Forensics expert Dr. Vincent Di Maio
The defense team in the trial of George Zimmerman plans to rest its case Wednesday. The prosecution will then be able to call rebuttal witnesses. After that it's on to closing statements, which means the jury could begin deliberating by week's end. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for having shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012.
Jurors in the Seminole County courtroom in Sanford, Florida, heard testimony from several additional defense witnesses Wednesday. Among them:
• Dr. Vincent Di Maio, a forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner in San Antonio, Texas. He testified that, based on gunpowder burn marks some call stippling and he calls tattooing, the muzzle of Zimmerman's 9mm pistol was touching Trayvon's clothing when the gun was fired, but that the clothing was two to four inches away from the boy's skin. That matches Zimmerman's account that Trayvon was on top of him when he shot him through heart, Di Maio said. "If you lean over somebody, you will notice that the clothing tends to fall away from the chest." During cross examination, he said he couldn't ascertain exactly how the bodies of Trayvon and Zimmerman were positioned when the fatal shot was fired.
Di Maio also testified that Trayvon could have been able to move and talk for up to 15 seconds after being shot because of the oxygen remaining in his brain and could have lived as long as three minutes. That contradicts the testimony of Shiping Bao, a forensic pathologist, who told jurors Friday that Trayvon “was alive for one to 10 minutes after he was shot. His heart was bleeding until there was no blood left.”
Di Maio also testified that having one's head banged into concrete the way Zimmerman said Trayvon did to him could cause brain damage. But he admitted under cross examination that the head injuries sustained by Zimmerman in the confrontation with the teenager were not life-threatening and did not even require stitches.
• Norton Bonaparte, Sanford city manager, testified about the circumstances surrounding the playing of an audiotape of a 911 call for Trayvon Martin's family. On that tape can be heard screams for help that have been variously attributed to Trayvon and Zimmerman. Bonaparte said the tape was played as a courtesy to the family, without law enforcement present, before it was released to the media and public.
After the jury was sequestered for the evening, proceedings began over whether to allow the jury to see a 3-D software animation depicting the defense's version of the confrontation between Trayvon and Zimmerman.
The prosecution seeks to show that the animation, created by Daniel Schumaker, which has been altered several times to mesh with the views of Di Maio and other defense witnesses, is inexact and, therefore, shouldn't be seen by the jury because it would give a false impression. Prosecutor Richard Mantei focused his questioning on getting Schumaker to concede that he had only estimated placement and movement of images representing Trayvon and Zimmerman based sometimes on information not entered as evidence in court but on consultations with defense attorneys and interviews with defense witnesses outside the courtroom.
At 6 PM ET, those proceedings were still going on. Livestream here.