George Zimmerman Probable Cause Affidavit

Here’s the document that lead to the 2nd Degree murder charge.

Frankly it just doesn’t add up. Here’s a copy of the 911 call:

At 2:08 Zimmerman is still in his truck and states with surprise that Martin takes off running. According to the Affidavit the person Martin was allegedly talking on the phone with corroborates this and says Martin got scared and attempted to run home.

Soon after you hear Zimmerman’s car door open and you can hear wind. This is where the “We don’t need you to do that” line comes up. Zimmerman says “OK” and you hear almost all wind noise stop. Zimmerman continues to talk to dispatch on how he’ll meet with police when they get on scene. At no point does he sound agitated or out-of-breath. Call terminates at 4:05.

So that’s almost 2 minutes that Martin had a head start on Zimmerman who can’t be doing anything but a slow walk. If Martin was running away, and was so close to home, how did Zimmerman catch him in the short time between when the call ended and the first 911 call reporting a fight began?

I can’t make it add up any other way than Martin doubling back.

But we’ll see all of that soon enough.

**UPDATE** More from the eyewitness who is still making anonymous interviews, I suspect he’ll testify if asked. Also have a look at this analysis of the affidavit.

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0 Responses to George Zimmerman Probable Cause Affidavit

  1. Ratus says:

    Here is Alan Dershowitz on the Affidavit

    http://youtu.be/i4fr5QwG63M

  2. Jake says:

    That’s… ugly. You can tell from the way they laid that out, the terminology used, and the focus on some of his comments, that they’re going to push the race buttons in court.

    And I know they don’t have to give any exonerating facts in the affidavit, but they do conveniently leave out the part of the 911 tape were he says he doesn’t know where Martin is.

    I strongly suspect there’s more politics and appeasement behind charging him than there is facts and evidence. This is going to be one ugly trial.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      Yeah, anybody listening to the 911 call can tell that Zimmerman isn’t very excited. Those two comments cited are his only sign of agitation. And can you blame him? He’s calling to stop what he thinks is a robbery and knows (likely from past experience) that the cops will get there too late.

      Still to be fair they will need to prove some malice to get the murder charge, and that’s about all the evidence they have.

      Remember, Martin doesn’t even have a speeding ticket to his name! The best they have is a restraining order from a jilted lover. I think in this day and age we probably ALL know somebody who got hit with a restraining order during a breakup or divorce where we KNOW no domestic violence ever happened.

      Hell a family member of mine has scars on his face from his (now ex) wife slapping him with long fingernails. He got into such a shitty marriage and let it go off the rails because he’s a pacifist. He’s also a big dude, if he wanted to hit her, she’d have evidence. Still she cited him for domestic violence. He had to move out of his own home (which was the plan all along) and give his guns to family members to hold. No charges of course.

      • Pyrotek85 says:

        “Remember, Martin doesn’t even have a speeding ticket to his name!”

        You mean Zimmerman =P

        Also, remember all those 911 calls he made over the years? How many of them involves him pulling a gun on somebody? It doesn’t look like he has a history of having an itchy trigger finger or looking for a fight.

        They’d like to make it seem like he lacked self control, but in reality people who can’t restrain themselves will have a history of it, it’s not going to come out suddenly in your late 20’s.

        • Rob Crawford says:

          I’ve always chuckled at the claims Zimmerman’s some sort of over-aggressive nutcase. They claim that all his contact with the police is a warning sign of something, but then don’t notice that he’s never been cited for brandishing or even failing to conceal his weapon.

          He had a run-in with what appears to have been an under-cover liquor control agent that was just a misdemeanor, and a MUTUAL restraining order when he was breaking up with a fiance. Sounds like he’s had a little thing called a life.

          • Pyrotek85 says:

            If I remember right, most of his calls were to the non-emergency number as well. As far as I’ve heard he wasn’t known to be a nuisance to police, and the number of calls he’s made aren’t unusual if he’s keeping watch on things over the years.

            I’ll admit, when the news first broke it sounded to me like he was a mall-ninja or cop wannabe (no thanks to the media spin), but right now that seems far from it.

          • Weerd Beard says:

            I get the impression from the cops I know that they don’t take kindly to Mall Ninjas. There’s a lot of work, training to become a cop, and often slots on the force are very limited.

            Not only are wannabes odd, they’re a bit of an insult.

            If Zimmerman had been overzealous at his work as a Watch Volunteer, he probably would have been charged that night.

          • Pyrotek85 says:

            Exactly. If he was some kind of loose cannon that was pestering the cops and the neighbors, they would have jumped at the chance to nail him with something, I don’t think they’d let the chance pass just because it was a black kid who got shot.

            My hunch is that his story was pretty believable and supported by evidence at the initial scene, or they wouldn’t have released him after the initial arrest without charges. They must not have thought he was a danger or would flee while they continued the investigation.

          • >I get the impression from the cops I know that they don’t take kindly to Mall Ninjas.

            Maybe not, but the police department budget sure does.

            Think about it. The ideal police call is a call from an ordinary citizen with a suspicions person or such there +1 to the emergency services call quantity for the year and +1 added to the total police response quantity for the year.

            Come budget time, the police can argue that there is an X percent increase in phone calls, and a X percent increase in the number if times the police were asked to respond to a call but no increase (or a decrease if we cook the books a little bit) in the actual number of crimes committed.

  3. Jake says:

    And, after watching that video (thanks, Ratus!) and re-reading the affidavit, I have to agree with Dershowitz – it doesn’t state anything to actually establish probable cause for Murder 2. No mention of who started the fight (a critical component for Murder 2), only that “Zimmerman confronted Martin and a struggle ensued.”

    • Rob Crawford says:

      No mention of Zimmerman being injured. No mention of anything that might exonerate him, and, as Andy McCarthy points out at NRO, it uses inflammatory terms to describe legal acts and state of mind and doesn’t support the claims.

      OK, I get that it’s supposed to be “why we think this person should stand trial”, but that should be about the facts and the law.

  4. Ratus says:

    You’re welcome Jake. I found it here
    http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/

    But couldn’t get the msnbc BS to work and just searched youtube.

    that site also has map
    http://justoneminute.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b2aa69e201676468b143970b-pi
    @ http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2012/03/last-map-of-the-retreat-at-twin-lakes.html

    This one may be easer to understand
    http://www.wagist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/map_1000.jpg
    @ http://www.wagist.com/2012/dan-linehan/evidence-that-trayvon-martin-doubled-back

    I’ve been keeping an eye on this as I currently have to spend time in lovely Miami Gardens FL(for weer’d think bad section of Boston or whatnot)

  5. Cargosquid says:

    Are they TRYING to get the case tossed?

    I almost believe that. “It’s not our fault, Rev. Sharpton. Please don’t burn our city. It’s the judge’s fault. WE did what you wanted and charged him with murder….”

  6. Divemedic says:

    People are overlooking one thing: The only thing that matters to a claim of self defense is the state of mind of she shooter at the moment the trigger was pulled.
    Even if we grant that everything in the affidavit was true: Zimmerman profiled an unarmed black teen, confronted him, and even if he threw the first punch, Zimmerman can still have a legitimate claim to self defense. How?

    If his attorney can establish that there is reasonable doubt that Zimmerman expressed a desire to end combat and disengage, Martin becomes the aggressor. This is only proper. After all, even if Martin were the one defending himself during the initial altercation (the fist fight), once Zimmerman expressed a desire to give up, there was no longer a need for Martin to continue beating him in self defense. Otherwise, every shoving match could legally evolve from shoving to punches, to knives, to firearms.

    So when Zimmerman was pinned to the ground and was not fighting back, and was in fact crying for help, any possible legal claim that Martin had for self defense is now gone, and if he continues the fight, he is now the aggressor.

    Zimmerman’s attorney doesn’t have to prove that this happened, only that there is a reasonable doubt that this could have happened, and Zimmerman walks. However, I think that no matter what happens, Zimmerman goes to jail. Even if Florida can’t get him for the killing, the DOJ will get him for civil rights violations. No matter what, he is going down.

  7. Sacramentomedic says:

    The US DoJ/FBI can’t go after Zimmerman at this point because he *didn’t* use any racial slurs during the phone call to 911… and unless there’s additional witnesses that claim that he did during the fight, no hate crime ensued. Unless the FBI can come up with some evidence that is clearly contributory, their role in the investigation is done.

    Also, a can of iced tea IS a deadly weapon… if it’s unopened. It makes a great smashing weapon.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      First up, “Hate Crime” are nebulous laws in the first place, and prosecution of them always border on “thought crime”. Its all a question of the missing minute between Zimmerman talking calmly to police dispatchers to Zimmerman hollering for his life with Martin on top of him punching him.

      Those facts are all supported by multiple sources of evidence, not to mention Zimmerman’s story to the police when he was on the scene, and in the 4 hours of interrogation after his first arrest.

      What isn’t in the evidence was the Martin ever set foot in a Convenience store, let alone bought ANY candy or refreshment of any sort that evening. I have my suspicions of what Martin REALLY was doing that might explain his VERY erratic behavior, as well as why in all the time Martin gave him, he didn’t manage to run home and was shot only a few hundred feet away from where Zimmerman first spotted him.

  8. JimJones says:

    Say, now that old Zimmerman and his wife have been PROVEN to have lied in court does anyone still want to tell us how innocent he is?
    I’ll wait…

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