Zimmerman case: Man asks judge to discard re-creation

A judge Tuesday said there is little chance she’ll allow jurors to see a 3-D computer-generated re-creation of what happened the day Matthew Apperson shot at George Zimmerman as the two men drove side-by-side down Lake Mary Boulevard.

Apperson, 37, is charged with attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle. He says he fired a handgun at Zimmerman on May 11, 2015, after the former neighborhood watch volunteer pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him.

Zimmerman gives a very different version of events. He says he did not touch his gun, that Apperson honked, yelled and fired without provocation.

The bullet passed near Zimmerman’s head.

Defense attorney Michael LaFay argued that four days after the shooting, a Lake Mary police officer drove Apperson’s vehicle, a 2012 Infinity sedan, and someone else drove Zimmerman’s pickup, as they tried to re-create what happened using a software program that renders it into a 3-D video.

That was improper, LaFay argued, because police failed to get a court order explicitly authorizing their use of Apperson’s vehicle. LaFay asked Circuit Judge Debra Nelson to throw out the 3-D re-creation.

Lake Mary police had a warrant to search Apperson’s 2012 Infinity, but not one that allowed them to use or seize its keys, LaFay argued. As a consequence, any evidence they gathered that required the use of the keys should be thrown out.

Nelson agreed, but said she would not make a final ruling for two days, giving attorneys more time to research the law.

Nelson scheduled Apperson’s trial for Sept. 6. Apperson is being held without bail at the Seminole County jail.

Zimmerman was acquitted of murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in 2012.