Time to pay the piper!
I am highly ticked at the nonsense West and O’Mara are pulling in the courtroom.
West and O’Mara is trying to taint the jury pool about witness 8’s testimony. Why doesn’t Judge Nelson shut this down?
O’Mara is a whiny little bee.itch.
This whole hearing is a bunch of bullshit. O’Mara’s trying to go after credable wittnesses, while covering up the evidence that Zimmerman is a cold-blooded, starking murderer of an innocent boy.
Benjamin Crump asks court to keep the settlement confidential. Judge Nelson grants unredacted copies to lawyers but not to public.
Pray tell, what does the amount of the settlement have to do with Zimmerman’s MURDER defense?
Distractions. That’s it. They have no defense and they’re grandstanding.
Zimmerman testifies it is his decision not to request pre-trial immunity hearing.
Judge Nelson is questioning Zimmerman on immunity.
bob kealing @bobkealing
GeorgeZimmerman defense arguing for access to “cleaned up” 911 call with someone screaming for help. State says lab working on that now.
Zimmerman defense wants “enhanced” 911 calls
Pingback: George Zimmermann “Stand your Ground” Defense Dead Line Looming | www.HumansinShadow.wordpress.com
@SG2. I’m really looking forward to the hearing. Along with the question about the immunity hearing, I think that attorney Crump will be present to argue on the sealing of the settlement document.
Hat tip- Two sides to a story
Here’s a list of sites that will possibly cover the hearing –
WFTV http://www.wftv.com/s/news/trayvonmartin/
Click Orlando http://www.clickorlando.com/news/george-zimmerman-headed-to-court-for-motions-hearing/-/1637132/19939788/-/ammpj0z/-/index.html
Orlando Sentinel (Fox 35 live stream) http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/loc … on-martin/
WESH http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florid … index.html
cfnews http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2013/4/30/george_zimmerman_cou.html
MyfoxOrlando http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2013/4/30/george_zimmerman_cou.html
CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=sitenav#/video/cvplive/cvpstream3
NBCNews: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbcnews.com/49478983
Live video: George Zimmerman Hearing
http://www.breakingnews.com/topic/trayvon-martin-shooting
So Zimmerman’s going for Stand Your Ground, after he shot Trayvon DOWN and murdered him.
Please Lord, deliver justice for Trayvon.
Ametia, O’Mara is throwing everything against the wall and hopes it sticks.
His main goal is to delay the trial and frustrate the State and get a plea deal
This flurry of motions is get Judge Nelson to make a mistake so O’Mara can’t have her kicked off the case and if not give him some reasons to appeal something and delay the trial.
I don’t wish death on anyone but if a baby grand piano happen to fall on O’Mara I won’t shed any tears.
Agreed, Roderick!
Trayvon – Jasiri X
George Zimmerman headed to court for motions hearing
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/george-zimmerman-headed-to-court-for-motions-hearing/-/1637132/19939788/-/ammpj0z/-/index.html
SANFORD, Fla. – No fewer than eight motions and demands are slated to be heard by Judge Debra Nelson Tuesday, as George Zimmerman returns to the courtroom where his murder trial is set to begin in six weeks.
But it’s the one item not yet officially on the docket that could prove most interesting.
Prosecutors want Judge Nelson to “conduct a full inquiry” of Zimmerman to make sure he understands he is waiving his right to a pretrial immunity hearing.
At least, it appears he is waiving that right.
Zimmerman’s attorneys have been coy on the matter, announcing they would not use the two weeks that were set aside for the hearing in April, suggesting they may ask the judge to conduct the hearing during the trial, but committing to neither a waiver of a pretrial hearing nor a process merged into the trial.
Last week, the state said it would object to any attempt to merge an immunity hearing into the trial, and wants the judge to conduct the “inquiry” to make sure Zimmerman doesn’t come back after conviction and seek a new trial.
For instance, Zimmerman could claim he did knowingly and willfully waive his right to a pretrial immunity hearing. Or he could argue on appeal his counsel was incompetent in not securing such a hearing prior to trial.
I have no sympathy for Zimmerman, but really, this guy needs a proper lawyer!
Bill, it’s not George’s lawyer but the evidence.
I have no idea what delusions of grandeur were going through O’Mara’s mind when he took this case knowing:
1) George had never met his first two attorneys in person
2) George was a loose cannon who attempted to contact the Special Prosecutor directly
Those two facts alone would inform any sane person not to have anything to do with George Michael Zimmerman but I guess O’Mara thought he would be the next Jose Baez and he will be except his client will be convicted.
Zimmerman will attend hearing Tuesday
Hearing will clarify position on ‘Stand Your Ground’ defense
http://tiny.cc/1jjbww
SANFORD, Fla. —George Zimmerman will attend a hearing Tuesday morning to clarify his position on asking for immunity under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.
His defense team tells WESH 2 they have no intention of giving up the right to seek immunity.
They have waived the two week pre-trial period Judge Debra Nelson set aside to consider the issue, but they won’t give up their right to request immunity during the trial.
Attorneys have asked Nelson to block out the whole day for the hearing.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and will be streamed on WESH.com and the WESH 2 app.
Mark O’Mara hasn’t filed a motion for an immunity hearing in the Zimmerman case.
THAT’S THE NEWS!
Pursuing an Immunity Hearing