George Zimmerman, the Sanford, Fla., man at the center of the Trayvon Martin shooting death, has gone off the grid. Disappeared. And his attorneys are now no longer his attorneys.
“George can’t go down to the 7-Eleven to buy a Coke,” says former attorney Hal Uhrig. “There’s a bounty on his head. Whether it’s believed to be a bounty or not, it’s out there. He probably watches more of this than he should. He’s largely alone — whether that means he’s absolutely alone or not, he’s at least emotionally alone. And you might even say “emotionally crippled” by virtue of the pressure of this case.”
Ethically, Uhrig and Craig Sonner say they cannot legally represent a client whom they have no contact with. They say Zimmerman stopped calling them or answering their calls on Sunday. But in perhaps the most bizarre of all of these extraordinary developments in this high-profile case that has consumed the nation for a month, Zimmerman apparently made one key phone call Tuesday, to Jacksonville, to speak directly with Special Prosecutor Angela Corey, who right now is deciding whether to criminally charge Zimmerman in the shooting death of the unarmed, 17-year-old Martin.
“We heard today that George had contacted the prosecutor’s office directly,” says Uhrig. “One of the things every defense attorney tells his clients is ‘don’t talk to the prosecutors, don’t talk to the cops, frankly don’t talk to anybody until we get control of the situation and do it through counsel.’”
To Corey’s ethical credit, they say, the special prosecutor did not take advantage of Zimmerman’s outreach, refusing to question him without a defense attorney present.
The special prosecutor announced Tuesday night that sometime Wednesday, Thursday or Friday the charge-or-no-charge decision will be made. The public and media will then get a three-hour notice. The special prosecutor’s news conference, explaining her legal reasoning to whatever her decision is, will take place either in her office in Jacksonville, or in Sanford, the Orlando suburb that has been the scene of marches for justice, cries for an arrest and epicenter of an instance of alleged racial profiling.
The parents of Trayvon Martin released a short statement following the stunning announcement that the alleged killer of their son has gone completely underground.
“The family is deeply concerned that George Zimmerman is currently unaccounted for. They are worried that he could pose a flight risk if he does indeed face charges in the murder of Trayvon Martin. “
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
7 Responses
Not sure why YWN continues to carry this non-story.
I still think that this guy, for the most part, is innocent. He wasn’t a roving criminal, but a man worried about the safety of his community. He may have made a big mistake and could be charged with unintentional manslaughter, but first degree murder was probably never a question. AND this is not taking into account the very real possibility that he was attacked or something in the like.
To the YWN editor: Why did you include the picture of Martin as a cute little kid, and the mug shot of Zimmerman as a scowling heavy guy from years ago? We all know now that these pictures are very misleading. Martin grew up into a tall hoodlum, while Zimmerman lost weight and looks quite friendly in proper clothes and a smile on his face. The pictures are readily available, so why did you use these ones, which are designed to make us sympathise with Martin and hate Zimmerman?
So the Martin family is concerned that Zimmerman might escape. Of course right now he has every right to go wherever he likes, and if I were in his position I’d go back to Peru. But I’m more concerned that he’s going to do something to himself, chas vesholom.
Considering all the publicity why should this surprise anyone?
Im assuming his call to Special Prosecutter Angela Corey, is likely to appeal to her to not cave in to, or follow orders to do a trial simply because the black community is having a hissy fit in the media, trying to turn this into something it is not.
I listened to the 911 call of that Cutchner woman, and you can hear George for a full minute and some odd seconds, screaming for his life (its just as long exactly as he told the police his face was being pummeled). His “story” matches with that phone call.
#6, Ah, but the media produced some “voice expert” who “proved” that the voice screaming is not Zimmerman, and therefore must be Martin. This expert’s qualifications turn out to be manufactured by himself; he is the ex-president of a “professional association” that he invented, and that has no real existence; his own web site says it’s impossible to do the diagnosis he claims to have done, and he testified in court that it was impossible. Now he says there’s new software that lets you do it; and guess who is selling that software, for $5000? You guessed it; he is.