Matthew Apperson found guilty of disorderly conduct

The Winter Springs man accused of shooting at George Zimmerman in a road-rage incident, was found guilty Wednesday of disorderly conduct for urinating on his neighbor’s porch.

Matthew Apperson, 36, testified earlier in the day that he was diagnosed with a “shy bladder” when he was 8, a condition that he claimed should remove him as a suspect in the case.

Despite Apperson’s testimony about his problems with urinating in public, the jury deliberated for about two hours before rendering the guilty verdict. Apperson looked back at his mother and wife and shook his head after the verdict was read.

Apperson was sentenced to 60 days in jail and was credited with time already served, but Apperson was remanded back to jail. He has been locked up since July 31 — on a judge’s order — because he was charged with disorderly conduct while free on bond for the Zimmerman case. He is awaiting trial for the May 11 confrontation with Zimmerman as the pair drove down Lake Mary Boulevard. In that case, Apperson is charged with attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle for allegedly firing one round from a .357-caliber handgun into Zimmerman’s car from his own.

Apperson’s mother, Janet White, consoled his wife, who cried as Apperson walked back to the holding-cell area. As he was taken out of the courtroom, he mouthed to his family, “I love you.”

“He’s not been convicted of anything at any time ever in his life, until tonight,” said his attorney Michael Lafay, who plans to appeal. “They had one witness. They had no physical evidence.”

A pool man who said he witnessed Apperson urinating on his neighbor’s porch testified the suspect expressed defiance against police and the public before the urination on Sharee Rivera’s porch on June 12.

Rivera, Apperson’s next-door neighbor of 13 years, found out about the urination incident after the pool man told her.