Jul 14 2012
Zimmerman’s Guilded Lies Sealed His Fate
Update II: George Zimmerman’s friend, who relays details to police regarding events of that night portrayed to him by Zimmerman which I discuss below, is not only one time Seminole County Deputy, but also a Federal Air Marshall. This should be interesting…
Major Update: And this is why one needs to read things for themselves. Apparently reports claiming TM”s gunshot wound was not a contact wound (i.e., the gun was not pressed to the chest or shirt) were wrong. On page 205 of the latest document dump the forensic results indicate a contact shot. So my comments below regarding the muzzle of the gun being away from the body are inaccurate (since I based on them on inaccurate reports). Anyway, this does not help GZ. If (and now I have to question the conclusions of other reporting on the autopsy) the bullet’s trajectory is straight front to back and not at an upward angle, then GZ’s statements on when/how the gun was fired are still in doubt. Of course, if the bullet path does reflect a gun pointed upward from the waist into the chest, I will be back here eating a mighty pile of crow….
end update
It is sad to say this, but the concept of ‘critical thinking’ is now a rare talent in America. Too many accept information unconditionally, and then deny all clear evidence to the contrary once they are emotionally committed.
Critical thinking requires an individual to assess information in a manner that challenges all associated assumptions and conclusions. Believe nothing – challenge it all. It means you dig down on your own to determine the truthfulness of claims, instead of taking propaganda and PR at face value.
For example, when the New York Times runs a story claiming George Bush “bypassed FISA” to snoop on Americans, a critical thinking person looks at the details in the story and challenges the hidden assumptions and conclusions being spoon fed to the mindless masses to digest. In this manner, the critical thinker discovers that the entire New York Times story is a crock. A fiction crafted to hide reality: a liberal judge bent out of shape over actions taken post 9-11 to make sure no more Americans died horrible deaths here in the US because of out-dated, ill-conceived POLICIES that provided terrorists more protections within our borders than without. And thus the critical thinkers expose lies and deceptions being hoisted on the public.
And so it is with the George Zimmerman shooting of Trayvon Martin. So many people jumped to conclusions before the details were known, and now actively avoid critical assessment of the information just now coming out. Especially if it upends their initial conclusions.
My engineering/science background – acquired over 3 decades now – does not allow me to avoid the hard truths, or to ignore false claims. It is just not something I can (or will) change. So when you ask why I keep looking at this case, it is because I am a critical thinker who is challenging all the unfounded assumptions and conclusions.
So while the non-critical thinkers claim there is nothing new in each release of evidence in the Trayvon Martin case (as if closing one eyes really does make the world go away), the critical thinker spends time reviewing and assessing the information. If nothing more to cross check his conclusions to date to make sure they still hold, but also to see if there is additional corroborating information that strengthens those earlier conclusions.
Sadly for George Zimmerman he has acted true to form as it pertains to my original assessment of him. I said early on, IF GZ was guilty, his guilt would be discovered because his on-the-spot-alibi would crumble under the weight of evidence and witness statements. I only said this because it was obvious – the liar would be caught in his web of deceit while the honest person would be vindicated as fact unfolded. I did not know then HOW GZ would be caught, just that the truth would win out.
As I read the more extensive interviews now available, I discovered two that really box GZ in because they attempt to provide support to those aspects of GZ’s testimony which are PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. Let me emphasize this again: some of GZ’s statements could simley be inaccurate (and he would still have self defense claim), but when his story about how he was in a life-and-death situation and had to save himself is proven IMPOSSIBLE, then he is going to be found guilty of Murder 2. He admits to the killing, so if the killing could not happen as he claims, he is lying and he is then going to go to jail for a long, long time.
So let’s recap what aspects of the story are not just inaccurate, but impossible. GZ claims he was pinned under Trayvon Martin – who was beating his head against concrete (this is simply inaccurate, there are no injuries to sustain this claim). Trayvon then notices GUZ’s concealed weapon (again inaccurate, since the gun was on GZ’s hip, trapped between the ground and his back).
So far bad, but not horrible. But GZ, in an effort to bolster his credibility makes the classic mistake of all bad liars. He attempts to add details to make it seem more realistic. But it this series of these details that make GZ’s claim go from unlikely to impossible.
So let’s begin. As I noted in a previous post discussing the Video Reenactment performed the day after the killing, GZ demonstrates where he kept his holster.
Note this is around the back in the waistband of his pants. Also note the angle of his elbow when reaching to his gun. His elbow HAS to bend to reach his waist. You cannot reach your waist and pull upward (to pull a gun) without bending the elbow. It is physically impossible.
Not 10 seconds later in the reenactment, GZ adds one of his embellishments that make his story now impossible. He claims he has Trayvon Martin’s arm pinned to his side because Martin is going for his gun. Now look at his elbow and hand!
There is no way to pin an arm AND reach behind AND pull a gun from your waist band – because once the elbow bends to get to the gun you loose the pin on the arm. This is Impossible Fiction 1.
I also noted in that prior post you cannot pull a gun from a holster on your back hip if you are on your back, pinned to the ground by someone ‘mounted’ on your stomach. This observation brought out a lot of fanciful thinking from GZ defenders. They created a series of mythological positions with TM standing over GZ, not sitting on GZ’s stomach pushing his back onto the ground.
It turns out GZ repeated this story many times after the shooting to friends and allies, and in the telling added more damning details. And these details prove false the fantasies. Here is a snippet from Interview Record 52 (from this record of evidence, starting page 77 – click to enlarge):
This version of events was told to police by a very good friend of Zimmerman’s. The same friend GZ and his wife stayed with after the shooting. The same friend who went with his wife to pick up GZ the night of the incident and the same friend who is with GZ during the video reenactment. A man who was a Seminole County Deputy for 6 years. This is what he told police GZ told him. In this telling GZ is quite clear: TM was mounted on him with his butt on GZ’s stomach, knees on the ground next to his ribs. I have no doubt the man conveyed completely and accurately what GZ told him.
This means it would be impossible for GZ to ‘pin’ Trayvon’s arm to his side – TM’s knees are in the way. This results in Impossible Fiction 2. It also means GZ cannot reach his gun to pull it out of the holster. TM’s knees are in the way and GZ back is on the ground, the holster under a jacket. blocking access (ee the picture below as to why this is not possible):
This gives us Impossible Fiction 3.
But GZ is not done enhancing his lies. He changes the story slightly, from pinning TM’s arm in the video reenactment to swatting it away in the telling to the friend (or the friend’s telling to the police):
But that is not all that changes, there is one more tidbit that brings us to the big impossible fiction- the angle of the bullet:
Now this is one helluva detail for GZ to recollect – not to mention emphasize enough that it comes through one second-hand telling by GZ’s dear friend and also comes through in the synopsis of the police interview report. This detail had to been heavily emphasized in order for it to make through these two different renditions. Thankfully GZ and his friend went to all this trouble, because it also creates a really big impossible fiction.
When laying on your back, with elbow on the ground, you are going to restrict the range of motion of the arm and thus the aim of a gun in the hand. Let’s look at those elbows again, and see what range of aim is possible from your back with your elbow on the ground.
Those who are critical thinkers (and who know the bullet path in TM’s body) can see where this is going. Here is a representation of the bulletpath according to the autopsy report (note: this is NOT an autopsy image or from the police, but someone’s reasonably accurate rendering of the details in the report). The bullet path indicates the gun was shot straight at TM’s chest (as if held straight out from a standing position).
Is this possible given this new detail about the elbow? Let’s overlay someone mounted on the prone body, sitting on the stomach, and check those firing angles again.
Nope, can’t happen. This is why GZ’s account is total fiction – not just inaccurate. From the ground a shot into the chest straight on is really not possible. Not mounted in the manner GZ states many times in various interviews. And remember, GZ claims he wiggles down farther between TM’s legs to get off the pavement, only THEN he is able to pull the gun and shoot. So even this representation is not showing how badly GZ’s alibi stands up to the physics of the elbow and bullet trajectory. Physics can be unforgiving.
So this is Impossible Fiction 4- shooting TM from this position with elbow on ground. In this orientation I doubt you can get the proper angle at all given the distance the gun was fired from and the angle (gun was medium range, not up against the chest). There are probably some contorted positions, but they won’t match the ballistics residue on GZ or TIM, or the blood splatter patterns, or the path and distance of the muzzle, etc. I am not seeing how the shot happened as GZ claims. Such are the challenges of off-the-cuff alibis. It is hard to get all the physics and biology right.
Just a side note here. GZ definitely tried his alibi out on a few people right after the incident. And in doing so got himself into some serious perjury traps. As we have heard before, GZ swears he did not leave his truck to follow TM. He only left it to find street signs or apartment numbers. But when he went to work the next day, he told his coworker a different story – one more consistent with the dispatcher call (fixed the link for enlarge):
This is petty damning. My guess is GZ wanted to convey more of him as cop-like figure in this telling. So instead of keeping with the safer excuse (he was trying to get oriented), GZ is clearly admitting here he is looking (hunting?) for TM. He first follows him in the car, and gets out of the car to find him on foot. GZ awkwardly lied to Sanford Police when he tried to change the reason why he was out of his car. BTW, GZ made the same mistake when he told his friend above – also stating clearly to him he left the car to find Martin. So that is two witnesses who confirm GZ was looking for TM, because GZ told them he was.
George Zimmerman is claiming his life was in danger and he was attacked. But the encounter he describes (or more accurately, he concocted) does not fit the evidence. He was not mounted after he was knocked to the ground at the T at the beginning of the altercation. There was an argument followed by some physical interactions that ranged over 40 feet with him and Martin on their feet at times. There are no life threatening head injuries. All we can confirm is GZ has broken nose and he landed on his ass in the wet grass.
That does not constitute life and death, and thus does not warrant deadly force.
The details of Zimmerman’s account are just not possible. Therefore he made them up, sprinkled here and there with a touch of reality (like it was dark out). But since his story is provable fiction, then his self defense claim is also fiction. His self defense claim lies on his account being true and accurate. Some people like to lean on ‘reasonable doubt’. Well when the story told by Zimmerman is fiction, beyond any doubt, then guess what.
You get a guilty charge on Murder 2.
RT,
Clearly you have not read the testimony. The answer is simple, the first confrontation when DD was listening did not happen at the T!
LOL! Go listen to witness #2. She sees the two guys running from where the phone was dropped TOWARDS the T. Then she hears an argument, then the shot.
You are still blinded by your assumptions. Your mind stuck in the box…
Locked down tight from all reality. Like I said, humorous…
AJ, so now you are changing your story. Guess that’s critical thinking. Your argument has been all along that the first confrontation occurred at the T where the keys are. Now you’re saying that it occurred way back down the sidewalk. You need to try to keep your stories in agreement with each other. (apply some ‘logical thinking’ vs ‘critical’)
he shot him with his arms outstretched and TM threw the phone down the sidewalk several feet. LOL…..or something…..
“Your whole argument, if you have one, is destroyed by the fact that you can’t explain how TM’s cell phone was located where it was. You can’t wish it away. TM had to be at that point before the confrontation. The confrontation occurred at the T where the keys were. If TM had been at the point where the phone was, and the confrontation occurred at the T, then TM had to have gone back to the point where GZ was and attacked him at that point.
You can’t have it both ways. The phone was where the phone was. It could not have been in TM’s hands when the attack occurred. DD could not have heard the confrontation.
Case dismissed. “
Is this a serious post? Where did you get this from? Wow. I mean do you actually read the evidence or simply take whatever fanciful scenario you agree with and run with it ?
You do realize that both DD and GZ state that TM asked GZ a question? That witnesses 11 and 20 reported an argument and confrontation moving from the T, past their house and down the pathway? And so on, right?
Are you actually implying that TM what? dropped his phone and then went after GZ at the T? Then the confrontation happened and then TM was killed a few feet from where he left he phone back down the path? Absurd.
“She sees the two guys running from where the phone was dropped TOWARDS the T. Then she hears an argument, then the shot.”
oh my, it’s gets better and better. And DD heard all this, including the shot with the cell phone lying way back up the sidewalk. Let’s get this straight now. They had a confrontation where the phone is, ran up to the T, punched GZ there causing him to drop his key and light, then one of them chased the other back to where the body was.
My question. why didn’t TM just flutter his angel wings and fly away?
ks, I thought you were ignoring me. please continue to, I notice you have nothing to say except ‘me too’ and that’s not necessary.
RT,
You’re being silly and trying to push buttons. Neither AJ and my scenario helps GZ especially since he has now admitted to two witnesses that he continued to follow TM as opposed to looking for a street address.
ks,
RT thrives on the absurd – he never thinks things through
AJ, have you checked ks’s credentials? does he/she have required ‘critical thinking’ ability acquired by 3 decades in engineering/science field? Or is just an ‘echo ability’ acquired rapidly?
AJ
“he never thinks things through”
but, you do admit since I have over 3 decades or more in the science/engineering field I do have ‘critical thinking’ ability, or are you abandoning your claim that you acquire that ability with that experience?
Blah, blah, blah, RT.
RT, No, I am not changing my story – you asked if there was a SCENARIO to explain the phone’s position. I have now provided two (one in the previous post)…
I still don’t know how the phone got there. But I do know this – events described by GZ are IMPOSSIBLE. Look up the word, ponder it a while. Let the grey matter deal with it because it is why GZ is in trouble.
No one now has to prove how things happened, beyond a doubt or not. Once it is proven events COULD NOT happen as GZ claimed, he is convicted. Once his alibi is destroyed, there is no need to prove what did happen.
Rules of the game my friend. Rules of the game. GZ lied and that IS provable….
Don’t worry yourself over the phone or DD or anything else. None of it matters anymore.
RT,
Seems you squandered your 3 decades….
Like so many I work with who are heading to retirement early.
Betcha you’re a manager now, and have not been on the front lines for a while – right sport?
AJ,
The “where was waldo um, I mean… the phone!?” thing is a particularly silly diversion. The fact free invention that TM dropped his phone then went to attack GZ at the T and so on is just stunning.
RT, is easily distracted. Can’t integrate data too well.
The TM phone location to me is key because you have to assume DeeDee’s testimony is valid unless proven otherwise.
I said weeks ago GZ was going to screw up his alibi because he did not know DeeDee was on the phone.
Turns out DeeDee (as you noted) is backed up by at least 2 witnesses (11 and 20), who were right outside the fight.
But like I told RT – none of this matters if GZ’s alibi is a complete bust – beyond any doubt. When he concocted his story and then embellished it he trapped himself.
All the prosecution has to do is prove it could not happen the way GZ claims and his self defense argument goes out the window. The depraved mind aspect is proven by GZ’s fabricated events (that is depraved) and lack of remorse.
I’m with Mata on one thing – GZ better go with drug induced ‘insanity’ or something. He is a basket case on heavy drugs with a snap temper that lit when his nose was broken. A time bomb with a gun that went off.
He better throw himself on the mercy of the court instead of sticking his thumb in its eye….
AJ
“Betcha you’re a manager now, and have not been on the front lines for a while – right sport?”
well, actually what happened was, I developed the critical thinking ability long before I went to college, then I developed logical thinking ability, then I went to college and became an engineer/scientist practiced that til I was excellent, got promoted to manager. That’s what happens when you continue to develop,, you don’t have to stay down there on the ‘front lines’, it is possible, in some cases to actually get promoted.
But I don’t want you to lose the feeling that you have developed a unique ability, just remember that it will continue to develop and mature with more experience.
“I still don’t know how the phone got there. But I do know this – events described by GZ are IMPOSSIBLE. ”
If it don’t fit, you must acquit. If you can’t explain how that phone got there, then you have absolutely no concept of what really happened. AND, events as described by you is even more impossible and illogical.
ks, do you or do you not have the 30 plus years experience necessary to develop ‘critical thinking’ or are you just serving as AJ’s echo chamber. He has clearly made it known that clear thinking is necessary and 30+ years are necessary to acquire it. Put up or shut up. Only about 3 minutes are required to become an echo chamber.
AJ, INRE your update, I also noticed that “contact” note. Let me give you four places and info to scrutinize for further hunches.
The Martin medical examiner said consistent with an “intermediate range”. I’ve heard that described as anywhere from 2 or 6 inches to 15 or so. Not sure. Nor do I think that the ME is the ultimate specialist for that.
Also what he said was that the entry wound was about 1/2″ below the nipple and slightly to the right (from the body’s perspective, left if you are the one looking at the body). There is a diagram of the entry wound on pg 7 of that ME report.
On pg 3 of the report, he describes the bullet trajectory as “directly from front to back and enters the pleural cavity with perforations of the left anterior fifth intercostal space, pericardia! sac, right ventricle of the heart, and the right lower lobe of the lung.” There is no exit wound.
This site has the body cavities noted on the human form. If you click thru, you’ll see that the left/right pleural cavities are where the lungs are contained.
With the ME’s description, there might have been a slight angle to the trajectory, but not much considering it went thru the right ventricle of the heart, and the right lower lobe of the lung.
As for the distance, the Mahoney Defense Group criminal law firm has some clarifications as to the different classes of gunshot wounds – contact, near-contact, intermediate, and distant wounds. They also describe the residue between hard contact, soft contact, near contact and angle wounds.
On the pg 205 description of the residue around the wound, it seems to be consistent with what that site labeled as a “near contact” wound – or not necessarily touching the body, but close – since it had soot and singing all around the wound entry. Had it been angled, the residue would have created a streak. A hard contact wound – pressed tightly against the skin – leaves almost no resident on the exterior.
INRE the cop friend’s more definitive description, I notice that he specifically stated that Zimmerman “rotated” the gun. ??? First time for that, eh? This would be consistent if Zimmerman rolled Martin off him slightly to the left, got his arm bent, and hand around his back to pull the gun, but the butt would be needing to be rotated. He’d have to keep him off to the left to get the gun to Martin’s chest to get a relatively straight entry wound with little to no trajectory. If that roll continued, he’d shoot and end up on top of Martin… no need to “push him off” after shooting.
So the last place to go is the CVSA video and his story, plus extensive Q&A there. I suggest you download the long video for easier access and surfing thru.
The CVSA officer that will eventually administer the jokes of a test really pounds Zimmerman with questions as they relate to how he came to shoot Martin. Zim goes thru it multiple times on the video, but the parts you will find most interesting lie between 41’30 to 45’10. I’d say watch it all, but if you are time crunched, the specifics came at 42’55” when said “How did you come to fire on him from that position”. Zimmerman keeps saying he straightened his arm to get past his left hand. He also does one very eyebrow raising slip up as the officer makes him go over and over it, and says “I was on him” at 44’52”.
By the time you finish with this, you’re likely to be even more confused.
As to the final conclusion as to how he ended up shooting Martin at what appears to be a “near contact” range, with very little trajectory, and combined with the “I was on him” slip up, I’ve got no clue. There is only one thing I do know. This is an altercation that had a lot more shouting than the mere words Zim says were exchanged. He wasn’t punched and grounded where he says he was. The head pounding couldn’t have happened where it said it was (a few feet off the Tee in the path), since the body was found another 40 plus feet south.
This looks like a fight where one was attempting to move south, and another was following him to continue the fight. The only person who had reason to flee that direction for safety was Martin. Zimmerman’s safety lay to the north and west towards his car.
Then there’s this holding Martin’s hands out, getting up off him when the neighbor and cop almost simultaneously arrive. Yet Martin was found dead with his hands under his chest. This would indicate a guy who was clutching his chest after the gunshot, and at best could roll over on his belly to die.
Then there are the witnesses who said that they say Zimmerman gt up after the gunshot… not continue wrestling.
What I think is that GZ ultimately got Martin rolled off to the left to get that gun he says he “forgot he had” (CVSA video at 42’09” and a second place I can’t remember). In that motion, he pulls the gun while they are both rolling left (GZ’s perspective), and shoots. Martin continues to fall back on the ground, grabbing his chest wound, and rolls over before he dies, still clutching his chest.
… and all this transpires no where near where Zim says it all happened.
AJ, I’m in moderation. Probably the links…
AJ
“GZ better go with drug induced ‘insanity’ or something. He is a basket case on heavy drugs”
unlike TM, on which a tox screen was done which proved he was heavily laden with drugs, there was no tox screen done on GZ and therefore no evidence that he has ever taken a drug.
You’re kinda reaching here. Try to stay with facts. Like: how did that phone get there?
“because you have to assume DeeDee’s testimony is valid unless proven otherwise.”
immaterial, hearsay, won’t be admitted.