Volunteer neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman, on trial for the murder of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martlast year, killed him “because he wanted to” not in self-defence, a Florida prosecutor said at the start of Zimmerman’s murder trial on Monday.
In a fiery opening statement to the jury, Assistant State Attorney John Guy said the evidence would show that Zimmerman, 29, had spun “a tangled web of lies” about the shooting in a gated community in the central Florida town of Sanford.
The killing triggered nationwide protests because Zimmerman was not immediately arrested and walked free for six weeks, after claiming he acted in accordance with Florida’s self-defence laws when 17-year-old Martin attacked him.
Zimmerman’s lawyer Don West, in his opening statement in Seminole County Court, repeated many of the claims that have already been heard from Zimmerman, his family and lawyer.
“There are no monsters here,” West said, contesting Guy’s description of his client as a would-be cop who was trained in martial arts and kick boxing and used “hate-filled” speech to describe an innocent young man.
The killing triggered nationwide protests because Zimmerman was not immediately arrested and walked free for six weeks
Zimmerman, who is part Hispanic, was the neighbourhood watch captain in the Retreat at Twin Lakes community in Sanford at the time of the killing on February 26, last year. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree murder and could face life imprisonment if convicted.