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| George Zimmerman arrives in the courtroom for his trial at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center, in Sanford, Fla., Friday, July 12, 2013. Zimmerman is charged in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. |
SANFORD, Fla.
(AP) -- A jury began deliberating George Zimmerman's fate Friday after
hearing dueling portraits of the neighborhood watch captain: a wannabe
cop who took the law into his own hands or a well-meaning volunteer who
shot Trayvon Martin because he feared for his life.
As
the jury got the murder case, police in this Orlando suburb went on
national television to plead for calm in Sanford and across the country,
no matter what the verdict.
"There is no
party in this case who wants to see any violence," Seminole County
Sheriff Don Eslinger said.
"We have an expectation upon this
announcement that our community will continue to act peacefully."
During
closing arguments, Zimmerman's lawyers put a concrete slab and two
life-size cardboard cutouts in front of the jury box in one last attempt
to convince the panel Zimmerman shot the unarmed black 17-year-old in
self-defense while his head was being slammed against the pavement.
Attorney
Mark O'Mara used the slab to make the point that it could serve as a
weapon. He showed the cutouts of Zimmerman and Martin to demonstrate
that the teenager was considerably taller, And he displayed a
computer-animated depiction of the fight based on Zimmerman's account.
He
said prosecutors hadn't met their burden of proving Zimmerman's guilt
beyond a reasonable doubt.
Instead, he said, the case was built on
"could've beens" and "maybes."
"If it hasn't
been proven, it's just not there," O'Mara said. "You can't fill in the
gaps. You can't connect the dots. You're not allowed to."
In
a rebuttal, prosecutor John Guy accused Zimmerman of telling "so many
lies." He said Martin's last
emotion was one of fear as Zimmerman
followed him through the gated townhouse community on the rainy night of
Feb. 26, 2012.
"Isn't that every child's
worst nightmare, to be followed on the way home in the dark by a
stranger?" Guy said. "Isn't that every child's worst fear?"
One juror, a young woman, appeared to wipe away a tear as Guy said nothing would ever bring back Martin.
The
sequestered jury of six women - all but one of them white - will have
to sort through a lot conflicting testimony from police, neighbors,
friends and family members.
Witnesses gave
differing accounts of who was on top during the struggle, and Martin's
parents and Zimmerman's parents both claimed that the voice heard
screaming for help in the background of a 911 call was their son's.
Zimmerman,
29, is charged with second-degree murder, but the jury will also be
allowed to consider manslaughter. Under Florida's laws involving gun
crimes, manslaughter could end up carrying a penalty as heavy as the one
for second-degree murder: life in prison.
The
judge's decision to allow the jury to consider manslaughter was a
potentially heavy blow to the defense: It could allow jurors who aren't
convinced the shooting amounted to murder a way to hold Zimmerman
responsible for the killing.
To get a manslaughter conviction, prosecutors must show only that Zimmerman killed without lawful justification.
O'Mara
dismissed the prosecution's contention that Zimmerman was a "crazy guy"
patrolling his townhouse complex and "looking for people to harass"
when he saw Martin. O'Mara also disputed prosecutors' claim that
Zimmerman snapped when he saw Martin because there had been a rash of
break-ins in the neighborhood, mostly by young black men.
The
defense attorney said Zimmerman at no point showed ill will, hatred or
spite during his confrontation with Martin - which is what prosecutors
must prove for second-degree murder.
"That presumption isn't based on any fact whatsoever," O'Mara said.
In
contrast, prosecutors argued Zimmerman showed ill will when he
whispered profanities to a police dispatcher over his cellphone while
following Martin through the neighborhood. They said Zimmerman
"profiled" the teenager as a criminal.
Guy
said Zimmerman violated the cornerstone of neighborhood watch volunteer
programs, which is to observe and report, not follow a suspect.
Zimmerman's
account of how he grabbed his gun from his holster at his waist as
Martin straddled him is physically impossible, Guy said.
"The
defendant didn't shoot Trayvon Martin because he had to; he shot him
because he wanted to," Guy said. "That's the bottom line."
But
to invoke self-defense, Zimmerman only had to believe he was facing
great bodily harm, his attorney said. He asked jurors not to let their
sympathies for Martin's parents interfere with their decision.
"It is a tragedy, truly," O'Mara said. "But you can't allow sympathy."
With
the verdict drawing near, police and city leaders in Sanford and other
parts of Florida said they have taken precautions for the possibility of
mass protests or even civil unrest if Zimmerman, whose father is white
and whose mother is Hispanic, is acquitted.
There
were big protests in Sanford and other cities across the country last
year when authorities waited 44 days before arresting Zimmerman.
Guy told the jury the case wasn't about race.
"It's about right and wrong," he said. "It's that simple."
