Shooting of Trayvon Martin - Page 161

On June 27 2013 09:59 soon.Cloak wrote:


Serious question: Why are you so interested in this case? You must be the most dedicated OP to a thread I've seen in my entire time here at TL...

A Florida jury deciding the fate of a neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing Trayvon Martin will hear more stirring testimony Thursday from a 19-year-old woman who heard the last moments of the boy's life.

Rachel Jeantel, 19, says she was on the phone with Trayvon right before he was killed and that George Zimmerman stared at and then came after the young man who tried several times to run away. She was one of three state witnesses Wednesday who painted Zimmerman as the aggressor in the deadly confrontation that later sparked racial controversy and protests around the country.

"A man was watching him," Jeantel said. "He (Trayvon) told me he was going to try to lose him."

Zimmerman, 29, says he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Trayvon in a gated community, minutes after calling police to report that he was following a suspicious person. The prosecution says Zimmerman, whose father is white and mother is Peruvian, profiled and murdered the black teen. If convicted of second-degree murder, Zimmerman could be sentenced to life in prison.

Defense attorneys plan to question Jeantel on Thursday about possible inconsistencies in her story. Jeantel admitted during testimony that she had lied twice to authorities: She said she told Trayvon's family she was 16 when she was 18. She also said she lied about going to a hospital instead of Trayvon's funeral because she didn't want to see his body.

Jeantel, who exchanged hundreds of calls and text messages with Trayvon during their friendship, said the teen called her as he was walking back from 7-Eleven on the night of the Feb. 26, 2012, killing. During their conversation, Trayvon said a "creepy" man was staring at him and wanted to get away, Jeantel said.

Later, the man began following Trayvon, so the teen ran through the gated community to try to get away, Jeantel said.

Trayvon was out of breath when he told Jeantel he had lost the man. Shortly after, Trayvon told Jeantel the man was back and behind him, she said.

"I told him, 'You better run,' " Jeantel said.

Within moments she heard two voices. Jeantel recalled Trayvon saying, "Why are you following me?"

She continued, "Then I heard a hard-breathing man say, 'What are you doing around here?' "

Jeantel then heard a bump and heard Trayvon saying, "Get off. Get off," she said. Seconds later, the phone disconnected, and when she called back, she got no answer.

Three days later, Jeantel said, she learned Trayvon was dead.


In Tuesday's court proceedings during the George Zimmerman trial, lawyers showed photos of Trayvon Martin's dead body which prompted his father to walk out of the courtoom.

"I had thought he was close by his daddy's house so someone would come help him," she said, visibly upset.

In the next few weeks, she was contacted by Trayvon's family and their attorney, who convinced her to talk about the conversation. Jeantel said she didn't think her role would be significant because she heard Zimmerman had been arrested.

Jurors, the judge and courtroom onlookers all leaned in closely through Jeantel's testimony. At times, the court reporter and jurors struggled to hear her.

Several residents who lived near the scene of the shooting testified Wednesday that they believe Trayvon was yelling for help and being beaten by Zimmerman before he died.

The witnesses, former neighbors of Zimmerman's in the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community, described trying to make out what was going on outside their windows on the rainy night of the shooting.

Jayne Surdyka testified that she believes she heard Trayvon screaming for help shortly before being shot.


Surdyka was in an upstairs bedroom when the sound of loud voices caught her attention. Startled, Surdyka minutes later opened a window, she said, and heard a "dominant aggressive voice" and a lighter voice from "a boy."

She said it was dark and raining, so she couldn't see clearly who the people were.

"I could see two people on the ground, one on top of each other," Surdyka said. "They were wrestling or shuffling."

Then she said she heard two cries for help. "They were excruciating," she said. "I felt like it was the boy's voice."

Prosecutors later played Surdyka's 911 call. In it, the woman is heard crying and describing hearing shots.

Later, Surdyka said she was making assumptions when she said the voice was coming from a young man. She also admitted that she went on CNN in disguise to describe what she saw.

On June 27 2013 16:19 Kaitlin wrote:
Yeah, because using "creepy" by itself is inline with their contention that Trayvon was a 12 year old running from the scary white man, while "creepy ass cracker" wipes that entire perception away and puts Trayvon in a racist, potentially aggressive light.

edit: If Zimmerman is considered to be "profiling" the black guy because he's racist it goes the other way when Trayvon uses his own racist term. Not sure I can reconcile in my head the use of the term "cracker" to describe someone who is feared.

On June 27 2013 07:20 crms wrote:
Is TL being over zealous in it's scrutiny of the prosecutions case? Or, is the media just trying to make the case sound relevant still?

On June 27 2013 17:42 trips wrote:
The screaming out is very disturbing.If they could 100% know whose voice that was you could crack the case.

My opinion is that it is travon. I came to that conclusion not by the sound of the screaming but why would it be zimmerman if he had a gun......If i had the gun i wouldn't be screaming.!

On June 27 2013 20:13 Dfgj wrote:

Since when do guns make you immune to pain and fear?

On June 27 2013 20:16 m4inbrain wrote:


Who is more likely to scream in pain and fear, the one with the gun, or the boy who maybe screamed "get off me"? Not saying that it's definitive, but it's at least more likely.

Edit: also there's stuff pointing towards Martin being the one screaming, not so much for Z screaming (young voice, etcetc - all by itself not evidence, but it's pointing to something). So for now, i'm thinking that it was the boy screaming as well. I would not call it conclusion though.

On June 27 2013 22:00 trips wrote:
Im not screaming for help if i have a gun on me.My concentration would be focused on pulling it out and shooting. and that's sort of what happened.

If i was travon and saw the gun i would have made the same screaming noise he did. IMO

On June 27 2013 21:29 jeremycafe wrote:


What has drawn these conclusions for you?

edit - My opinion: Trayvon does not have a high pitched voice. (based on the subbed out 7-11 footage and his youtube thug video). Both trayvon and zimmerman have soft voices.
Fact: Trayvon's father TWICE admitted the voice was not his son's after hearing tapes. He changed to "knowing" it was his son's voice AFTER people like al sharpton get involved.

Owning a gun doesn't mean someone wants to use it. There is NOTHING to say zimmerman wouldn't have screamed for help before resorting to the very last line of defense.

And the fact you would take anything this "girlfriend" has said as fact is questionable. She admittedly got involved simply because of race, not because she felt it was the right thing to do. She has lied over and over again, changed her story about what was said, which we will hear more about today.

You are still cherry picking details of this hearing.

On June 27 2013 22:03 jeremycafe wrote:


You are making the assumption that Zimmerman WANTED to shoot someone. You can't say how you would react in that situation not being in it. Fear causes people to act differently.

The biggest thing you are assuming is that Zimmerman had easy access to the gun. You have no way of knowing if his arms were being pinned down or not. No evidence has been proven either way. You can assume it was either of them.

On June 27 2013 22:30 xDaunt wrote:
"Creepy ass cracker" apparently isn't a racial term.