Sybrina Martin couldn’t listen to another word.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she walked out of the courtroom Tuesday while famed forensic pathologist Dr. Vincent Di Maio told the jury that he believes Trayvon Martin was on top of George Zimmerman when Zimmerman shot Trayvon, confirming Zimmerman’s story that he was being beaten by Trayvon and was forced to shoot him in self-defense.
Di Maio’s testimony was too much for Sybrina, Trayvon’s mother, but it may have given the all-female, mostly-white jury something to think about in the final days of a dramatic murder trial where racial profiling is central to the case.
Reporters inside the courtroom said jurors were taking notes and paying close attention to Di Maio, one of the nation’s most respected forensic pathologists and gunshot experts who was hired by Zimmerman’s attorneys.
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Di Maio said the pattern of powder burns on Martin’s sweatshirt and skin indicated that the shirt was two to four inches away from Martin’s chest when he was shot by Zimmerman.
“Mr. Martin was over him, leaning forward,” he said. “This is consistent with Mr. Zimmerman’s account that Mr. Martin was over him, leaning forward at the time he was shot.”
“Is this a hard call for you?” one of Zimmernan’s attorneys asked Di Maio.
“No,” Di Maio responded. “This is basic, you know, 101.”
Di Maio also told the jury that Zimmerman’s nose was broken and wounds in the back of Zimmerman’s head was consistent with being hit with great force and could have amounted to symptoms consistent with a concussion.
And there was another major development this week: Judge Debra Nelson ruled that jurors at Zimmerman’s trial may be told that Trayvon Martin had small amounts of marijuana in his body when he died.
Nelson denied a prosecution request to keep out parts of a toxicology report that shows Martin had slight amounts of marijuana in his system.
Zimmerman’s lawyers want the jury to believe that Trayvon became overly aggressive because he has a trace amount of marijuana in his system and justifies Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense.
But so what if a trace amount of marijuana was found in Trayvon Martin’s system before George Zimmerman shot and killed him?
The facts of the case remain the same: Zimmerman followed Trayvon when police told Zimmerman to stand down; he profiled Trayvon for no legitimate reason, he told the police dispatcher that “these assholes always get away,” and then he shot Trayvon – who was unarmed– on a rainy street in Sanford, Florida last year.
This much we know.
And when has marijuana ever been known to cause rage and aggression? Some experts argue that marijuana could be used successfully to treat anger management because it makes many people more mellow, relaxed and low-key.
And here’s a key question: Who was Zimmerman talking about when he told police that “f-kin’ punks” and “these assholes always get away?” WHO always get away? Black men wearing hoodies? Teenagers carrying Skittles? Unarmed black men walking through gated communities? And what did he mean?
We may never get the answers to these questions even though his statements to police go to the heart of perceived malicious intent before he stalked and shot Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and says he shot Martin in self-defense during a scuffle in the townhome complex where he lived. The fight took place on a dark, rainy night in February 2012, and there were no eyewitnesses who saw the entire fight. Several witnesses saw and heard parts of the struggle that left Martin dead with a bullet in his heart.
The judge will likely send the case to the jury in a few days.
And then we’ll wait.
