Will George Zimmerman’s dueling 911 calls cancel each other out?
George Zimmerman may have been acquitted of murder after killing Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager, but I predict that, like OJ Simpson, he will eventually find himself behind bars.
Why?
He is a walking time bomb. He can’t stay out of trouble. He carries a gun wherever he goes. He has trouble controlling his impulses.
And he gets angry a lot.
His acquittal in the 2012 slaying seems to have imbued him with the sense that he is immune to the sorts of consequences that befall the rest of us when we behave badly.
In the four months since a jury found him not guilty of murdering Martin, he’s had altercations with his wife and a girlfriend, and he’s been pulled over at least three times by law enforcement officers. He has trouble following the rules.
On Monday, his 27-year-old girlfriend called 911 to report he had pointed a gun at her as he was gathering his things to move out of her house in Apopka, Fla. She said he smashed a glass table with the butt of his shotgun and forced her out of her home.
Tuesday, after spending a night in jail, he was charged in a Seminole County courtroom on one felony count of aggravated assault, plus two misdemeanors, domestic battery and criminal mischief.
The prosecutor, Asst. State Atty. Lymary Munoz, told Seminole County Judge Fred Schott that Zimmerman’s girlfriend said he tried to choke her 10 days before Monday’s incident. She did not report the incident to police.
Schott released Zimmerman on bail with “numerous special conditions.” He may have no contact with his girlfriend, he may not leave Florida while out on bond, and he would have to wear a monitoring device. Schott also told Zimmerman he could not have weapons or ammunition, “and that’s in part for her safety and in part for your own safety.”
It seems that Zimmerman has learned a few defensive tricks from his regular brushes with the law. During the murder trial, various 911 calls were used by both the defense and the prosecution, and seemed to cancel each other out.
The importance of those recordings, interpreted in ways that conflicted, was not lost on Zimmerman, who barricaded himself inside the home Monday.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, “while deputies were outside, banging on the door, trying to get him to come out,” Zimmerman placed a 911 call of his own, blaming the dispute on his girlfriend, who had “for lack of a better word, gone crazy on me.’”
Dueling 911 calls.
What a creative potential defense.
In the course of his three-minute conversation with the emergency operator, posted by the Sentinel, Zimmerman said police were already outside the home.
“Why are you calling?” asked the perplexed operator.
“I just want everyone to know the truth,” Zimmerman said.
He said that his girlfriend is pregnant “with our child,” and that “she told me it’s better if she raises the child on her own.”
When she asked him to leave and he didn’t put up a fuss, he said, “she just completely changed … She broke a glass table. She got mad, I guess, that I told her I would be willing to leave.”
“They’re gonna need to speak to you,” the operator said, referring to deputies who Zimmerman said were banging on the door.
“Can I call my attorney?” he replied.
This is at least the third time that Zimmerman has been involved in a domestic violence incident, though it appears to be the first time he’s been charged with a crime.
In September, shortly after his wife, Shellie, filed for divorce, she called police to report that he had become violent while retrieving items from their home.
In 2005, the Associated Press reported, Zimmerman took anger management courses after he attacked an undercover officer who was trying to arrest his friend. Later that year, Zimmerman’s fiancee took out a restraining order against him. He responded by getting a restraining order against her.
At some point, if this guy doesn’t get some serious help, he is going to self-destruct. Hopefully, he won’t hurt anyone else on his way down.
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Twitter: @robinabcarian
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