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Man held in Zimmerman shooting asks court to toss 3-D re-enactment

- By Rene Stutzman Staff writer

A judge Tuesday said there is little chance she’ll allow jurors to see a 3-D computer-generated recreation of what happened the dayMatthew Apperson shot at George Zimmerman as the two men drove sidebydown 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 onMay 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 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 near 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

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 out the 3-D re-creation. 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 ofTrayvonM­artin in 2012.

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