Police questioning of Zimmerman after shooting grew more pointed
Jurors hear tapes, see video of interviews
SANFORD, Fla. — Jurors in the George Zimmerman trial on Monday listened to a series of police interviews with detectives growing more pointed in their questioning of the neighborhood watch volunteer’s account of how he came to fatally shoot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Prosecutors played audio and video tapes of the interviews that Zimmerman had with Sanford Police investigators Doris Singleton and Chris Serino in the hours and days after he fatally shot the Miami teen.
In an early interview, just hours after the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting, Singleton recounted that Zimmerman noticed a cross she was wearing and said: “In Catholic religion, it’s always wrong to kill someone.”
Singleton said she responded, “If what you’re telling me is true, I don’t think that what God meant was that you couldn’t save your own life.”
But in an interview several days later, Singleton and Serino suggest Zimmerman was running after Martin before the confrontation. They also ask the neighborhood watch volunteer why he didn’t explain to Martin why he was following him. The officers insinuate that Martin may have been “creeped out” by being followed.
“Do you think he was scared?” Singleton asked Zimmerman in one video interview.
Under cross-examination, though, Serino said Zimmerman seemed straightforward in his answers and didn’t show any anger when talking about Martin. Serino said the increasingly pointed questioning was a tactic known as a “challenge interview” where detectives try to break someone’s story to make sure they’re telling the truth.
Zimmerman has said he fatally shot the teen in self-defense because the Miami-area black teenager was banging his head into the concrete sidewalk behind the townhomes in a gated community.
Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. The state argued during its opening statement that Zimmerman profiled and followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight. He has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin’s family and their supporters have claimed.
Earlier Monday, prosecutors called FBI audio expert Hirotaka Nakasone to focus on the issue of who was screaming for help on 911 calls during the confrontation. Jurors were played the 911 calls several times last week.
The recordings are crucial pieces of evidence because they could determine who the aggressor. Martin’s family contends it was the teen screaming, while Zimmerman’s father has said it was his son.