But a former professor who taught Zimmerman in a criminal justice course at Seminole State College testified Wednesday the law was covered in a class in which Zimmerman received top grades.
Baby in bin: Alexis Avila pleads not guilty to child abuse and attempted murder after newborn found in waste container in New Mexico. Prince Andrew: Judge refuses to throw out Virginia Giuffre's sexual assault lawsuit against royal. Prince Andrew: Trial looms for the Duke of York as judge's ruling puts any hope of reputation rebuild on ice. Captain Alexis Carter, now a US Army prosecutor, told jurors he covered the Florida law in the class despite it not being included in the broader course textbook.
His testimony came after Judge Debra Nelson approved the prosecution's request to present evidence related to Zimmerman's college coursework and his aspirations to become a police officer. Prosecutors allege Zimmerman, 29, shot and killed Trayvon Martin, after he profiled and confronted the black teenager. He was able to exclude Martin's DNA as being on his holster. Gorgone was unable to find any testable DNA off the trigger of Zimmerman's gun.
Gorgone is explaining what the data mean. Gorgone is explaining the probability that another person in the population would match the DNA in a sample from a crime scene. Gorgone is now talking about how a DNA sample can be taken by swabbing a surface, like a gun or a table. De La Rionda asks Gorgone to tell the jury about the precautions he takes to make sure the DNA samples being tested are not contaminated.
Gorgone is explaining DNA and how it is used to identify to criminal suspects. Nelson says she will go as late as necessary to get the state to rest today, and she wants the defense to begin Friday morning. The jury is being seated. West says the defense team has been tied up with issues and hasn't had time.
Nelson seems to be getting frustrated with West. Nelson says she wants to hold court Friday, because jurors are sequestered away from their families. Nelson says the prosecution has said it plans to rest today, with the defense starting its case Friday morning. Judge Debra Nelson is on the stand. Defense attorney Don West is discuss scheduling issues with depositions they want to conduct over the next few days.
West has asked for court to be recessed Friday. Zimmerman has entered the courtroom. Testimony should resume shortly. The judge has recessed jurors for lunch until p. She tells them she wants to give them extra time because there's something different for lunch today. The live blog will pick back up once testimony resumes.
Siewert says this gun doesn't shift into single action after you fire it -- each pull has to be the full pull. Prosecutor Guy has Siewert show jurors what it takes to fire the gun. She aims it at a wall to demonstrate.
Siewert explains how you have to physically engage the safety on the gun if it has one. Siewert says she only examines clothing, she doesn't look at the wound a victim might have. O'Mara has finished his questions. Prosecutor John Guy asks if the gun could have been used for murder. The defense objects, and the judge sustains. O'Mara says there was no evidence that the gun was pressed into the sweatshirt.
Siewert says it was consistent with the firearm touching the shirt, whether that touch was light or more pressed into the shirt. She says there may potentially have been different evidence if the sweatshirt was wrapped around the gun. Siewert says again that most law enforcement guns she sees have a bullet in the chamber. Siewert agrees that most law enforcement carry guns with a bullet in the chamber. O'Mara asks if Zimmerman's gun is a safe one to carry loaded.
She says having a loaded gun be considered safe is a personal preference. Siewert says the trigger on this gun in particular needs to be pulled back much farther than other guns. She says this feature potentially makes it safer. O'Mara says that if someone were carrying a gun for self-defense, they would want it ready to fire and to not have a safety. Siewert says she believes that's personal preference.
Defense attorney O'Mara has Siewert hold Zimmerman's gun. She says that the "double action" aspect of the gun also works as a safety feature.
She agrees that a double-action gun, when it's ready to fire, is safer to carry than a single-action gun that's ready to fire. She says she believes the muzzle of the gun was against Martin's sweatshirt when it fired.
The prosecution has finished its questions. Zimmerman's gun and one of the live rounds was used by Siewert to conduct a test on part of the fabric from Martin's hooded sweatshirt. Siewert looks at a close-up of the sweatshirt where the bullet entered. She says there was darkening, tearing of the fabric, burning and singing. Siewert also examined the shirt Martin was wearing under his black hoodie.
She also removed part of this shirt for testing. Prosecutor John Gun brings out Martin's black sweatshirt. Siewert explains how she examined the area around the gunshot. She says she removed a portion of the back of the sweatshirt for testing purposes. Siewert couldn't tell if bullet fragments were fired from the gun because they were damaged.
In court Wednesday, attorneys displayed items of clothing Zimmerman and Martin were wearing the night of the fatal altercation that Gorgone tested for DNA, including Martin's hoodie and Zimmerman's red jacket.
Gorgone said he didn't detect any DNA that wasn't Martin's on the cuffs and sleeves of Martin's hoodie. Responding to questions from defense attorney Don West on cross-examination, Gorgone said it was possible to touch something without leaving DNA evidence. On cross-examination, Gorgone told West that he detected an odor when he removed Martin's hoodie from the plastic bag it had been packaged in, likely because it had been packaged wet.
During the session, Rene said the woman had a medium build, was in her late thirties and had shoulder-length brunette hair—qualities that fit Thompson. Zimmerman was interviewed on several occasions—some of these interviews occurring when he was drunk, he later claimed. In August , police told him a witness had seen a woman with her eyes closed in a white van near the area where Thompson was found. The state found witnesses who said that after Zimmerman and Thompson broke up, Zimmerman continued to be obsessed with her, appearing at taverns and other places where she was, even showing up in her kitchen once in the middle of the night.
One witness said he heard Zimmerman say that he wanted to kill Thompson, cut out her genitals and take them home to have sex whenever he felt like it. On February 5, , Zimmerman, 53, was charged with her murder.
A man whom Thompson dated between Zimmerman and her husband, Robert Miles, said that Zimmerman was not angry when he learned of the relationship and told him to treat Thompson well. Two other witnesses testified that Zimmerman wished Thompson well when he learned she was getting married. The court found that the lawyer had failed to introduce the results of DNA testing of evidence found and near Thompson, including hair and cigarette butts.
The tests of some items excluded Zimmerman and the tests of others excluded not only Zimmerman, but also Thompson and Robert Miles, her new husband. Further, the lawyer had failed to present evidence that even though police recovered a substantial amount of dog hair from the van Zimmerman owned a dog , no dog hair was found on Thompson.
Still represented by the Wisconsin Innocence Project, Zimmerman went on trial in April , but on April 29, after five days of testimony, Eau Clair County District Attorney Rich White asked that the case be dismissed because he did not have sufficient evidence to secure a conviction.
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