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The photos show Martin blowing smoke and extending his middle finger to the camera. The photos also show a gun and what appears to be a potted marijuana plant.In one of the videos of a street fight in Miami, Martin is seen in the background wearing a striped shirtIn the text messages, Martin tells a friend that his mother has told him he needs to move out of her house and move in with his father since he was caught skipping school.He also talks about fighting in November 2011, saying, "I lost the first round but won the second and...

Trayvon Martin's texts messages and photos were released by George Zimmerman's attorneys Thursday. The messages and photos paint a troubling picture of the teen, as he chats with friends about drugs, guns and fighting Slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin's cellphone texts and photos show him chatting with friends about marijuana, fighting and guns, new potential evidence shows. Data from the 17-year-old's cell phone was released Thursday by lawyers for George Zimmerman, whose second-degree murder trial for killing Martin begins next month. The texts and photos paint a troubling portrait of Martin's home and school life in the months before his...

In a bid to muddy up Trayvon Martin in advance of trial, a lawyer for George Zimmerman has released photos of a handgun and marijuana plants that were found on the late teenager’s cell phone. In a court filing today, attorney Mark O’Mara listed documents and images he “intends to introduce into evidence” during the criminal case against Zimmerman, who has been charged with murdering Martin. The 17-year-old was shot to death in February 2012 by Zimmerman (who claims that he fired in self-defense while being attacked by the unarmed teenager). Included in the photos that O’Mara says he wants...

There's been a spate of new pleadings in the George Zimmerman case. (This morning's filings are discussed here.) The defense is asking for a trial continuance (motion here) because of expert Alan Reich, who it appears, is not a speaker identification expert or analyst but a "speech" analyst. The state didn't turn over his report making this evident until May 10. It wants more time to verify Reich's credentials and determine whether his area of expertise really is an area of expertise, and to retain its own expert. (My analysis of Reich's report, which I called a joke, is here.)...

<p>Defense attorneys in the George Zimmerman case today released evidence they discovered on Trayvon Martin's cell phones, including text messages in which he wrote about taking part in organized fights.</p> <p>The new evidence also includes texts in which he wrote that his mother had just kicked him out of the house and that he was in trouble for cutting class at school.</p>

JACKSONVILLE – The 50-year-old southern regional representative of Jacksonville’s New Black Panther Party for Self Defense was arrested Monday on charges of false imprisonment and resisting an officer without violence, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Mikhail Shareef Muhammad of North Myrtle Avenue remained held on $200,000 bail Wednesday, according to jail records. Police were called just after 2 p.m. by a friend of Muhammad’s wife, Claudia Lizeth, who said he wasn’t willing to let her leave and was afraid for her life, according to the arrest report. Officers went to Muhammad’s home, where Lizeth mouthed, “Help me” to a sergeant....

On the rainy night of February 26, 2012, neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed seventeen-year-old named Trayvon Martin. Three months later, a regular at the Conservative Treehouse blog known as Diwataman discovered the raw video of Martin's visit to the 7-11 that fateful night and initiated arguably the best bit of blogging detective work since the busting of Dan Rather's Air National Guard scam eight years earlier. "I think Trayvon may know these three guys," Diwataman commented in reference to a trio of hooded young men who entered the store almost immediately after Martin left. For...

Trayvon Martin brought marijuana with him to Sanford from South Florida, according to new paperwork filed Monday by George Zimmerman's attorney, and used it at least once before he was killed. Two weeks ago, prosecutors filed paperwork asking Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson to ban defense attorneys and witnesses from telling jurors that blood samples taken from Trayvon during his autopsy tested positive for marijuana use. Defense attorney Don West Monday filed his written response: That information is relevant, so jurors should know about it. Nelson will likely rule on it during a day-long hearing May 28 in Sanford. According...

The release of evidence in George Zimmerman’s murder trial quickly made a mockery of his second-degree murder charges, and threw a further layer of shame upon media and political opportunists who misrepresented a tragic, but fairly straightforward, case of lethal force employed in self-defense. It is remarkable to take stock of this evidence and realize that it supports every single aspect of Zimmerman’s statement to the police. His injuries are consistent with his account of physical assault by Trayvon Martin. Martin’s gunshot wound occurred at the very short range described by Zimmerman, demolishing fantasies about a racist mall-cop wannabe stalking...

President Obama talked about “racism” at Morehouse College this weekend. The timing is interesting because the trial of George Zimmerman, the man who shot Trayvon Martin in February 2012, will begin in June. Zimmerman is Hispanic and Martin was black. President Obama stated at Morehouse, “We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. Growing up, I made quite a few myself. Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not...

SANFORD, Fla. —A Sanford couple has been met with a new wave of unwanted attention directed at George Zimmerman. One year ago, a tweet was sent out by director Spike Lee, identifying a Sanford address as Zimmerman's home. The home belongs to the McClain couple, who have no relation to Zimmerman or the case. Lee later apologized and offered an undisclosed amount of money as a settlement. Last night, the tweet resurfaced in a series of retweets, accompanied with some unsettling messages, were again aimed at the couple's home. "We're asking people to please stay away from this home. These...

The screams in question were picked up on a 911 call from one of the neighbors. They last for 42 seconds. The person on the tape yells “help” over and over. No one can deny the fear and desperation in his voice. Those screams are George Zimmerman’s. The Sanford Police Department knew it within hours of the shooting and, knowing this, refrained from arresting Zimmerman. The state prosecutors know it, too. They charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder despite what they knew. In a desperate effort to save face in next month’s trial, they have contracted for some bogus science to...

There are new expert reports from the State in the George Zimmerman case on who was screaming in the 911 call to police made by Witness 11.... In the first report, despite the cries on the 911 call being deemed "minimum-to-marginal material for identification purposes", the authors picked 6 "screams" to analyze. It concludes Martin likely made the first two screams and Zimmerman the last two screams. Based on the many analyses carried out, the undersigned had to conclude that, while there is evidence to suggest that Mr. Martin made the first two calls/cries (Nos. 1 and 8) and that...

... "She connects the dots," Crump told the media excitedly. "She completely blows Zimmerman's absurd defense claim out of the water." According to Crump, the heavy-set, twenty-eight year old "loose cannon" had no intention of going back to his truck. He pursued Martin and shot him down. Dee Dee heard it all. The witnesses confirmed her testimony. Cried the outraged Crump at the end of his presentation, "Arrest George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin in cold blood today." Crump got his point across. Gutman headlined his piece on ABC.com, "Trayvon Martin's Last Phone Call Triggers Demand for Arrest...

While watching George Zimmerman's immunity hearing online in late April 2013, Chip Bennett took satisfaction seeing Florida prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda flail away at the one blog that has given him fits from the beginning. "BDLR alleges that The Conservative Treehouse doxed Witness 8," Bennett commented. "Double shot!" By "Double shot," Bennett meant "doubly cool." This was the second of three occasions on which de la Rionda would refer to the Treehouse. By "doxed" he meant, in a word, "outed." More comprehensively, the Urban Dictionary defines "doxing" as "a technique of tracing someone or gathering information about an individual...

State prosecutors in the case against George Zimmerman are pushing to keep Zimmerman's attorneys from bringing testimony about Trayvon Martin's past during the trial. The state said in motions filed on Friday they want to prevent Zimmerman's attorneys from bringing up Martin's personal life, including his school records, previous suspension from school, fights, text messages sent prior to his death unless related to case and his social media use. The motion also says the state wants to prevent the defense from using Martin's toxicology report, which showed the level of marijuana in Martin's blood the night he was shot and...

While watching George Zimmerman's immunity hearing online in late April 2013, Chip Bennett took satisfaction seeing Florida prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda flail away at the one blog that has given him fits from the beginning. "BDLR alleges that The Conservative Treehouse doxed Witness 8," Bennett commented. "Double shot!"

The prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder case has asked a judge to prohibit testimony about shooting victim Trayvon Martin's personal life, including whether he had been suspended from school, used marijuana or been in a fight. The information is irrelevant and would prejudice a jury, the state contends in the motion, filed late Friday. The motion also asks the judge to disallow: •Screen names used by Trayvon on social media. •The fact that he wore or owned a set of gold teeth. •The contents of text messages received or sent by Trayvon before Feb. 26, the day he died....

Many people in Seminole County are right now getting jury notices that could lead them to the huge role of deciding George Zimmerman’s fate. But are some people talking about getting a notice too much? And could that affect how fair of a trial Zimmerman could get? “They’re all excited, everybody’s watching the mailbox every day to see if they’re going to get one of those letters that come through the mail,” said Francis Oliver, the Curator of Sanford’s Goldsboro Museum.And when people do get them, some are talking about it a lot -- even on Facebook. There’s a post...

Lawyers for George Zimmerman today filed a motion asking the jury in his upcoming trial over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin be anonymous. The motion is here. It's pretty unusual for a defendant (as opposed to the prosecution) to ask for an anonymous jury (sometimes called an innominate jury.) Will the state object? In at least one case, that of an outlaw motorcycle gang, the state defended a judge's discretion to order an innominate jury. (An innominate jury is one in which all information about the jurors is disclosed to the parties, with the exception of the jurors' names,...

ORLANDO—Is it time for humans to get their own black box? That’s the provocative question behind an ambitious project by four undergraduate engineering students from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, presented at this weekend's Cornell Cup in Orlando, Fla. Over the course of a school year, the Amherst team built a prototype “black box for humans” that you could carry around wherever you went, and could be activated to record audio of your surroundings in case you ran into trouble. That audio recording—heavily encrypted, completely tamper-proof and admissible as evidence in a U.S. courtroom, per the Amherst team—would hypothetically...

Attorneys for murder suspect George Zimmerman are challenging the scientific validity of state voice recognition experts. In a new motion, defense attorney Mark O'Mara wrote that those unnamed experts may be using phony science, so the judge should hold a hearing, listen to evidence about how they did their work then decide whether to allow them to testify at Zimmerman's trial. The motion, filed Friday but made public today, is almost certainly related to a much-played 911 recording made Feb. 26, 2012, the night Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin .... A neighbor had called police to report a fight outside. During...

The “Girlfriend” It is now a matter of public record that Witness #8, “DeeDee” was not 16 years old on March 19, 2012 – she was 18. Nor was she in the hospital during Trayvon’s visitation/funeral, nor did Ronquavis actually meet her; And as a consequence of the last hearing, nor did she write the statement/affidavit previously attributed to her. [She now claims it was written by someone named "Francis".?] ............... So how long before it is released that she was not actually on the phone with Trayvon? And, what is becoming more than likely, she is, as was thought...

Something is really bothering me about the a representative from Miami-Dade School Police Department being in Orlando at the last State V. Zimmerman hearing. It just doesn’t sit right. First, here is a recap [excerpt] from Orlando Sentinel’s Rene Stutzman: Paperwork made public today shows that attorneys for the prosecution and defense were in Miami Thursday and Friday and deposed 12 people, including Trayvon’s step-mother and cousin. The names of all but one – Trayvon’s cousin – were not in the deposition notice. It’s not clear who the others are or what they told attorneys. But in court Tuesday, Assistant...

[...] It was that M-DSPD internal affairs investigation which revealed in October 2011 Trayvon Martin was searched by School Resource Officer, Darryl Dunn. The search of Trayvon Martin’s backpack turned up at least 12 pcs of ladies jewelry, and a man’s watch, in addition to a flat head screwdriver described as “a burglary tool”. When Trayvon was questioned about who owned the jewelry and where it came from, he claimed he was just holding it for a “friend”. A “friend” he would not name. Later, after the police report was outlined in the Robles article, and despite Trayvon being suspended...

Ironically were it not for Frances Robles writing a Miami Herald article on March 26th 2012 an entire chain of events would not have taken place. It was that Robles article, and the outlining of the Miami-Dade School Police Department’s report on a Trayvon Martin incident from October 2011, that kicked off an internal investigation by M-DSPD Police Chief Hurley against his own officers to find out who leaked the police report. [Note: The Miami-Dade Public School System has its own Police force, and Chief, who report to the School Board and Superintendent - Not the Police Dept. The Police...

George Zimmerman said under oath on Tuesday that he waives pretrial immunity hearing freely, voluntarily, without promise or threats, as he was questioned by Judge Debra S. Nelson about the issue. Nelson told Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara that she had wanted to question Zimmerman to make sure he can't later claim ineffective assistance. O'Mara attempted to get the judge to allow him to submit an affidavit instead of questioning Zimmerman in court, but Nelson rejected it. Nelson asked, "Mr. Zimmerman do you freely waive your right to a pre-trial immunity hearing?" Zimmerman responded, "yes." Zimmerman responded yes to all of...

The new Trayvon Martin Memorial was established at the Goldsboro Welcome Center on Historic Goldsboro Boulevard in Sanford. It features Trayvon Martin’s name on a headstone and 10 other Sanford area residents who family members say were killed unjustly

The George Zimmerman Legal Case defense team has filed additional motions in advance of the April 30th scheduled hearing: Defense demand for the details regarding the contents of Trayvon Martin’s phone Defense demand for the “enhanced audio” claimed to be in existence by Martin Family attorney Benjamin Crump of the 911 call tapes. Previously Crump claimed a “cleaned up and/or enhanced copy of the calls led to Tracy Martin reversing his original statement about the screams for help NOT being Trayvon Martin. Defense notification of additional witness testimony which “might” be used at trial. An enlarged supplemental witness list of...

SANFORD -- Attorneys for George Zimmerman are firing back at Trayvon Martin’s parents’ attorney’s efforts to keep a settlement they received confidential. In a motion filed today, the defense said it should be revealed because the settlement could influence Trayvon's parents' testimony at the trial slated to start in June. Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin's attorney, Benjamin Crump, filed the suit against the Retreat at Twin Lakes subdivision. The details of the settlement were kept private. Martin was fatally shot by then-neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman during a confrontation in the subdivision a year ago. Zimmerman pleaded not guilty to...

A year ago Feb. 26, neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., and within a month every sentient person on the planet knew “Trayvon” by name. What they did not know was Martin’s background. Sanford Police Department (SPD) investigator Chris Serino, for instance, said publicly of Martin, “This child has no criminal record whatsoever.” He called Martin “a good kid, a mild-mannered kid.” The media almost universally sustained this tragically false narrative. Martin had the seeming good fortune of attending school in the Miami-Dade School District, the fourth-largest district in the country and...

Sergeant Lourdes Hodges was the person who opened the “Supplemental report” on the Dashboard of Detective Hadley after he completed sending the information requested to Sanford Sgt. Randy Smith. Hadley sent Smith an 8 page report on Trayvon Martin from a Criminal Mischief complaint filed by School Resource Officer Darryl Dunn. However, at the behest and instruction of Police Chief Hurley, the Mischief Complaint was only part of the behavioral issue from that day. The second aspect from the incident was Trayvon’s backpack containing stolen jewelry and a burglary tool. This part of the incident was intentionally mislabeled, and misreported,...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A woman indicted for murder over a road rage shooting had her case delayed Monday. Crystal Scott was supposed to make her first court appearance, but her attorney says the judge reset the case to give the defense more time to investigate. Scott says she and Jonathan Ables were in a fender bender in September 2012. Scott says Ables beat on her window, then opened her door. Scott has a concealed handgun license and says she feared for her life when she shot and killed Ables. "It was man against a young woman. A fight that she...

Many of us have noticed how the media--national and local Florida--have ignored how the prosecution's "star witness" (the "girlfriend" supposedly on the phone with Martin before the teen attacked George Zimmerman) has been apparently discredited. So I wondered how the local Miami so-called news organizations would cover the latest report regarding St. Trayvon. While it appears EVERY station in Miami has NOT done extensive coverage on the problems regarding Benjamin Crump and the "star witness", THREE of the FOUR network affiliates *did* cover the "paper target" story....in which a silhouette of Trayvon, that was NEVER shot, was printed on paper.

(snip) “As a result of last year’s Trayvon Martin shooting, a company offered for sale a target of a faceless silhouette wearing a hoodie with his hands in his pockets, one of which was holding two objects, these objects in the hand were non-threatening and the target was something that I viewed as a no-shoot situation,” he said.

Foxx, who will receive the MTV Generation Award tonight, is wearing a shirt featuring the late Trayvon Martin's face on the red carpet. As we all know, Martin died last year after getting into an altercation with George Zimmerman, who became suspicious of the teenager's hoodie. The whole story was tragic on so many levels, but Foxx showed his support for the young man wh died before his time at tonight's show. "As a comedian, Academy award-winning actor and Grammy award-winning artist, Jamie Foxx is a triple threat superstar unlike any we've seen in a long time," Stephen Friedman, MTV...

(CNN) -- A Florida police sergeant was fired for possessing several so-called Trayvon Martin shooting targets, authorities said Saturday. Sgt. Ron King of Port Canaveral Police Department was fired Friday after an internal review investigated how he offered the hoodie paper shooting targets to two fellow officers, said John Walsh, interim CEO of the Canaveral Port Authority. The officers, who saw King with the targets in his police vehicle, declined the offer, Walsh said. "Port Canaveral Police Department considers that behavior unacceptable," Walsh said of King's conduct.

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. A police sergeant with the Port Canaveral Police Department has been fired after it was discovered he was conducting practice with targets resembling Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie, reports CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG. Sgt. Ron King, who had been with the Port Canaveral police force for two years, was fired for allegedly using them as target practice. "Whether it was his stupidity or his hatred, (this is) not acceptable," said Port Authority interim CEO Jim Walsh. Walsh said it happened at a training exercise earlier this month. King was teaching a shooting course to other officers and...

A Port Canaveral police officer out of a job after allegations he brought targets resembling Travyon Martin to a gun range is speaking out. Sgt. Ron King was terminated by Port Canaveral’s police chief Friday. He released a videotaped statement on Youtube late Saturday evening.

On the anniversary of her son’s arrest in the killing of Miami teen Trayvon Martin, Gladys Zimmerman wrote an open letter criticizing the justice system that she says failed her family. The letter from the mother of George Zimmerman, who faces trial in June in the fatal shooting of Martin, was written in Spanish and was translated and posted to the Twitter account of her older son, Robert Zimmerman Jr. on April 11th, one year after the younger Zimmerman, 29 and a former neighborhood watch volunteer, was charged with second degree murder for killing Martin. The initial decision by Sanford,...

Once again, attorney Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the Martin Family wants to hide information behind privilege and confidentiality. On April 4th, without a reason or an apparent need, Crump filed paperwork into the George Zimmerman criminal case. The documents were the confidential agreement between the Martin family and the HOA. The following day the Court Clerk sent Crump a letter informing Crump that the documents did meet the criteria, and would be unsealed. Crump was allotted 10 days to file a response to the Court as to why the Confidential Settlement should not be unsealed. Today we get Crump’s...

George Zimmerman's mother claims her son was arrested for the killing of Trayvon Martin to 'placate the masses' and says he is the victim of media distortion that has portrayed him as a monster. Gladys Zimmerman published an open letter today, the one year anniversary of prosecutors arresting George Zimmerman for second-degree murder. In it, she thanks supporters who helped the family when they were forced into hiding after receiving numerous death threats. She writes that Zimmerman's June 10 trial will 'confirm' the truth about the February 26, 2012 shooting that left the unarmed 17-year-old Martin dead. 'April 11 2012...

ORLANDO, Fla. – Former neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman wants to know the details of an agreement between the parents of the teen he fatally shot last year and the homeowners association of the Florida subdivision where Trayvon Martin was killed. A Zimmerman attorney filed a motion Thursday asking that the documents be unsealed. An attorney for Trayvon Martin's parents filed that paperwork last week and requested that it be kept confidential. Zimmerman's attorney says the agreement could show whether Martin's parents have a bias, if they are called as witnesses.

SNIP Read: A letter of gratitute from Gladys Zimmerman In Re: 1 Year Anniversary of George Zimmerman's arrest April 11, 2013 – Lake Mary, FL From the Desk of Robert Zimmerman Jr. "Dear Friends: Our Mother, Gladys Zimmerman, has written a letter on the occasion of the 1 year anniversary of her son George's arrest. She has asked me to publish the following letter:" "Today, April 11, 2013 is the anniversary of the most unfortunate arrest of our son George. I am writing from my heart and with incalculable gratitude to our family members, dearest friends, and those we have...

SANFORD -- George Zimmerman's defense lawyers have gone one step further in their push to question the attorney representing Trayvon Martin's family about a deposition he took of Martin's girlfriend, known only as "Witness 8." Defense attorneys have now asked the Fifth District Court of Appeal to reverse Judge Debra Nelson's ruling, in which she denied their request to question Benjamin Crump. A document dated Monday showed the appeals court will hear the defense's appeal, ordering state prosecutors to show cause as to why the defense should not be allowed to depose Crump. VIEW NEW DOCUMENT: Appeals Court Order to...

[The 5th District Court of Appeals yesterday April 8th has Ordered the State of Florida to file on or before April 28th [20 days] to show why the Petition for Writ of Certiorari in Zimmerman vs the State of Florida, filed April 4th, shall not be granted. The Petitioner will then have 10 days to respond.] Petition for Writ of Certiorari http://www.gzdocs.com/documents/0413/petition.pdf

That secret homeowners association settlement with Trayvon Martin's family may not remain secret much longer. Seminole County Clerk of Courts Maryanne Morse has written a letter to Trayvon's family attorney, Benjamin Crump, telling him that she doesn't think it meets the standard of a confidential filing so she intends to make it public in 10 days. Even so, the total dollar figure paid out by the association will likely remain a secret. That's because Crump edited it out before he put the 12-page document in the court file Thursday. It's believed to be more than $1 million. Part of the...

The executive director of the State Attorney’s Office is leaving the employment of Angela Corey. Richard Komando resigned his position Thursday. In his three-sentence resignation letter, Komando said his last day in the office would be that day, but he will be taking leave through April 19 when he will officially depart. Komondo declined to comment on his departure Friday. This is the fourth high-profile employee to depart the State Attorney’s Office in the last year. Chief Assistant State Attorney Dan McCarthy, former executive director Mike Weinstein and Nassau County chief Wes White also resigned.

Ahead of the trial of George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin's father, Tracy Martin, told CBSNews.com that he wouldn't have lost his "heart and soul" had Zimmerman not pursued his son. "Had he just simply obeyed what the dispatcher was telling him, I wouldn't be here today, Trayvon would be getting ready for graduation," said Tracy Martin. Zimmerman acknowledges shooting Trayvon Martin to death last February, after reporting to local police in Florida that the 17-year-old appeared suspicious. A police dispatcher urged Zimmerman not to pursue Martin, who was African-American and wearing a hoodie at the time, but Zimmerman ended up in...

(Reuters) - The family of black teenager Trayvon Martin, who was shot to death last year by a neighborhood watch captain, has settled a wrongful death claim against the homeowners association of the Florida gated community where he was killed, a Florida newspaper reported on Friday. Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Martin family, filed paperwork outlining the settlement, which is thought to be more than $1 million, at a courthouse in Sanford, Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. Crump did not return calls for comment.