Breaking: Evidence in Trayvon Martin Case Released to Public
Posted: May 17, 2012 Filed under: Crime | Tags: Angela Corey, George Zimmerman, murder, Sanford FL, Trayvon Martin 50 Comments
The prosecution evidence that was given to George Zimmerman’s defense last week was released by Special Prosecutor Angela Corey’s office this afternoon. You can read the documents here.
Before the release, someone managed to get out a bit more information favorable to Zimmerman, specifically the fact that Trayvon Martin had traces of THC in his blood and urine when he was killed. From CNN:
Martin’s blood contained THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, according to an autopsy conducted February 27 — the day after the teenager was shot dead.
Toxicology tests found elements of the drug in the teenager’s chest blood — 1.5 nanograms per milliliter of one type (THC), as well as 7.3 nanograms of another type (THC-COOH) — according to the medical examiner’s report. There was also a presumed positive test of cannabinoids in Martin’s urine. It was not immediately clear how significant these amounts were.
Concentrations of THC routinely rise to 100 to 200 ng/ml after marijuana use, though it typically falls to below 5 ng/ml within three hours of it being smoked, according to information on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.
While some states have zero-tolerance policies for any drug traces for driving while impaired, others set certain benchmarks, the website of California’s Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs notes. In Nevada, that equates to 2 ng/ml for THC and 5 ng/ml for THC-COOH — also known as marijuana metabolite. The cutoff level in Ohio is 2 ng/ml for THC and 50 ng/ml for THC-COOH.
THC is detectable for weeks and sometimes longer after use, so it doesn’t sound like this is a big deal. Leaked information from his school file had already revealed that Trayvon had be caught with a plastic bag containing pot residue. The fact that a 17-year-old smoked pot is not exactly an earthshaking revelation, although I’m sure the defense will make much of it.
The autopsy also showed that he was shot from “intermediate range.” From Fox News:
Dr. Michael Baden, the former New York City medical examiner, said “intermediate” in such cases is defined as the muzzle of the gun being one to 18 inches away from the entry point when fired.
“If the muzzle is right against the skin, that’s a contact wound,” Baden said. Anything beyond 18 inches is considered “distant” range in coroner’s parlance, Baden said.
The only other injury to Trayvon’s body was a small cut on his “left ring finger below the knuckle, 1/8 to 1/4 inch long.
I plan to read as much of the evidence as I can, but for now there are several summaries available in the media. The Miami Herald reports some witness statements:
Conflicting witnesses described agonizing calls for help, and some thought they heard two shots.
The witness statements include one eyewitness who said he saw a man in a red shirt getting hit by someone else. When he returned for a second look, the man who was hitting the other was dead.
“I heard yelling out back in the grass area,” the unnamed witness said. “…I opened door and saw a guy on the ground getting hit by another man on top of him in a … position hitting a guy in a red sweatshirt or red top. I said I was calling the cops and ran upstairs then heard a gun shot. … The guy on top who was sitting the guy … layed out on the grass as he had been shot.”
Another witness saw a “broad man” on top hitting another. The evidence list shows Zimmerman wore a size 38. His shirt was red.
“First we heard like a howling sound. And then the second time we heard a more-clearly ‘help’ sound,” the witness said. “I know after seeing the TV of what’s happening — comparing their pictures — I think Zimmerman is definitely on top because of his size.”
According to The Orlando Sentinel, police said the “Encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin ‘avoidable,'”
Newly released evidence in the case against George Zimmerman shows that Sanford Police believed the encounter between Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was “ultimately avoidable,” if Zimmerman had “remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement,” according to hundreds of pages of evidence in the case released this afternoon.
The Sentinel article says that Trayvon had “a scratch on one hand” in addition to the small cut on his left ring finger. The article contains a more complete description of Trayvon’s girl friend’s report on their conversations.
An unnamed girl, the one identified by the Martin family attorney as Trayvon’s girlfriend, told Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda that she and Trayvon talked on the phone daily and had known each other since Kindergarten.
The girl told the prosecutor that she and Trayvon talked on and off as he went to the store to buy a snack. She said Trayvon told her he took shelter from the rain under an overhang while walking back to his father’s girlfriend’s home.
Minutes later, she said, Trayvon told her a white man in a vehicle was watching him. Trayvon started walking, and the call cut off, she said. When she called back, “he said he’s walking, and he said this man is still following him.”
The girl said Trayvon started running, “and then, he said he lost him [Zimmerman],” she said, adding that the teen’s “voice kind of changed… I could tell he was scared.” The girl said she told Trayvon to keep running, but “he said he ain’t gonna run. He said he’s right by his father’s house.”
“And in a couple minutes, he said a man’s following him again, he’s behind him,” she said. “I say, ‘run.'”
She said Trayvon was breathing hard. She said Trayvon asked “Why are you following me for?” and a man’s voice said, “What are you doing around here?” Then, she heard a noise and the call cut off.
Police found several blood spots on George Zimmerman’s shirt, but the blood was all Zimmerman’s.
ABC News, which has seemingly become the George Zimmerman support network, concludes that all the evidence supports Zimmerman’s story. Based on ABC’s reporting, you have to wonder why Angela Corey even bothered to charge Zimmerman with a crime.
According to ABC, Trayvon Martin’s father told an investigator that the voice calling for help on a witness’s 911 tape was not his son. That will certainly be problematic for the prosecution, although the mother swears the voice was Trayvon’s.
A couple of other bits of news related to the case.
TPM reports that contributions to Zimmerman’s defense fund have slowed down.
Late Wednesday, Zimmerman’s defense team said he had only been able to raise about $15,000 since the new site went live on May 3. The biggest donation was $3,000, they said, while most ranged between $25 and $100.
While that still averages more than $1,000 a day, it’s a far cry from the rate Zimmerman was hauling in on his own.
The Smoking Gun has obtained a letter that George Zimmerman wrote to a supporter while he was in jail. Here’s the money quote:
Days before bonding out of a Florida jail, George Zimmerman wrote that he believed “this will all work out for me in the future,” adding, “I have given my burden to the Lord and he has blessed me with tremendous patience!”
Well, goody for him.
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The direction of the bullet was “direct, front to back.” The bullet went straight through the right ventricle of the heart and the right lower lobe of the lung.
That sounds hinky for a bullet fired in the midst of an active fight.
NYT: Trayvon Martin Case Shadowed by Series of Police Missteps
Follow-up article: Reader’s questions answered
Zimmerman may be right about this working for him. If he gets off, he’ll probably live the rest of his life on wingnut welfare as some kind of spokesperson or whatever.
Maybe. It didn’t work out that well for OJ.
Karma finally kicked OJ’s ass. Well, that and his complete lack of anything remotely resembling character and morality.
OJ was kind of an inverse Zimmerman in that he didn’t get wingnut support. As best I can tell Zimmerman has them on his side. Of course that wouldn’t have anything to do with race.
OJ was overwhelmingly supported by African Americans though.
BB, that’s kind of the point 🙂
I know. I wasn’t correcting you, but I don’t think OJ got any contributions from his supporters. Maybe I’m wrong.
“If he gets off, he’ll probably live the rest of his life on wingnut welfare as some kind of spokesperson or whatever”
LOL
Look what happened to Oliver North and most of the Watergate felons.
Police report (p. 26 of document dump)
That’s the second degree murder right there. Zimmerman initiated the “encounter” by leaving his truck, and he failed to attempt to defuse the tension by simply explaining who he was.
That’s the main thing to me. Even if I believed the rest of Zimmerman’s story, he still caused the whole affair by stalking the kid after the police asked him not to do that.
That’s the clincher to me.
I’ve just finished reading most of the interviews and many of the DNA reports released today. The ME, said the direction of the gunshot was “directly, front to back”. That sounds to me like the projectile path wasn’t at an angle as you’d ex;pect from a gunshot as described by Zimmerman.
Also, there was no trace of Trayvon’s DNA on the handle of the gun, on the trigger, or the barrel, or on the holster, which is contrary to Zimmerman’s father and brother’s statement that Trayvon went for Zimmerman’s gun. I haven’t read Zimmerman’s account during his jailhouse interview of what happened yet, I’m not sure it’s in the PDF files I’m read. But if I find it I’ll share.
Where did you get PDF files? Do you have a link?
Here you go
Click to access Zimmerman_Discovery.pdf
Thanks, but all I get is a blank page. So far I’ve been reading a scribd copy. I guess I’m stuck with that for now.
“ultimately” avoidable? Like there was a long, long series of actions and only at the end was it avoidable? It was avoidable from the very beginning.
According to the autopsy, Trayvon was only 5’11”. So much for the claims that he was 6’3” and “towered” over Zimmerman. Trayvon weighed 158 lbs.
Two people who know Zimmerman were not complimentary (Assoc. press).
A mystery woman who wouldn’t identify herself called an investigator and told him,
Wow, we were posting the same thing at the exact same time.
Great minds….
The info released today indentifies a caller to the Sanford PD early on, (a female who refused to identify hersel), who told the investigator that Zimmerman was a racist and that she wouldn’t put it past Zimmerman to create an incident where he could shoot someone.
FYI….The Autopsy showed that Trayvon had a bit of Pot in his system. Wait until the rightwing-batshitcrazy crowd get that news. They’ll really crucify the kids memory.
LOL–I just posted about the mystery woman above. The pot story is detailed in my post. It came out this morning in a leak.
I think they’re going to do whatever it is they do anyway. Truth won’t matter at all. It almost never does anymore.
Sorry I missed your post about the Pot. I’ve been bouncing around between reading here and reading the evidence in the PDF files.
That’s OK, Mouse. I appreciate you reporting whatever you find!!
Ralph, they’ve pretty much trashed Trayvon already, with almost no evidence. This just gives them more raw material for their fantasy tales.
Based on the specific lab results, medically speaking, the pot would have zilch to do with anything. That’s a barely detectable level. The effects would have been long gone.
It’s just too bad the police didn’t drug test Zimmerman. He had prescriptions for Adderall and a benzodiazapine sleeping medication. That’s a hell of a lot more serious than traces of THC.
Crime scene photos
http://www.wesh.com/r-slideshow/31079394/detail.html
I finally found another pdf file where the print is larger.
Click to access aOYtz.So.56.pdf
Good!!!
Wounds on back of Zimmerman’s head look very superficial. Even small scalp wounds bleed like crazy. And the size/shape of the wounds is very linear. No evidence of nosebleed.
Just read this again:
No effin’ way that’s consistent with his injuries.
Of course not. If his head had been pounded onto concrete, he’d have a concussion at least and most likely he’d have internal bleeding and serious brain damage–well you know more about it than do. But that’s why the investigator testified that Zimmerman’s story didn’t match his injuries.
I don’t think media people understand how much blood you can get from even a small head injury.
If his head was pounded into the pavement, wouldn’t there be blood on the pavement?
There would have been blood on the pavement, but it just didn’t happen that way. Unfortunately the police didn’t protect the scene at all and it was raining that night. But I don’t believe for one minute his head was slammed on the pavement. I think Trayvon hit him with his iced tea can. Or maybe he got hold of one of George’s flashlights? He had two with him for some reason.
Wow, those pictures are interesting, he has more facial hair than was obvious on the Police station video. He also shaved and okks like he took a stick to his head….. still think he’s lying.
Interesting pictures, he shaved, but has more growth than the original police station video. His head ‘wounds’ DON’T look like he was repeatedly smashed on concrete. And no trace of a nose bleed? I still say he’s lying!
If he was having his head smashed in the pavement, why is the body so far into the grass? Thanks BB, like I said I could not look at the news yesterday, and your post caught me up on all this.
After reading through the documents I see that Zimmerman had contact with the Chief of police prior to shooting Trayvon. (Zimmerman had given praise of the volunteer crime watch organizer Wendy.) Also, he seems to have some information as to other police investigations that were ongoing. So there must have been some contact with someone on the SPD. I know it is all speculation, but remember the video from the police dept when he was in the garage. There was an ease with the officers and a feel as though he knew them. I don’t know, I am just voicing a few observations. I would like to know if the cop who corrected the witness as to who was crying for help has had any contact with Zimmerman prior to the shooting.
Oh, one more thing…the samples from under Trayvon’s nails? Did the report say it was his own skin?
In one of the reports, the cops writes that he knew George to be the head of the neighborhood watch. These guys definitely knew him, so they just assumed Trayvon was a criminal.
JJ,
I found this about the fingernail scrapings:
Thanks for finding that info BB. I wonder if the wounds on Zimmerman were caused by rubbing his head on a sprinkler head in the grass. Which of course does not go along with his story about pounding head on cement.
Maybe Trayvon threw the watermelon juice can at George. Did you notice it isn’t even iced tea? They couldn’t even get that right.