Defense counsel: 'This is a sad case,' adding the accused is 'no murderer'
Photo by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel Pool / Headline Surfer / George Zimmerman arrives with his wife Shellie this morning for opening statements at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford where he is on trial on a charge of 2nd-degree murder in the February 2012 gunshot slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
SANFORD -- The Zimmerman trial got underway this morning at 9:01 with a pleasant "good morning" from the judge.
The pleasantries ended there in one of the most anticipated high profile trials since O.J. Simpson, with the prosecutor using the accused murder George Zimmerman's profanity-laced statement in a 9-1-1 call before pulling the trigger: (Expletive punks) -- these (expletives) always get away."
Even before opening statements, the prosecution and defense went at each other as to whether the respective parents of slain 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and those of the accused murderer, George Zimmerman, could stay in the courtroom since all potentially could take the stand.
Photo by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel Pool / Headline Surfer / Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, parents of slain teen Trayvon Martin are shown in the Sanford courtroom earlier in the morning during the opening statement by the state against accused killer George Zimmerman.
The victim's family was allowed to state as provided for in the state statutes, but Zimmerman's parents were ordered out as was Benjamin Crump, the legal counsel to Trayvon Martin's divorced parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin.
And as if that exchange wasn't dramatic enough, prosecutor John Guy didn't mince words in opening statements, used the accused killer's own words in a 9-1-1 call before the shooting: (Expletive punks) -- these (expletives) always get away."
And as if that exchange wasn't dramatic enough, prosecutor John Guy didn't mince words in opening statements, used the accused killer's own words in a 9-1-1 call before the shooting: (Expletive punks) -- these (expletives) always get away."
Guy asked the six-women jury to "excuse my language," adding, "Those were his words not mine."
Then the assistant state attorney repeated the phrase for emphasis, with the F-word paramount followed by the bad word, A-hole: "(Expletive) punks. These (expletives) always get away."
Photo by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel Pool / Headline Surfer / Assistant State Attorney John Guy was animated in his opening statement in the George Zimmerman murder trial Monday at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford.
The prosecutor emphasized not only Zimmerman's words in one 9-1-1 call, another as well, not only of words, but sound.
"You will have a bone-chilling 9-1-1 call," Guy said, adding you will hear a gunshot." "Trayvon Martin was silenced immediately. The screaming stops immediately. Listen to that."
Guy wrapped up his nearly 40-minute opening statement just after 10 a.m. by saying Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin because of the spate of crimes in the gated Sanford neighborhood where was he was the watch commender with a loaded handgun with a bullet already in the chamber before he even fired.
"He shot him for the worst of all reasons," the prosecutor said of Zimmerman." Because he wanted to."
"He shot him for the worst of all reasons," the prosecutor said of Zimmerman. "Because he wanted to."
Defense co-counsel Don West started his opening at 10:44 a.m., saying "This is a sad case." He added one set of parents lost their son's life and the parents of Zimmerman have to endure him fighting for his own life.
Not to be outdone, West methodically laid out the defense team's claim of self defense, even playing the 9-1-1 call that the prosecutor had referred to an hour earlier. In fact, West played the call twice, in which Zimmerman is heard telling the 9-1-1 operator the curse words.
West, well known in Central Florida courtrooms for extensive openings and closing arguments over the last two decades, went into the finer details of the case, claiming it was "George Zimmerman who cried out, "help me, help me," and "nobody helped."
"And then you heard the shot," West said, continuing into the noon lunch hour.
Headline Surfer Multimedia:
Editor's Note: Headliner Surfer has the 9-1-1 calls here for you to listen to if you haven't already or want to hear them again.
The second video at right is a 9-1-1 recording made by George Zimmerman who is told not to pursue Martin. Zimmerman remarks at one point: These (expletive)holes always get away. Zimmerman is asked, Are you following him?" to which he replies, "yes," causing the dispatcher to state, "We don't need you to do that."
Headline Surfer on location for the trial:
Headline Surfer, the 24/7 internet newspaper based in New Smyrna Beach, is the smallest of 200 credentialed-media outlets nationwide covering the Zimmerman trial from the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford. Headline Surfer's news content is picked up by Google News directories and accessible to readers worldwide within minutes of publication. Headline Surfer, with its lone employee, is the only Volusia County-based media outlet covering the trial. The Daytona Beach News-Journal is relying on coverage from the Associated Press. Headline Surfer, along with the Huffington Post and the Orlando Sentinel, won journalism awards in 2012, for coverage in the Trayvon Martin slaying. Of the three, Headline Surfer got the exclusive interview with Trayvon Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, at a rally in Miami just weeks after their son's slaying.