State of Florida vs George Zimmerman Trial (day 5 )

Judge Debra Nelson(Yahoo News)SANFORD, Fla. — The sound of a single gunshot punctured George Zimmerman’s murder trial on Thursday — a jarring reminder of what ended the cries for help on a rainy February night last year.

Jurors for the first time heard the shot that brought a nation’s focus to a teenager named Trayvon Martin and a town that had been known before mostly for an airport and the end of a railway.

They also heard screams. “Yelps,” in the words of the witness who made the 911 call that captured the sound of the shot that killed Martin.

Zimmerman has admitted shooting Martin, who was unarmed, but said he did so in self defense. The prosecution has sought to cast doubt on Zimmerman’s claim that he was ever in danger.

Watch live here:

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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282 Responses to State of Florida vs George Zimmerman Trial (day 5 )

    • Jany says:

      EMS Report Zimmerman: Mucous membrane: NORMAL (i.e. no bleeding/fluid, no swelling, no discoloration in nostrils). Zimmerman’s minor nose bleeding was EXTERNAL (see the tiny pin-dots on nose tip — looks like gunshot stippling to me). That means Zimmerman’s bloody nose is his own doing). As for the bridge of his nose, I’d say that was the gun recoil (those handguns can kick like a mule) — Zimmerman was using is non-dominant hand (and his own blood was found on the grip of the gun).

      EMS Document: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/05/17/zimmerman.fdems.report.pdf

      “PAID” expert forensics pathologist (who has been accused of tailoring his testimony for those paying for his services) Dr. Vincent Di Maio said TM’s hoodie was pulled away from his body, so TM had to be on top leaning forward over GZ …. WRONG. GZ was on top straddling TM. TM’s zipped hoodie and undershirt were pulled upward and bunched up on his chest. Add the can of juice in his pocket to the equation and you have fabric pulling away from the gunshot wound. What validates this positioning? A drop of blood from the stippling on the tip of George’s nose fell downward onto the hem of Trayvon’s UNDERSHIRT (which was exposed by Zimmerman’s straddling thighs). Everything makes sense — the witnesses, the screaming for help that stopped with the gunshot…

      Two witnesses lied: John Good and Jenna Lauer knew George Zimmeman, but they pretended not to know it was him just a few feet away standing over a dead body on their small patch of porchlight-lit lawn and conversing with neighbor Jonathan Manalo. John Good told police, 45 minutes after the shooting, that all he knew about the shooter was that he was “Hispanic”. Wow.

  1. GrannyStandingforTruth says:

    Ladies, check this out, they’re trying dehumanize Trayvon’s death.

    http://globalgrind.com/news/10-most-disgusting-nasty-racist-facebook-posts-trayvon-martin

    • Granny, I asked folks on facebook to help me report the offensive page but facebook wouldn’t until Global Grind got involved. Facebook will remove someone’s account in an instant but this they won’t. I just don’t get it. It takes a really deranged person to publish something so disgusting. This shows us a window into their soul. I knew people would exploit the death photo once it was made public. Evil has no bounds.

  2. Justice4TrayvonMartin —-> Keep on Pushing

  3. When will the white media speak about Trayvon Martin’s rights? Trayvon felt threatened to the point of running. What about his rights?

    • Ametia says:

      The media can’t put out that kind of LOGIC, SG2. That would mean that Black boys and men would have the same rights as white male criminals, an excuse to carry loaded guns and roam neighborhoods stalking and murdering unarmed white boys who wear hoodies and carry Skittles and iced tea.

    • Liza says:

      Trayvon had the right as well as the need to defend himself. His stalker was not going to let him go. I would like to repeat that about 10,000 times. Trayvon’s stalker was not going to let him go. And, Trayvon’s stalker had no social or psychological boundaries that would prevent or stop him from becoming an assailant, which he did. Trayvon’s only hope for survival was to defend himself. Sadly, the assailant used his gun to kill his uncooperative prey, because as I stated above, he had no boundaries.

      A person who is being stalked and pursued for no apparent reason has no clue as to what might happen. The stalker could be planning anything from minor harassment to a brutal kidnapping, rape, and murder. Trayvon, like every other unwilling victim who is forced into this predicament, did the best he could for himself. That’s really all that happened, we can be sure.

      • Ametia says:

        Liza; you could be state prosecutor giving closing auguments.

        Zimmerman” “They always get away with it.”

        You’re absolutely right, Liza. There was NO WAY Zimmerman was going to let Trayvon “GET AWAY” alive.

      • Liza says:

        Thanks, Ametia. I certainly hope that the State’s closing argument lays out some of this logic that a lot of folks do not seem to be able to figure out, especially those in media. The timeline is crucial to all of this. Trayvon had a very short time to figure this out. He was a kid, he did the best he could.

  4. About that photo of George Zimmerman’s bloody and “broken” nose… part 1

    http://whonoze.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/wagner1/

    This photo of George Zimmerman has now been introduced as evidence in his trial. At least two witnesses have already testified that it offers a “fair and accurate” representation of how Zimmerman appeared after Trayvon Martin was shot, but before the paramedics attended to him. This worries me, and I have to wonder if these folks are looking closely, or possibly even lying.

    I believe this photo has been altered via digital photo-editing software to make Zimmerman’s injuries appear more serious than they actually were.

    In this post, I will discuss the visual elements of the picture that have led to my conclusion. In a follow-up post, I will discuss what may, or may not, happen around this photo at trial. Finally, a third post with deal with more digital photo geek tech stuff relating to evidence of manipulation.

    Normally, I don’t engage in conspiracy theories. I mean, history tells us that conspiracies of various sorts do happen often enough, but almost all of the conspiracy theories that float through public discussion are based on wild speculation, wishful thinking, a highly questionable cherry-picking of supporting evidence, and a blind eye to telling counter-evidence… This is especially true of the various CTs that have floated through the blogosphere on both sides of the Martin/Zimmerman case.

    Yet I find myself presenting an analysis of this photo that necessarily evokes a very troubling conspiracy. I’ve sat on my thoughts about this for a long time, in the hopes that some authoritative commentary would appear that resolves the questions in my mind. That has not happened.

    excerpt

    But then a post by Tzar on the Frederick Leatherman Law Blog drew my attention to the contours of Zimmerman’s nose in the photo. There’s something about the nose that just doesn’t look right. I began to look at the appearance of the nose in more detail. I wound up concluding that it could not appear as it does here without the photo having been doctored.

    This is not a trivial matter. Although the photo was released to the public by the Defense, it had been given to them by the Prosecution. Thus, the only persons who had had access to the photo before it’s initial passage from the State to the Defense team, the only persons who would have been in a position to alter it, are members of the Sanford Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the States Attorney’s office. As such, if the photo has indeed been manipulated, then some public official has been tampering with evidence in a criminal investigation, not for the sake of securing an unjust conviction, but in an attempt to aid the accused in beating the rap. Serious shit, to say the least.

  5. Liza says:

    Thanks for the excellent live blogging this week, SG2. It was a tough week, I know.

    • Thank you, Liza! I was feeling really disappointed yesterday seeing witnesses sitting with a straight face and telling lie after lie. But I have to stay positive because I know good overcomes evil.

  6. Could this be the REAL cause of Zimmerman s head injuries?

    http://friendsofharvey.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/ould-this-be-the-real-cause-of-zimmerman-s-head-injuries-zimmermantrial-j4tm/

    Is anyone else having problems with the cause of the injuries to George Zimmerman’s head? Yep me too. At first glance some of the photos look bad . But when George’s wounds are cleaned up at SPD the next photos show the wounds are really quite small. Even in the cleaned up photos. I’ve shaded what I believe to be the extent of the major wounds to the back of his head below

    george zimmerman back of the headgeorge zimmerman back of head 1

    As a former firefighter the puncture wounds seem inconsistent with being hit against concrete. Scalp wounds have specific characteristics due to these factors.
    ◾The skin on the scalp is stretched over the skull.
    ◾The scalp is well supplied with blood

    If Zimmerman had his head repeatedly hit against concrete, to the extent the defense team are purporting, a high degree of bruising would result and major wounds would likely to have split open.

    For anyone who has fallen on concrete you know you get a graze/road rash type wound. If Zimmerman’s head hit on the edge of a concrete slab there would be a linear wound with a high degree of bruising.

    If he had been punched in the nose why would he have the small puncture wounds on the tip and towards the top of his nose?

    The cleaned up Zimmerman photos taken at Sanford Police Dept show small punctures and lacerations to the scalp and nose

    zimmerman-nose
    george zimmerman front of face

    So what ELSE could have caused the injuries?

    TREES!

    george zimmerman trees

    Look around the site of Trayvon’s death. The conditions were very dark, there may have been both running and /or an altercation in an area where these trees are.

    Check out the video re-enactment (9m:30s forward). Do you see the height of the limbs. Also notice how closely spaced they are. Imagine running or even fighting in near pitch darkness.

    • Liza says:

      Interesting. I’ve always said that Zimmie’s scratches are surface lesions and anyone can see that in the cleaned up photos. If Trayvon, who was a strong, healthy young male had managed to get in a position to bang Zimmerman’s head into concrete, Zimmerman’s brain would have been sloshing and slamming repeatedly against his skull and he would have had a concussion at the very least in addition to severe lesions and perhaps a fractured skull.

      It’s a damn shame that Trayvon didn’t get an opportunity to slam Zimmerman’s head into concrete because Trayvon would still be alive.

    • Xena says:

      A few thoughts. One, GZ could have fallen over the fire hydrant at the corner of Retreat View Circle where he said he was standing when told “We don’t need you to do that.” Two, GZ could have gotten his azz beaten that Friday practicing MMA at the gym. Three, it could be a combination of both of the aforementioned.

      Four, I’m totally convinced that the nose injury was recoil of the gun. That could also be how gunshot residue ended up on the back of his right jacket sleeve — from the bounce. The gun would be hot after firing, leaving those little spots on the tip of GZ’s nose.

  7. Jenna Lauer LIED IN COURT ABOUT WHAT SHE HEARD ON FEB 26 2012

    Jenna Lauer

    Jenna Lauer states on the March 2nd 2012 interview she heard a person yelling “Ha, Ha, Ha” ” What are you doing ….”. She LIED in court.

    http://trayvon.axiomamnesia.com/people/witnesses/witness-11-files-trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-case/

    • White people get to CLARIFY but when it’s black PEOPLE it’s called LYING. 20 yr old white girls are KIDS but a black 17 yr old minor is an ADULT. What’s wrong with this picture?

  8. Don West and his insensitive daughters

  9. GrannyStandingforTruth says:

    I’m watching CNN right now and someone’s girlfriend is being messy. . Smh! I’m giving that sneaky heifer major eye rollage..

  10. GrannyStandingforTruth says:

    We see you TV lawyers trying to figure out a way to set a Child KILLER free. Shame on you!

  11. GrannyStandingforTruth says:

    Don West = Disgusting!

  12. GrannyStandingforTruth says:

    Okay, ladies I’m back.

  13. Think about this, 3 Chics!

    Don West spent 5 hours + trying to break a teenage girl and FAILED badly. She bitch-slapped him 40 ways to Sunday!

    • GrannyStandingforTruth says:

      I feel like slapping his ice cream into his snobbish ass wrinkled mug.

      • Me too, Granny! West was so angry in court that he spent hours grilling a teen and couldn’t break her. She made him throw pens, drank tons of water, pace back and forth. Let this be a lesson to him…don’t f’d with black women and try to insult them in public.

      • GrannyStandingforTruth says:

        Did you see the look on Rachel’s face when he asked her could she read? They do not teach cursive in a lot schools anymore to the younger generation. If Don West was as smart as he thinks he is, he would know that.

        • Rachel speaks 3 languages. How many does West speak?

          • Xena says:

            Question. Let’s say that I reside in Sacramento, CA, and you reside in San Diego, CA. We’re on the telephone talking and something goes wrong where you think someone started a fight with me. What will happen if you called 911 in San Diego to report something that happened in Sacramento?

            The Zidiot argument that West promoted by asking Jeantel why she didn’t call the police, omits that she was in Miami, and Trayvon in Sanford. Is she suppose to know how to reach the emergency police number in Sanford?

        • Xena says:

          They do not teach cursive in a lot schools anymore to the younger generation. If Don West was as smart as he thinks he is, he would know that.

          I don’t know about Creole, but there is no cursive in Spanish and Jeantel said her dad is from the Dominican Republic.

          There are thousands of Mexican immigrants who although able to speak and read English, cannot sign their name because there is no cursive in Spanish.

          Don West is the ignorant one.

      • GrannyStandingforTruth says:

        Zimmerman, you know that your injuries are fake and minor.

        • The sad thing is the media knows better but since it was a black kid murdered…Zimmerman’s fake injuries doesn’t matter to them. In their mind young black boys and men are scary monsters.

    • Xena says:

      If I were a member of the jury, each time West came to the podium, I would start singing to myself. He has demonstrated disrespect for the judge, disrespect of witnesses, and playing the jury stupid with that knock-knock joke. One of the HLN commentators said while West was doing opening statement, he lost the jury after an hour.

      With O’Mara, he is like sweet talking men whose conversations are to deceive.

      Now, I know the jury is only suppose to concentrate on evidence and apply it to the law, but being human, of course personalities of attorneys play a big part in how they esteem and remember evidence. In addition, GZ’s mental removal has to have an impression on the jury also.

      • GrannyStandingforTruth says:

        Xena, if West and MOM’s personality play a part in making the jury bring back a guilty verdict, justice will be truly served. Because both of them remind me of snake oils-men.

        • Xena says:

          Justice for Trayvon is coming! Three things are eternal, faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love. Zimmerman supporters don’t love George, rather, they hate Blacks. Justice for Trayvon supporters love Trayvon, a young man who grabbed our hearts and touched our lives as though he was our son.

  14. If a seasoned defense attorney’s only way to get back at a teenage girl is post insults about her online tells me the teen kicked a mud-hole in his natural ass.

  15. White privilege = Judge Nelson gives instructions for jurors not to discuss the case with anyone but the rule doesn’t apply to Don West & his daughters. They take pics and make jokes about witnesses calling them stupid and then post the pics online.

  16. White privilege = Jenna Lauer lied in court & nothing is done. Don West a defense attorney in a high profile murder case discuss witnesses with girls & make jokes about them online.

    • GrannyStandingforTruth says:

      Yep, Don West is a bully who dehumanizes helpless children and brags about it to his girls. Sick!

      • Black children doesn’t matter to people like Don West. The girls expressed behavior they learned at home. No raising!

      • GrannyStandingforTruth says:

        Yes, West taught his girls to laugh at other’s misfortune.

      • Xena says:

        There are times when people have done so much evil, that God places a covered person in their path. When evil is done against that person, it hastens the reaping in store for the evil one. Don West shall reap what he did to Jeantel, and he shall also reap what he is doing in Zimmerman’s case. Defending a defendant is one thing, but dehumanizing others in order to defend is evil.

        And, we all know that Zimmerman is toxic to everyone that comes into his life. Just ask ShelLIE who is still awaiting trial.

  17. GrannyStandingforTruth says:

    I got to make run right quick, but I’ll be back in about an hour. When I get back, I’m coming back and hang out with the 3Chics for a few.

  18. GrannyStandingforTruth says:

    I am so pissed how they dehumanized Rachel, until I need to take a day to cool off. She is just a kid. My heart goes out to that child. I discerned how she is feeling on the inside and can feel her tears.

    Father God, you said in your word that weeping endureth for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Lord Jesus help her, give her strength and shield her from the darts of the enemy. Strengthen her heart, soul, and spirit. Lord put someone in her path that will lift her spirit and encourage her mightily. Father God, I thank you for it. I praise your Holy Name, In Jesus Name, amen

    Ladies, keep that child in prayer. Right now, her spirit is crushed.

  19. rikyrah says:

    @KBDPHD
    Nothing says “get ice cream wasted” like badgering a teenage girl to defend a man who slaughtered a teenage boy. #zimmermantrial #DonWest

  20. Xena says:

    I really wish that the State would bring Don West’s prejudice of Jeantel to the court’s attention, and request a protective order to prevent the defense from calling her back as their witness. It is apparent by the photograph that West discusses the case and his opinion of Jeantel with his daughters. Their opinion now made public is that Jeantel is “stupid.” That makes it personal. With such prejudice against a witness, no way should the defense be allowed to put her back on the stand just to attempt to humiliate her.

    They have deposed her, and she has answered their questions more than 5 times and was consistent in all facts pertaining to her call with Trayvon.

  21. rikyrah says:

    @MichaelSkolnik
    Medical Records: George Zimmerman race: White.

  22. Zimmerman Defense Lawyer’s Daughter: ‘We beat stupidity’

    http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/06/zimmerman_defense_lawyers_daughter_we_beat_stupidity.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

    Social media has stepped up in support of Trayvon Martin’s friend, Rachel Jeantel—who had previously been berated online during her testimony in George Zimmerman’s murder trial. Zimmerman defense attorney Don West grilled Jeantel for hours over the course of two days, and drew criticism for his tactics.

    Well, it seems West went out with his daughters afterwards. One of them, Molly West, posted a photo on her Instagram account, with the description “We beat stupidity celebration cones,” followed by a celebration hat, an ice cream, and happy face emoticons, and the hastags #Zimmerman #defense and #dadkilledit.

    The apparent reference to Jeantel’s “stupidity,” is equally as offensive as the reference to “dad killed it,” in the middle of a trial over the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman’s lawyers say they’ll issue a statement soon.

  23. Jonathan Good describes MMA style ground & pound tactics and attributes it to Trayvon Martin but Zimmerman is trained in MMA style fighting. The lying POS is reversing the roles!

  24. A unarmed black kid is murdered, the murderer claims self defense and parade around scratches as grave injuries. It’s a fucking insult!

    • jelana says:

      And a nurse practitioner says George Zimmerman quite possibly did whatever it took to save his life when all he had was 2 lacerations which didn’t require stitches. It is time
      for me to quit watching.

      • It’s mind-numbing.

      • Liza says:

        What the nurse practicioner said about Zimmerman saving his life means nothing. She wasn’t there and the lacerations/scratches are clearly not consistent with a head getting banged repeatedly into concrete by a healthy, strong male.

  25. Court is in recess until Monday 8:30am.

  26. This is such a disgrace! These are scratches for crying out loud. A kid is killed & they’re pretending scratches are a grave injury.

  27. The PA says Zimmerman’s nose was straight. But but the photo shows it was out of shape the night before.

  28. Mark O’Mara is on cross

    Here comes this fool to dispute the PA.

  29. Folgate says she treated George Zimmerman the day after the shooting. Zimmerman told her he had been in a fight and shot someone.

  30. Tony Pipitone ‏@TonyPipitone : Medical record 2/27/12:”assaulted” “punched in nose,” #Zimmerman said “EMT said his nose was broken.” No EMT has testified nose was broken.

  31. Tony Pipitone ‏@TonyPipitone: Medical record from August 19, 2011 when Zimmerman sought treatment after he “started to exercise intensely with MMA.” Mixed martial arts.

  32. Lawyers are still at the bench about George Zimmerman’s medical records.

  33. Xena says:

    Here comes the physician’s assistant. Watch West cross-exam, abusively.

  34. Next witness up

    Lindzee Folgate

  35. Attention: It was Trayvon Martin who called for help but no one came. Zimmerman stole not only his screams but his calls for help!

  36. Mark O’Mara is crossing Smith and is asking about what happened when he arrived at shooting scene.

  37. Video of Zimmerman being brought into the police station is being played.

  38. Court is back in session…

  39. jelana says:

    @Xena. You are talking about facts. The defense doesn’t deal in facts. They make up any and everything to get reasonable doubt.

    • Xena says:

      @jelana.

      The defense doesn’t deal in facts.

      Ya got that right! The jury will be instructed to apply the facts to the law, so even with the defense trying their lame brain logic, GZ is still going to be found guilty of 2nd degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. So it is spoken. So shall it be.

  40. rikyrah says:

    @gangrey
    Over and over the state is asking first responders if Zimmerman was having any difficulty standing or speaking. No, they’ve all said.

  41. Next witness up

    Officer Timothy Smith

  42. EMT’s washed Zimmerman scratches with peroxide and didn’t even put on a band-aid.

  43. Zimmerman wasn’t dizzy or injured. He’s playing the game b/c he know he’ll get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to him vs a black kid.

  44. Xena says:

    Ooooh this is not for Zimmerman. If he were swallowing blood, then he could not be screaming out for help without some distortion and pauses between screams.

    • jelana says:

      They will say that is why his voice is distorted during the screams.

      • It’s so painful to hear the excuses these savages make to defend a child killer just b/c he murdered a black kid. How long, Lord?!

      • Xena says:

        @Jelana. Distortion from having liquid in the throat lowers the voice rather than raises it. Also, mammals cannot swallow and breath at the same time. Even Don West has to shut-up while taking sips of water. LOL!

  45. Xena says:

    Lord, hold Sybrina and Tracy in your all powerful, ever loving hands.

  46. Xena says:

    Just got here as Jonathan Manalo was testifying. One thing he said is very damaging to Zimmerman; i.e., “He said I was getting beat up, defended myself and shot him.”

    Why is that damaging? Compare, “The guy was beating me to death, so I shot him.”

    Getting beat up is no reason to fire a deadly weapon to defend yourself.

  47. Next witness up

    Stacy Livingston. Employed at Sanford Fire department and also an EMT who responded to the scene of the shooting.

  48. Next witness up

    Officer Ricardo Ayala

  49. Don West on cross with Jonathan Manalo.

  50. Ametia says:

    Riddle me this, AMERICA. How the HELL can a 17 year old UNARMED boy carrying a bag of Skittles and iced tea become the “AGGRESSOR?”

    Trayvon STOOD HIS GROUND, after being racially profiled, stalked.

    RESULTS? Trayvon MURDERED by GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, THE PREDATOR/AGGRESSOR/ THE MUDERRER.

  51. Yamiche Alcindor ‏@Yamiche: While photo of body of #TrayvonMartin was shown, Tracy Martin looked at it sadly & Sybrina Fulton looked straight ahead in another direction.

  52. Penthouse Sidebar 2 ‏@lexiechey: Frank Taaffe admitted he went and spoke to each of these neighbors who are witnesses, he said they were all on GZ side. #Witnesstampering

  53. Next witness up

    Jonathan Manalo. His wife has already testified.

  54. Court is back in session.

  55. No defensive wounds whatsoever.

    Zimmerman's right hand

    Zimmerman's left hand

  56. From transcription of reenactment

    Zimmerman: That’s the best that I could feel through my jacket. Because I felt like my body was this(?) and my head was on the cement and he just kept slamming and slamming and I kept yelling, help, help, help as loud as I could. He put his hands on his nose….on my nose and his other hand on my mouth and he said, Shut the F*ck Up. Then I was squirming again because all I could think about was…when he was hitting my head against the….it felt like my head was going to explode and I thought I was going to lose consciousness. So I tried to squirm so that I could get…because he only had a small portion of my head on the concrete, so I tried to squirm off the concrete and when I did that, somebody here (he points behind him towards John’s townhouse) opened the door and I said help me, help me and they said I’ll call 911, I said no, help me, I need help and I don’t know what they did but that’s when my jacket moved up and I had my firearm on my right side hip (Note that his hand is more towards his back, not his side) My jacket moved up and he saw it…I feel like he saw it, he looked at it and he said, You’re gonna die tonight Mother F*cker. And he reached for it, but he reached..like. I felt his arm going down to my side and I grabbed it and I just grabbed my firearm and I shot him. one time

    ******************************
    From MarkO’s book page 29

    GZ is recounting the nights events with MarkO upon his release

    I desperately got both of my hands around the guy’s one
    wrist and took his hand off my mouth long enough for me
    to shout again for help.
    “For a brief moment I had control of the wrist, but I
    knew when he felt the sidearm at my waist with his leg.
    He took his hand that was covering my nose and went for
    the gun, saying, ‘You’re gonna die now, motherfucker.’
    “Somehow, I broke his grip on the gun where the guy
    grabbed it between the rear site and the hammer
    . I got
    the gun in my hand, raised it toward the guy’s chest and
    pulled the trigger.

    • jelana says:

      All of this is obviously a lie to us but that jury will most likely believe this. The juries that I have been on NEVER favor a black person. Black people need to make sure they never get involved with the justice system.

  57. jelana says:

    How did they get from the grass to the sidewalk without flipping over?

  58. I have my blocking finger working on Twitter. Mofos coming at me trying to defend Jenna Lauer and John Good being friends with Frank Taaffe. It’s not the friendship. It’s the damn lies they’re telling and the friendship shows a motive for their lies. John Good is the first one to mention MMA style fighting but claims he doesn’t know Zimmerman. Yeah riiiiiight!

  59. jelana says:

    Good sides with the defense and everything he says initially benefits Zimmerman. At the end of the session, he backs away from his statements somewhat but only by saying, I can’t say that 100%. He was not neutral at all to me.

    • John Good and wife all friends with Taaffe. They are all sticking together. I can’t wait until Bernie breaks Taaffe’s racist behind down. John Good actually saw what happened. The gun went off before he called 911. And if it was dark how’d he know it was a black man lying dead? Something smells with John and it stinks to high heaven.

      • jelana says:

        It does but he made the defense look good. De la Rionda should have forcefully driven home that even if he thought Trayvon was on top, Trayvon was holding Zimmerman down and screaming for help. I hope the prosecution has some evidence which is really damning somewhere during the trial or this will not turn out well.

  60. Court is in recess until 1:00pm

  61. Ametia says:

    Let John Good speak for himself, O’Mara.

    Here we go with “Just to clarify…”

  62. Ametia says:

    Let John Good speak for himself, O’Mara.

  63. Ametia says:

    GEORGE ZIMMERMAN IS ON TRIAL FOR SECOND DEGREE MURDER.

  64. bob kealing : B-29 has head on her right hand. Keeping it there.

  65. Yamiche Alcindor : De la Rionda having Good read his initial statement where he didn’t say “ground and pound.” Good later used the phrase in later interviews.

  66. Ametia says:

    Re-direct this muthafucka, Good

  67. Bernie de la Rionda re-directs John Good

  68. Lord, hear this prayer. Please allow Bernie to rip John Good a new one until he won’t be able to walk for days.

  69. rikyrah says:

    Dark-skinned and plus-sized: The real Rachel Jeantel story

    Painting Rachel Jeantel as “combative” is a classic way to discredit the validity of Black women’s traumas
    By Brittney Cooper

    Trayvon Martin’s trial might be intriguing, fascinating cultural theater to some. To me, it is more akin to a cultural trauma: a continual reminder of how unsafe all those young Black men that I love actually are as they move through the world — and how tenuous and torturous it would be to seek justice on their behalf. Troubled, though, by the negative characterizations of Trayvon Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel, after her first day of testimony, I tuned in yesterday in a show of sofa-based, sister-girl, solidarity.

    Immediately, I heard newscasters referring to her prior testimony, which I had watched on video, as combative and aggressive. And I felt my pressure start to rise.

    These kinds of terms – combat, aggression, anger – stalk Black women, especially Black women who are dark-skinned and plus-sized like Rachel, at every turn seeking to discredit the validity of our experiences and render invisible our traumas. By painting Rachel Jeantel as the aggressor, as the one prone to telling lies and spreading untruths, it became easy for the white male defense attorney to treat this 19 year old, working-class, Black girl, a witness to the murder of her friend, as hostile, as a threat, as the one who needed to be regulated and contained and put in her place.

    I know these are just classic legal maneuvers of a good defense. Yet these maneuvers also provide an eerily perfect diagram of the cultural grammar that determines how Black folks move through the world, always already cast as the aggressors, always necessarily on the defensive, all too often victimized, all too rarely vindicated.

    No one knows this better than Trayvon Martin.

    The thing about grammars though is that they rely on language, on a way of speaking and communicating, to give them power. And Rachel Jeantel has her own particular, idiosyncratic Black girl idiom, a mashup of her Haitian and Dominican working class background, her U.S. Southern upbringing, and the three languages – Hatian Kreyol (or Creole), Spanish, and English — that she speaks.

    The unique quality of her Black vernacular speaking style became hypervisible against the backdrop of powerful white men fluently deploying corporate, proper English in ways that she could not do. The way they spoke to her was designed not only to discredit her, but to condescend to and humiliate her. She acknowledged this show of white male power by repeatedly punctuating her responses with a curt but loaded, “Yes, Sir.”

    ……………..

    There is a reason that Black people in public life learn to be as articulate as Barack Obama or Oprah Winfrey. Stakes is high. When given the opportunity to speak, you wanna make for damn sure you are heard.

    But justice should be no respecter of persons, or it isn’t justice.

    What we witnessed with Jeantel was a deliberate attempt by the defense to mis-hear and misunderstand her, to suggest for instance that statements like “I coulda hear Trayvon, Trayvon,” meant that in fact, she did not hear Trayvon screaming for George Zimmerman to “get off, get off,” of him.

    Still she maintained her composure and clarified, “that means I could hear Trayvon.”

    Gayatri Spivak once famously asked “Can the subaltern speak?” Forever, I have thought the question was wrong. The problem was not in her speaking, but in their hearing.

    But those of us who came to listen heard her loud and clear. Zimmerman followed, confronted, and eventually murdered her friend, while she listened on the phone hoping simply that her friend made it back to his “daddy’s house.”

    Given the hostile and combative space into which she entered, a space in which she had to fight for the integrity of her own words, combativeness seems like the most appropriate posture.

    If the justification for the defense attorney’s combativeness is “he was doing his job,” then I submit: So was Rachel.

    She was there to defend her friend. And herself. Though she was not on trial, she seemed to know instinctively that Black womanhood, Black manhood, and urban adolescence is always on trial in the American imaginary.

    By choosing to take the stand and fight for her friend, she was fighting for so much more than simply him. She was fighting for the right of Black people to be seen and heard, for our testimony about our traumas to be believed, no matter how inelegantly stated.

    Rachel Jeantel took the stand and told the gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, ugly truth. My only hope is that the jury truly listened.

    http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/did_anyone_really_hear_rachel_jeantel/

    • Ametia says:

      White America will always try and move the proverbial goalpost, but the reality is, WE’RE HERE TO STAY, in all our hues, shades, dialects, swagger, sizes, beauty, and tenacity, and BLACKNESS.

  70. Ametia says:

    EVERYTIME I HEAR TRAYVON SCREAMING FOR HIS LIFE, I COULD BURST. These muthafuckas lying and trying to STEAL THE VERY LAST BREATH OF TRAYVON AND PASS IT OFF AS THAT MURDERING ZIMMERMAN. I COULD SPIT A VOLCANO!!!!!!!!!

  71. George Zimmerman trained at “the most complete fight gym in the world” as a kickboxer

    http://3chicspolitico.com/2013/06/04/george-zimmerman-trained-at-the-most-complete-fight-gym-in-the-world-as-a-kickboxer/

    A webpage for the business, Kokopelli’s Gym, describes it as “the most complete fight gym in the world.”

  72. Ametia says:

    is the prosecution going to cross examine John Good and pound him for 7 hours, like the defense did Rachel Jeantel?

  73. Judge Nelson offered the jury the option of taking a break before cross examination. Jury wanted to keep going.

  74. Mark O’Mara is cross examining John Good.

  75. Ametia says:

    MMA is a martial arts technique. Kckboxing expert GZ should know all about those kinds of moves, shouldn’t he?

  76. Next witness up

    John Good

  77. jelana says:

    It seems like part of the confrontation may be filmed.

  78. Uh oh..here comes the cameras

  79. Next witness up

    Gregory McKinney. He worked for the surveillance company that operated cameras at Retreat at Twin Lakes.

  80. Hey guys!

    I still laughing over Judge Nelson smacking down West TWICE yesterday when he asked to approach the bench.

    West: Judge, may I approach the bench?

    Judge Nelson: NO

    SG2 LOVES IT!

  81. Court is in session

  82. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning, and Hoodie’s Up!

  83. roderick2012 says:

    Can someone explain to me why the State didn’t prep Dee-Dee?

    I heard on the radio this morning that she got a lawyer only a week ago and he said that the State should have prepared her for cross-examination.

    I still don’t understand the State’s minimalist strategy when I believe they need to pull an O’Mara and throw everything out there and make sure all of it sticks or maybe there is irrefutable evidence that Fatback murdered Trayvon and they are just laying the foundation.

    I have no idea what’s happening because this entire situation has played out like a soap opera.

    • Morning Roderick!

      I read Rachel’s mother got her representation very early on in the case. I can’t remember exactly where I read it but I am sure I read it. It may have been on Radar.com but I’m not totally sure.

      • roderick2012 says:

        Sorry, good morning SG2.

        As you can tell I write first, and greet later.

        Hopefully DeeDee can get some counseling because she has been through multiple traumatic experiences over the last 18 months, not the least of which was being grilled by The Crypt Keeper over two days. I would have lost my lunch looking into all of that evil.

        I love what she told Skelotor yesterday in response to his sarcastic question attempting to embarrass her— “I understand English, but I don’t understand you.”

        Classic!!

      • LOL! That was sweet!!!!!!!

  84. Good morning, everyone! We’re moving one day closer to Justice4Trayvon.

    Hoodies up!

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