Trayvon Martin Case UPDATE: Zimmerman Must Surrender; Bond Revoked

George Zimmerman, left, answers a question from attorney Mark O’Mara during a bond hearing in Sanford, Fla. (Gary W. Green / Associated Press / April 20, 2012)

A judge has revoked the bond of the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and ordered him returned to jail within 48 hours.

Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester said Friday that George Zimmerman misled the court about how much money he had available when his bond was set for $150,000 in April. Prosecutors claim Zimmerman had $135,000 available that had been raised by a website he set up. <<< are you fucking kidding me, people actually donated money to this MOTHER FUCKER!!! Makes me sick, I hate racist people…I think they all need to be stoned!!!

Prosecutors also say he failed to surrender a second passport. The defense says the finances are an innocent misunderstanding. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and is claiming self-defense.

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UPDATE: Trayvon Martin Case

I really am at a loss of words, if in fact he & Trayvon did have a physical altercation the injuries to Zimmerman were minor (with minimal bleeding). I don’t care what they say to shoot someone in cold blood less than 18″ away is not self defense, that is intent to kill. He is a murderer period, point, blank!

No way in hell was Zimmerman screaming for his life in that audio, I am convinced it was Trayvon that was defending himself & when he put up a fight Zimmerman’s BITCHASS shot him because he is a racist ass MFKR!!!

(CBS/AP) ORLANDO, Fla. reports — Prosecutors released new evidence on Thursday that sheds light into the fight between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin that preceded Martin’s shooting death.

Pictures: George Zimmerman’s injuries

Pictures: George Zimmerman charged with murder

According to CBS News, prosecutors released more than 180 pages of photos and eyewitness accounts in the case.

Among the evidence is surveillance video taken on the night of Feb., 26 at a 7-11 store in Sanford, where the the 17-year-old bought Skittles and a can of iced tea before heading back to the townhouse subdivision where he was staying with family. CBS News reports that this video is the last image captured of Martin, who was dead twenty minutes later.

A police report shows that Martin was shot once in the chest and pronounced dead at the scene. The autopsy revealed that the fatal shot was fired from no more than 18 inches away.

The 28-year-old Zimmerman has claimed self-defense and said he only fired because the unarmed teen attacked him. Zimmerman was not arrested for weeks because he invoked Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which gives a person wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat if they believe they are in danger of being killed or seriously injured.

Although the original prosecutor in the case accepted Zimmerman’s invocation of the law, a special prosecutor rejected his claim last month and charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder. Zimmerman pleaded not guilty. He was released on bail on April 23 and is reportedly in hiding.

Evidence supporting Zimmerman’s defense includes a photo showing the former neighborhood watch volunteer with a bloody nose on the night of the shooting. A paramedic report said Zimmerman had a 1-inch laceration on his head and a forehead abrasion.

“Bleeding tenderness to his nose, and a small laceration to the back of his head. All injuries have minor bleeding,” wrote paramedic Michael Brandy.

Christopher Serino, a Sanford Police Department investigator who called for Zimmerman’s arrest, told prosecutors in a March 13 report that the fight could have been avoided if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and waited for authorities to arrive. He also said Zimmerman, after leaving the vehicle, could have identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and talked to him instead of confronting him.

Serino said there was no evidence Martin was involved in any criminal activity as he walked from a convenience store to the home of his father’s fiance in the same gated community where Zimmerman lived.

Included in the evidence are also 911 calls made by residents of the community during the fight, although it is still unclear whose voice is heard screaming for help on the tapes. Martin’s mother, Sybrina Martin, has said she believes the voice is her son’s. While George Zimmerman’s father told investigators that it was definitely his son yelling for help.

“That is absolutely positively George Zimmerman,” Robert Zimmerman said, according to The Associated Press. “He was not just yelling, he sounded like he was screaming for his life.”

Although the investigators sent all recordings to the FBI for analysis, the sound quality was too poor to determine who was doing the screaming.

Autopsy reports said medical examiners found THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, when they tested Martin’s blood and urine.

But Larry Kobilinsky, professor of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told the AP that the THC amount was so low that it may have been ingested days earlier and played no role in Martin’s behavior. He doubts the judge will even let it be used by the defense if they try to introduce it at trial.

“This kind of level can be seen days after somebody smokes,” Kobilinsky told CBS News. “If it comes up in the case, I would be surprised. It wouldn’t benefit the defense, it wouldn’t benefit the prosecution, and if the defense tried to bring it up, the judge would keep it out.”

Among the newly released evidence are police interviews with coworkers and acquaintances who claimed Zimmerman made racist remarks and had a confrontational personality. Zimmerman’s parents have disagreed with these characterizations, particularly the notion that their son is racist, saying that he had mentored black students and had a black relative, reported the AP.

Joelle Moreno, a Florida International University law school professor, said the evidence now released makes it difficult to predict if a “stand your ground” defense will work. Moreno is also a member of a state senator’s task force examining the law.

Koblinsky, on the other hand, said that after reviewing the evidence he thinks Zimmerman is in a good position.

“I think the prosecution’s case has been seriously diminished by all of this evidence,” he said.

UPDATE: Trayvon Martin case: Zimmerman Faces 2nd-Degree Murder Charge

My heart is a bit more at ease knowing that he is facing 2nd Degree Murder but I still think this racist bastard needs to be sentenced to death.

LA Times reports — George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, faces a second-degree murder charge for shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager in Sanford, Fla., the special prosecutor in the case announced Wednesday.

In a televised news conference, State Atty. Angela B. Corey outlined the charges in the case that has sparked national demonstrations calling for Zimmerman’s arrest.

“I can tell you we did not come to this decision lightly,” Corey told reporters. “We do not prosecute by public pressure.”

She said her office had filed information with the charge.

Zimmerman, who has maintained he acted in self-defense, was in custody, Corey confirmed, though she gave no details. He had been in hiding since the shooting after his family said he had received death threats.

Martin, 17, was returning from a convenience store run on Feb. 26 — he had bought a bag of Skittles candy and an iced tea — when he caught Zimmerman’s eye. Zimmerman, 28, was driving out of his gated community in Sanford on his way to the supermarket when he called the Sanford Police Department to report a young black male acting suspiciously, possibly on drugs, he said.

The police dispatcher asked Zimmerman whether he was following the youth. When Zimmerman replied that he was, the dispatcher told him: “We don’t need you to do that.” Moments later, Zimmerman — armed with a 9-millimeter weapon — got out of his car.

Zimmerman has said he shot Martin in self-defense after the youth struck him in the face, knocked him down and began pounding his head into the ground. But many believe Zimmerman was the aggressor, emboldened by his status as the self-appointed neighborhood watch captain.

Coverage of the case was largely limited to local media until the call between Zimmerman and the dispatcher was made public, along with a 911 call that one resident made just before the shooting. In the background of that call, someone can be heard yelling for help. Martin’s parents insist that voice belonged to their son. Zimmerman has said the voice was his.

The phone calls and steady stream of new evidence, not to mention potential evidence, have turned many Americans into armchair CSI experts.

But the case itself struck a chord — and not just within the African American community. Many Americans consider it cut-and-dried evidence of the social injustices that blacks in this country have long faced.

The intense media attention has been propelled in part by outrage in the social media world. Twitter has been flooded with tweets linked by the hashtag #Trayvon. And an online petition at Change.org demanding Zimmerman’s prosecution has received more than 2.2 million signatures — the single biggest reaction the online petition platform has ever had.

In the wake of such scrutiny, as well as marches, protests and rallies held across the country, the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI have launched probes into the case, and Corey was assigned to review the matter. The case even gained the attention of President Obama, who called for a thorough investigation.

And, no surprise, the case has also stirred up a backlash against the media attention.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that many people — including a majority of Republicans and 43% of whites surveyed — said the media had gone overboard in their coverage.

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Theme: Esquire by Matthew Buchanan.

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