Shooting of Trayvon Martin - Page 181

On June 28 2013 05:25 farvacola wrote:

lol shhhh, let him have his slam dunks

On June 28 2013 05:32 farvacola wrote:

Righto, I'm on it

As to the twitter stuff, I'm not entirely sure what the point is, but we'll just have to see what the prosecution does with it., if anything at all.

On June 28 2013 05:34 dAPhREAk wrote:
so, the last witness follows zimmerman's brother's twitter account. is that about it?

On June 28 2013 05:35 SKC wrote:

Actually, I think it's the brother that follows her, the prosecution made a technology poopoo.

On June 28 2013 05:36 dAPhREAk wrote:

stalking is apparently genetic. ;-)

On June 28 2013 05:40 Kaitlin wrote:
No more than any pre-trial hearing is discarded. They were making decisions about what to present to the jury.

On June 28 2013 05:36 dAPhREAk wrote:

stalking is apparently genetic. ;-)

A friend of Trayvon Martin who was on the telephone with the teen in the last moments of his life testified Thursday that she thought his encounter with murder defendant George Zimmerman was racially charged.

Rachel Jeantel testified that she believed race was an issue because Trayvon told her he was being followed by a white man.

Jeantel's comments came on the second day of her testimony in the second-degree murder case against Zimmerman as she was cross-examined by defense attorney Don West, who suggested that she had not talked about racial issues in some previous statements to police, attorneys and correspondence with Trayvon's family.

Under often contentious questioning by West, Jeantel said their were inconsistencies because of some of the questions posed by state attorneys and law enforcement officials as well as the length of the interviews. She also said she omitted some details of what she knew because she was trying to spare Trayvon's family grief.

The back and forth between West and Jeantel intensified as West repeatedly asked why she didn't call police after Trayvon told her he was being followed. She said she didn't because she thought Trayvon was near his father's home and that his father or others would help him.

She also refuted West's contention that Travyon had started the fight with Zimmerman and that Trayvon had lied during his conversation with her."That's real retarded," she told West.

Her testimony came before another witness, Jenna Lauer, testified that she called 911 after hearing scuffling, loud noises, screams and a gunshot outside her apartment complex.




West says he believes state attorneys "walked her down a path" to get her to say Trayvon was saying "get off" to Zimmerman as they were fighting before he was shot. Jeantel, however, was adamant that she said Trayvon was followed and that the young man was saying "get off" before her call with him ended.

But Jeantel portrayed 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 Wednesday. "He (Trayvon) told me he was going to try to lose him."

Zimmerman, 29, has said 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 profiled and murdered the black teen. If convicted of second-degree murder, Zimmerman could be sentenced to life in prison.

Jeantel admitted during testimony Wednesday 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 he 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 a-- cracker" man was staring at him and wanted to get away, Jeantel said. Thursday, Jantel says the reference to cracker referred to "a pervert."

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

The teen was out of breath when Trayvon 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, but 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 hung up and when Jeantel called back no one answered.

Three days later, Jeantel said she learned Trayvon was dead. "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, Trayvon's killer, had been arrested.

Wednesday, jurors, the judge, and courtroom onlookers all leaned in closely through Jeantel's riveting testimony. At times, the court reporter and jurors struggled to hear her. One juror, E6, spoke up during Jeantel's testimony and saying she couldn't hear what the young woman was saying.

Several residents who lived nearby the scene of the shooting testified 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 apartment complex, described trying to make out what was going on outside their windows on the night of the shooting.

Jeannee Manalo said she thought she saw Zimmerman on top of Trayvon during a struggle.

Manalo said she heard howling, then someone yelling "help" closer. She believes she saw a larger man on top of a smaller man. After watching the news, Manalo said she compared photos of a young Trayvon wearing a hoodie and a football jersey to photos of Zimmerman's full body taken by police.

On June 28 2013 05:37 SKC wrote:
So, all that last part with the witness was officially discarted?

George Zimmerman's defense attorney insisted during several testy exchanges with a key prosecution witness Thursday that Trayvon Martin injected race into a confrontation with the neighborhood watch volunteer and insinuated the young woman was not believable because of inconsistencies in her story.

However, 19-year-old Rachel Jeantel stood firm in her testimony about the night Zimmerman shot the unarmed black 17-year-old after a fight that Jeantel said she overheard while on the phone with Martin. Jeantel has said Martin told her he was being followed by a "creepy-ass cracker" — implying Martin was being followed by a white man because of his race.

Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic. Race has permeated nationwide discussions of the case since the February 2012 shooting, which prompted nationwide protests and claims from critics that police took too long to arrest Zimmerman.

The neighborhood watch volunteer has pleaded not guilty and says he acted in self-defense.

Defense attorney Don West also zeroed in on slight differences among three different accounts of what happened before Martin's killing, in an apparent effort to discredit her. Jeantel has described what she heard over the phone in a deposition; a letter to Martin's mother; and an interview with the Martin family attorney. Among the differences highlighted by West:

— In some accounts, she said race was an issue but not in others.
VIDEO: Rachel Jeantel testifies about her conversation with Martin on the night he was fatally shot.
ABCNEWS.com
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Zimmerman Witness Can't Read Letter She 'Wrote' About Shooting Watch Video
Trayvon Martin's Friend Defends Withholding Information Watch Video
Friend on Phone With Trayvon Martin Testifies Watch Video

— Jeantel testified Wednesday that her friend's last words were "Get off! Get off!" before Martin's phone went silent. But on Thursday, under cross-examination, she conceded that she hadn't mentioned that in her account of what happened to Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton. She had left out some details to spare Fulton's feelings, and also because neither Fulton nor the Martin family attorney asked her directly about them, Jeantel said.

— After Martin asks why he is being followed, Zimmerman responds, "What are you doing around here?" in one account by Jeantel. In another account, according to West, she says Zimmerman said, "What are you talking about?"

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Zimmerman followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has said he opened fire only after the teenager jumped him and began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk. Zimmerman has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.

Jeantel testified Thursday that she thought race was an issue because Martin told her he was being followed by a white man.

But West responded, "It was racial because Trayvon put race in this?"

She answered no.

The exchanges got testier as the day progressed.

When asked by West if she had previously told investigators that she heard what sounded like somebody being hit at the end of her call with Martin, Jeantel said, "Trayvon got hit."

"You don't know that? Do you? You don't know that Trayvon got hit," West answered angrily. "You don't know that Trayvon didn't at that moment take his fists and drive them into George Zimmerman's face."

Later in the morning, West accused Jeantel of not calling police after Martin's phone went dead because she thought it was a fight he had provoked.

"That's why you weren't worried. That's why you didn't do anything because Trayvon Martin started the fight, and you knew that," West said.

"No sir!" Jeantel said. "I don't know what you're talking about."

At one point, West handed her a letter she had written with the help of a friend to Martin's mother explaining what happened. She looked at it but then said she couldn't read cursive handwriting. Jeantel later explained she is of Haitian descent and grew up speaking Creole and Spanish.

Thursday's testimony began with a more subdued tone that it did a day earlier, when Jeantel frequently bristled at West's questions and she at one point told him to move on to the next question: "You can go. You can go."
Neighborhood Watch.JPEG
Zimmerman Witness Can't Read Letter She 'Wrote' About Shooting Watch Video
Trayvon Martin's Friend Defends Withholding Information Watch Video
Friend on Phone With Trayvon Martin Testifies Watch Video

West took note of her calmer demeanor in the morning. She answered many of West's early questions by repeating "yes, sir," almost in a whisper.

"You feeling OK today? You seem different than yesterday," West said.

"I got some sleep," she answered.

After Jeantel left the witness stand, a mobile phone manager testified about Martin's cell phone records and a former neighbor of Zimmerman testified she heard yelps for help outside her townhome on the night Martin was shot. Jenna Lauer said she couldn't tell who was screaming.

"They were being hurt," Lauer said, describing the person screaming.

On June 28 2013 06:02 Masq wrote:
So this is the second witness to testify now that the person ontop moved or responded after the gunshot, while the person on the bottom did not get up.

I mean, unless they entirely discredit both of those witnesses as liars/uncreditable, doesn't this directly counter Zimmerman's defense?

On June 28 2013 06:02 Masq wrote:
So this is the second witness to testify now that the person ontop moved or responded after the gunshot, while the person on the bottom did not get up.

I mean, unless they entirely discredit both of those witnesses as liars/uncreditable, doesn't this directly counter Zimmerman's defense?