S. Samuel
Incarcerated Florida resident George Zimmerman's February 26th police interview on what led to the fatal shooting of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin has surfaced online.
According to reports, Zimmerman claimed he faced a life-or-death situation and said Martin had an intent to kill him.
The audio of the February 26 interview, made public late Wednesday, is part of discovery items released by Zimmerman’s defense team. Zimmerman said Martin punched him repeatedly in the face. “I started screaming for help. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “He grabbed my head and started hitting it into the sidewalk,” he said. “When he started doing that, I slid into the grass to try to get out from under him. … I’m still yelling for help.” Martin, he said, put his hand over Zimmerman’s mouth and nose and told him, “You’re going to die tonight.” “When I slid, my jacket and my shirt came up, and when he said, ‘You’re going to die tonight,’ I felt his hand go down my side, and I thought he was going for my firearm, so I grabbed it immediately, and as he banged my head again, I just pulled out my firearm and shot him.” When he did, he said Martin, who had been on top of him, fell away and said, “All right. You got it. You got it.” (CNN)
This comes the same week Florida Police Chief Bill Lee, who oversaw the case, was removed from his position.
Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee, who drew criticism for his department’s actions in the Trayvon Martin case, was fired Wednesday, his spokeswoman said. Spokeswoman Sara Brady said Sanford City Manager Norton Bonaparte made the decision. (Q13 Fox)
Zimmerman’s jail phone calls to his wife were recently released to the public.
In a half dozen phone calls between a locked-up George Zimmerman and his wife, the couple talk about their love for each other, buying bulletproof vests and how to move a flood of donations into their personal accounts, recordings released Monday reveal. Prosecutors allege the six phone calls prove that Shellie Zimmerman lied when she told a judge that the couple was broke before her husband was granted bail in April. (Orlando Sentinel)
The calls suggest Zimmerman’s wife was aware of their $100,000-plus funds despite telling a judge they were broke at an April bail bond hearing.
The calls made public by prosecutors Monday could play a crucial role in George Zimmerman’s second bond hearing next week. Zimmerman was released on $150,000 bond in April, several days after the jailhouse calls. At his bond hearing, his wife, Shellie, testified that she didn’t know how much money had been raised from a website created for his legal defense and that the couple had virtually no money to pay Zimmerman’s high bail. However, prosecutors say the calls show George and Shellie Zimmerman knew that roughly $135,000 had been raised by the site. (CBS News)
Check out coverage on George Zimmerman’s phone calls below:
