George Zimmerman Trial: Defense Rests
Posted on Wed Jul 10, 2013 at 04:22:33 PM EST
Tags: George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin (all tags)
The defense has rested in the George Zimmerman trial. It did not introduce any evidence of Tryavon Martin's marijuana use or fighting.
Its final two witnesses were Olivia Beltaran, a former resident at Retreat at Twin Lakes whose home was burglarized in August, 2011, and Robert Zimmerman, George's father. Mr.Zimmerman was only asked about the voice screaming for help in Jenna Lauer's 911 call, and his identification of George as the person screaming when he was interviewed by FDLE early on in the case, before Zimmerman was charged.
As to why the defense called Olivia Bertalan:
Two of the five calls the state played for the jury pertained to the home invasion at Bertalan's residence.
It was Olivia Bertalan, not Zimmerman, who called police to report a home invasion at her home while she and her infant son were home. She saw the perpetrators, hid in a bedroom and called 911 at 11:00 a.m. Bertalan described the perpetrators in her 911 call to police as two young African American males. Shelley Zimmerman also saw the suspects and provided a description to police.
Later that day, at 5:00 p.m., Zimmerman went to her home and brought her a new deadbolt because hers wasn't working. At 6:45 pm Zimmerman called the non-emergency number to report he spotted someone who fit the description Bertalan had given police of one of the suspects. The police did not catch him that night.
On August 6, Zimmerman called non-emergency again to tell police that the male fitting Bertalan's description was back in the neighborhood, and that he and Shelley had just seen him again. He told police they might want to send someone over to Calabria Cove apartments because he thought that's where the male would run to. Again the police didn't catch him. The case was placed on inactive status.
In September, police got a latent print report from the lab which showed that two prints found on the wall between Retreat at Twin Lakes and Calabria Cove apartments matched someone named Emmanuel Burgess. Bertalan identified Burgess from a photo lineup and charges were filed.
Emmanuel Burgess, who lived with his parents in the neighborhood, was on juvenile parole and and in and out of detention facilities. He lived with his parents at Retreat at Twin Lakes, and was finally arrested in February, 2012, after another burglary at the complex on February 6. His juvenile probation was terminated, he was transferred to adult court, where Judge Nelson presided over his multiple cases, consolidating them. He pleaded guilty to both the burglary at Bertalan's home in August, 2011 and the Febrary 6th burglary . Zimmerman had nothing to do with reporting the February 6 burglary. Burgess was sentenced by Judge Nelson to five years in prison. The dockets are here and here.
The full police reports the Bertalan burglary are here (they will take a while to open.) The report for the Feb. 6 burglary is here.O'Mara called Bertalan to refute the state's allegation that Zimmerman was a wannabe cop who improperly profiled young African American males by seeking them out, reporting them as suspicious and claiming they always got away. (At another motions argument during the trial, O'Mara mentioned Emmanuel Burgess' name and reminded the Judge that she would be familiar with his record.)
Of the five calls the state introduced as supposed support for its theory that they showed Zimmerman's state of mind as a profiler and wannabe cop, two of the calls pertained to the Beltaran home invasion, in which he didn't profile anyone. He reported seeing someone who matched the description the homeowner (and his wife) had initially given police. The person he reported not only turned out to be the perpetrator, but the perpetrator was only able to be charged after his latent prints were found on the wall he had jumped over from Retreat at Twin Lakes to the neighboring complex. Burgess didn't just commit one burglary, but several, and he was found in possession of some of the stolen property when he was arrested. He had a long record as a juvenile and he lived in the neighborhood.
In the third of the five calls, Zimmerman didn't report anyone. He called to report an open garage door after 10:00 pm.
That leaves a total of 2 calls prior to February 26 in which he reported African American males as suspicious.
In one, on Feb. 2, the male appeared to him to be casing Frank Taafe's house, located at the shortcut from the main road. Zimmerman said the guy kept walking up to Taafe's house and away from it, and he knew the guy didn't live there. By the time police arrived, the male had left. Taaffe was out of town.
In the other of the two calls, during October, 2011, Zimmerman called to report seeing two older (late '20's to '30s) African American males hanging out at the entrance to the gated community at 1:00 in the morning. He reported them for loitering.
After the defense rested, it moved for a judgment of acquittal. The judge denied it, saying there was substantial direct and circumstantial evidence to submit the case to the jury.
The state began its rebuttal case. The state re-called gym owner Adam Pollack, and asked whether he advertised that his gym trained George Zimmerman. He said "absolutely not." The defense objected and the court sustained the objection. The state decided not to forego questioning him further.
The state said it intended to call FDLE Agent David Lee, but changed its mind. Its only other witness is Paul Fleischman, the ATF agent in Zimmerman's 2005 bar arrest. The charge was reduced to a misdemeanor and dismissed after Zimmerman completed pretrial diversion. The court said it will rule tomorrow on whether he can testify. The defense said if the state calls Fleischman, it will call a rebuttal witness. Perhaps it will call this friend of Zimmerman's who witnessed the arrest.
The judge then asked when the parties want to address jury instructions. The jury was dismissed.
O'Mara mentioned he wanted to submit a definition of provoke since the instructions don't define it. It sounds like the defense is anticipating the court will include the aggressor portion the self-defense instruction. While I think that would be error given the testimony and evidence at trial, for reasons I've stated many times, given today's testimony of defense expert Dennis Root, I doubt it will make a difference.
The court addressed sanctions for witness violations of the sequestration rule. It refused to strike witness Donnelly's testimony and denied the state's motion for sanctions.
The judge is not addressing substantive instructions today. The state will be asking for lesser included offenses of manslaughter, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm and discharge causing death.
Closing arguments will be tomorrow. The state will get two hours for its first argument and one hour for its rebuttal. The state gets two bites of the apple, an opening and rebuttal argument, because it has the burden of proof.
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