Witness: Zimmerman 'Never ... Tried To Help' Trayvon Martin

MSNBC ^ | March 25, 2012

[Steelfish]

Witness: Zimmerman 'Never ... Tried To Help' Trayvon Martin

By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

A woman who says she and her roommate witnessed the final moments of Trayvon Martin's life told Dateline NBC that George Zimmerman had "his hands pressed on his back" and "never turned him over or tried to help him."

Zimmerman's lawyer, when shown part of the interview being aired Sunday night on Dateline, emphasized that his client would be claiming self-defense.

"I think there were efforts made to render aid to Trayvon," Craig Sonner told NBC's TODAY show.

Mary Cutcher told Dateline that she and her roommate both saw Zimmerman "straddling the body, basically a foot on both sides of Trayvon's body, and his hands pressed on his back."

Cutcher added that Zimmerman told her and her roommate to call the police. "Zimmerman never turned him over or tried to help him or CPR or anything," Cutcher said.

Sonner also reiterated what he had said in recent days, that Zimmerman suffered a broken nose and a gash to the back of his head.

A friend of Zimmerman's who appeared on TODAY with Sonner added that Zimmerman, 28, was distraught over the teen's death.

"Right after the shooting he couldn't stop crying," said Joe Oliver, who is African American and a former TV reporetr and anchor in Orlando.

Zimmerman has not been charged in the Feb. 26 shooting that has ignited racial tensions and raised questions about the Sanford police's handling of the case. Martin was black, and Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Hispanic.

In a separate interview Sunday, Oliver said that "I'm a black male and all that I know is that George has never given me any reason whatsoever to believe he has anything against people of color.''

[Cboldt]

-- NO; Not unless the cops are themselves in danger of life or in danger of serious physical injury. --

That's not what your [blockquote] citation says, it's not what the case itself says, and your citation also undercuts your assertion that the police may not use deadly force against an unarmed felon.

Your credibility is being damaged by your carelessness.

[Darren McCarty]

From what we know, it does NOT matter how the “altercation” began, the deceased had NO right to simply start pummeling the survivor, and at that point, he was well within his rights to defend himself with any means at his disposal, IMO. To assert otherwise is insane, IMO.

Actually, it does matter how it began. Individuals have the right to defend themselves from assaults and batteries. There does not have to be contact made for there to be an assault or battery (Criminal definitions, not torts). People also aren't 'defenseless' on the ground, although a lot of people do not have good ground defense techniques.

Now, if some guy is following me around, I'm going to try and first avoid it. Martin did that, based on both Zimmerman's call and Martin's girlfriend's call. That's a smart policy. Zimmerman got out of his car and looked for Martin, for whatever reason. (avoiding the speculation). I find that piss poor judgment at best. What we don't know is how Zimmerman or Martin acted between this time and the shooting.

IF (speculation) Zimmerman was closing into close contact range (you can speak from a distance), I'm going to, based on known action, assume that he has bad intentions and not wait for him to throw the first punch, and I'm going to stop the threat by knocking him out (so he can no longer fight) and going home.

[Miss Behave]

"What law gives him the right to violate the kids civil rights."

Soooo...if I think you or ANYONE is following me for a minute or two...from a distance...and no words are spoken/exchanged PERIOD...

...then you have broken the LAW and VIOLATED my CIVIL RIGHTS. Should we arrest you now? Maybe put a bounty on your head?

[org.whodat]

You are correct, zimmermans conduct meets all the florida requirements for man 1, http://askville.amazon.com/definition-manslaughter/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=13112755

[Post Toasties]

So you sound ok with ultra vigilantes killing Zimmerman but you are all upset with Zimmerman playing little vigilante following Martin at a distance then shooting Martin in self defense while getting his face smashed. Excuse me, but that's a BIIIG, HUUUGE, GIAAAANT, COLOSSSAL, MEGA - GIGA - HUMONGOUS, EXTRA LARGE, SUPER ULTRA PLUS Double Standard on your part.

I'll bet that you are just too emotionally invested to honestly admit that none of these laws deprive Zimmerman of the right to self defense, but you know that you cannot come right out and say so because that makes you look too bad, so you try to change the subject and say that I don't understand these laws.

I do understand that none of these laws deprive Zimmerman of the right of self defense, and until you come right out and say that Zimmerman in some way has given up his right to self defense under these laws then you don't have a chance of even starting to make your point, whatever exactly that is.

[Miss Behave]

What “stuff” am I “making up”? Be specific.

[Darren McCarty]

Also, I/we should take these FB comments w/ a grain of salt until we all hear/read that 911 call of hers. If it’s as they say, she’s got some *perjury* charges to answer for

Did she speak at anytime under oath? If not, there's no perjury. There's good cross-examination material, but not perjury.

[Post Toasties]

Do you even have any conception of what ‘reasonable doubt’ or ‘lack of evidence’ means?

[pops88]

“Who’s job, zimmerman was unemployed according to the news paper and had been for a long time.”

That is a flat out lie.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/os-trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-job-20120323,0,7163107.story

Two sources have confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel that Zimmerman is, or until recently was, an employee at the Maitland office of Digital Risk, LLC, a mortgage risk-management firm.

The sources — one is a former employee, the other currently works for the firm, which also has offices in Jacksonville, New York, Dallas and Denver — spoke to the Sentinel on condition of anonymity, because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

[Steelfish]

Go read the opinion carefully, which I did. You cannot use deadly force against a FLEEING felon. How on earth can you show danger to your life from someone who is unarmed and running away from you.

[Darren McCarty]

(1) He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself[.] That's all it says. It doesn't say anything at all about starting fights and how it affects the right to claim the chapter.

'Reasonable' in the eyes of the jury. Not "reasonable" in the mind of the posters here, George Zimmerman, Bacrock Obama, or Jesse Jackson.

[Post Toasties]

org.whodat has got Zimmerman swinging from a rope in his mind. Don't bother him with all that 'lack of evidence' & 'beyond a reasonable doubt' stuff. He's not buying any of that.

whodat.org is a true believer, first and foremost. And what he believes is that Zimmerman deserves to be seriously punished. That's the end of the story with him. All he cares about beyond that is looking good.

[Miss Behave]

Plus he was going to school.

[org.whodat]

Wrong on all counts, there is five minutes between the time zimmerman approached, martin, per his girl friends statement and when his phone went dead, and martin was killed and the only story that you believe is a wannabe cop. And the statement I point out is what two governors said and the man that said zimmerman was not protected under any law he wrote. And where in the hell did you get the ideal I was ever a marine. You had to pull that one out of you rear. Stop making up crap.

[TASMANIANRED]

Ted Bundy was a very nice looking guy and I bet he was a precious kid.

Didn’t make him less of a psychotic killer though.

[Miss Behave]

I meant post #406 of course, Post Toasties. I hope you understood that. NOT your post.

[dmzTahoe]

There’s a lot of things that Zimmerman could of done wrong that might have justified Martin retaliating physically - problem is that there is no available evidence that Zimmerman did any of them.

He went looking for trouble...

[Cboldt]

-- You cannot use deadly force against a FLEEING felon. --

Actually, I can (against an unarmed felon), in certain circumstances; but your contention was that the police could not. The case you cited does not say that. It gives the conditions when the police MAY use deadly force against an unarmed fleeing felon. The conditions are NOT limited to situations where the police feel they are in imminent risk.

Anyway, none of that is relevant to the situation being discussed in the case. I was just remarking about your credibility, in light of your false assertions (and now, moving goalposts, etc.)

[org.whodat]

What was he the cleaning boy, he had liens against him from Capitol one in 2008, when he was fired and /or walked off his job at karmax. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2017819414.html