Prosecutors in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, Jr. are attempting to admit to evidence recordings of the dozens of 911 calls that Zimmerman made in the years leading up to the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. According to the Associated Press, Zimmerman made more than 50 calls to police complaining of open garage doors, slow-moving vehicles and other minutiae.
The prosecution team asked Judge Debra Nelson on Tuesday to allow them to introduce recordings of the calls as a means of gaining insight into Zimmerman's state of mind on the night of the killing. State Attorney John Guy told the jury in his opening statement Monday that Zimmerman saw Martin as one of "fucking punks" who "always get away" that he was continually calling police about.
Defense attorneys objected to the inclusion of the calls during the questioning of a witness on Monday, claiming that they are inadmissible under the rules of evidence. Nelson said she would decide Tuesday about whether they can be included in the trial.
The trial opened Monday with a jury made up entirely of women, all of whom are white or Hispanic. The jury is being kept sequestered in a hotel for the duration of the trial.
Prosecuting attorney Guy punctuated his opening remarks with obscenities culled from the numerous calls, a move that a defense attorney not connected to the trial told the AP was, in his opinion, "brilliant" as a means of establishing Zimmerman's state of mind on the night of the killing.
Defense attorney Don West's opening statement has been less enthusiastically received, including his choice to lead off with a "knock knock" joke.
West suggested later in the day that Martin, who was 17 at the time of his death, was not unarmed after all, in that he "armed himself the concrete sidewalk" when Zimmerman attacked him and Martin responded by pinning the older man to the ground and bashing his head against the sidewalk.
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