First day of trial in the George Zimmerman murder case for the shooting of Trayvon Martin
This morning, the George Zimmerman murder trial has begun and is underway in Sanford, Florida. The defense has already begun giving its opening statements describing the night of the shooting to the all female jury and other court attendees including the Martin family.
To the shock and jaw drop of all who viewed defense attorney Don West’s opening statement, he told an inappropriate ‘knock knock’ joke to begin the trial. The sad and callous part of what he said was that Trayvon’s parents were sitting less than 20 feet from where he was telling jokes during the trial of their son’s killer.
A stoic and overweight Zimmerman sat listening to his lawyer describe the night in question. West stated that Zimmerman was “sucker punched” and had his head “bashed on the concrete” before he killed the unarmed teenager.
Update 11AM EST: The 911 tapes from the night of the confrontation between the 28 year old self appointed Community Watchman and Martin we’re played for the jury. The defense claims that it is Zimmerman heard screaming in the background, however, the prosecutor instructed the jury to “listen closely” to the screams so that they could hear that it’s actually Martin pleading for his life. It has been decided that testimony from audio experts will not be allowed as admissible evidence in the trial.
As the tape was being played in the courtroom, Sabrina Fulton, the mother of the slain teenager, swiftly walked out of the courtroom crying, flanked by a person of the clergy.
UPDATE 4PM: Witnesses were called to the stand and cross examined by the prosecuting and defense attorneys. They include Chad Joseph, the child of Trayvon’s father’s girlfriend who the Skittles were for, Sean Noffke, the 911 operator who answered Zimmerman’s call, and the clerk at the 7-11 store where Trayvon bought the Arizona drink and the Skittles, who could have possibly been the last personto see Trayvon alive before his deadly encounter with George Zimmerman.
In an attempt to quell the support for the Martin family, the defense made an attempt to have the family of Trayvon permanently removed from the courtroom after one of Zimmerman’s supporters claimed that Trayvon’s father cursed at him in passing in the hallway of the court. After being cross examined by the prosecution, the motion to have the family removed was overruled.
The trial can be seen live by tuning in to the HLN Network. TheSource.com will be giving updates to this trial as it develops.
-Sha Be Allah(@KingPenStatus)
