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| A woman tells her story about the acquitted shooter. |
Walking away from murder and the acquitted shooter now faces another downward spiral. Today it was revealed that Florida State Patrol officers had pulled over the shooter in August. George Zimmerman got pulled over in August for tinted windows and a dark license plate cover. He beat a ticket by telling the officer that he's an unlikely celebrity due to his high profile trial and he gets death threats.
His wife is still considering pressing charges on him after he got into it with her. And she may be facing court if she lied about the domestic dispute at their home in Lake Mary, Florida.
Many outlets are reporting that Shellie Zimmerman is now opening up about her estrange husband and tells the junk food media, that talking points given aren't true.
No duh, Shellie.
You let your husband spin a tail of him being pummeled by an unruly teen who happens to be unarmed. He shoots an unarmed teenager in the chest without showing an ounce of remorse. To this day, he still has "no regrets" for killing Trayvon Martin.
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| The men who divided a nation. |
A guy who was told not to follow the individual, did it anyway. A man who wanted to prove to the neighbors he's the captain.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that since the domestic dispute earlier this month, both parties were thrust back into the news. Shellie Zimmerman said on national television today that her husband snubbed her after he was acquitted of murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in July.
"He just kind of treated me like I was disposable," Shellie Zimmerman said on the Today Show. "He went on a victory tour without me."
Shellie Zimmerman appeared with her attorney, Kelly Sims, discussing the trial, her divorce and the domestic dispute that erupted Sept. 9 when she called 911 and told police George Zimmerman was threatening her and punched her father.
"In hindsight, I should have pressed charges," Shellie Zimmerman said.
She told Matt Lauer that she didn't see a gun but felt threatened after George Zimmerman kept gesturing toward a holster on his hip and saying "step closer."
"I absolutely stand by my story," Shellie Zimmerman said. "He had a look in his eyes I've never seen before."
Despite standing by her story, Shellie Zimmerman said she didn't press charges because police made it very clear to her that if she did they would all be going to jail that day but she would be the only one staying in jail.
That's because Shellie Zimmerman is serving a year of probation after taking a plea deal in a perjury case.
Her perjury has lead to a "credibility issue" with the public, she told Lauer.
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| Zimmerman with her attorney. |
"I think anyone would doubt that," Shellie Zimmerman said. "I don't know the person I've been married to."
Still, she said she does not think George Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin.
Since the trial Shellie Zimmerman has lost 40 pounds and is working on herself, she told Lauer.
Of course, will Shellie may be throwing her support to Marissa Alexander?
Alexander got 20 years in the iron college for firing a gun in the ceiling. She used the "Stand Your Ground" defense and lost.
She won an appeal for a new trial.
The case of Marissa Alexander, a Jacksonville mother of three, has been used by critics of Florida's "stand your ground" law and mandatory minimum sentences to argue that the state's justice system is skewed against defendants who are black.
The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that Alexander deserves a new trial because the trial judge handling her case did not properly instruct the jury regarding what is needed to prove self-defense.
The ruling, written by Judge Robert Benton, said the instructions constituted a "fundamental error" and required Alexander to prove self-defense "beyond a reasonable doubt."
But the court also made it clear in its ruling that the judge was right to block Alexander from using the state's "stand your ground" law as a way to defend her actions. That law generally removes people's duty to retreat in the face of possible danger and allows them to use of deadly force if they believe their lives are in danger.
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| Marissa Alexander is spending 20 years in the iron college for firing a gun in the ceiling. The controversy surrounds her sentencing has drawn parallels to the George Zimmerman situation. |
"We are looking forward to taking the case back to trial," Gay said.
Alexander had never been arrested before she fired a bullet at a wall one day in 2010 to scare off her husband when she felt he was threatening her. Nobody was hurt, but the judge in the case said he was bound by state law to sentence her to 20 years in prison after she was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Alexander has maintained that the shot fired was a warning shot.
The sentencing sparked criticism from the local NAACP chapter and the district's African-American congresswoman, who said blacks more often are incarcerated for long periods because of overzealous prosecutors and judges bound by mandatory minimum sentences.
State Attorney Angela Corey, who oversaw the prosecution of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, has stood by the handling of Alexander's case. Corey said she believes that Alexander aimed the gun at the man and his two sons, and that the bullet she fired could have ricocheted and hit any of them.
Jackelyn Barnard, a spokeswoman for Corey, said that the conviction was reversed on a legal technicality and that the office was gratified that the "stand your ground" ruling was upheld.
Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, called the ruling a "welcome development in a case that represents the double standards in our justice system."
"From the streets to the courthouse, race continues to influence the judicial process, and it certainly seemed to have played a role here," Jealous said in a statement issued by the civil rights organization.
The state's "10-20-life" law was implemented in 1999 and credited with helping to lower the violent crime rate. Anyone who shows a gun in the commission of certain felonies gets an automatic 10 years in prison. Fire the gun, and it's an automatic 20 years. Shoot and wound someone, and it's 25 years to life.
On Aug. 1, 2010, Alexander was working for a payroll software company. She was estranged from her husband, Rico Gray, and had a restraining order against him, even though they'd had a baby together just nine days earlier. Thinking he was gone, she went to their former home to retrieve the rest of her clothes, family members said.
An argument ensued, and Alexander said she feared for her life when she went out to her vehicle to get the gun she legally owned. She came back inside and ended up firing a shot into the wall, which ricocheted into the ceiling.
Gray testified that he saw Alexander point the gun at him and looked away before she fired the shot. He claimed that she was the aggressor, and that he had begged her to put away the weapon.
The judge threw out Alexander's "stand your ground" self-defense claim, noting that she could have run out of the house to escape her husband but instead got the gun and went back inside. Alexander rejected a plea deal that would have resulted in a three-year prison sentence and chose to go to trial. A jury deliberated 12 minutes before convicting her.
Alexander was also charged with domestic battery four months after the shooting in another assault on Gray. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced to time served.
Supporters of Alexander have asked Gov. Rick Scott to pardon Alexander, but her case has not yet been taken by the state's clemency board.
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