In an impassioned and forceful closing argument on Thursday, prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda told jurors that Travyon Martin was fatally shot by George Zimmerman because of the erroneous assumptions the defendant made on that fateful night in February 2012.
“A teenager is dead. He is dead through no fault of his own,” De La Rionda said. “He is dead because another man made assumptions….and because he acted on those assumptions.”
Early in his closing, De la Rionda showed the autopsy photograph of the teen, pointing out that this would be the last photo of Martin, as no others of the teen alive would ever be taken.
De la Rionda also told jurors Martin ended up dead because Zimmerman wrongfully profiled him. He again, played for jurors the 911 non-emergency call Zimmerman made in which he describes Blacks as “F***ing punks” and “These a**holes, they always get away with it.”
“He [Zimmerman] thought he [Martin] was up to no good,” De la Rionda continued. “But, in this particular case, he didn’t even bother to find out.”
“He tracked him, he followed him,” he continued.
De la Rionda asked jurors to consider who was actually scared the night the teen was shot and suggested it was Martin who was fearful of Zimmerman.
“Trayvon Martin, unfortunately, can’t come into this courtroom and tell you how he felt,” he said.
He said the teen had a right to defend himself as did Zimmerman.
De la Rionda highlighted the several inconsistencies in Zimmerman’s version of events on the night he killed Martin, pointing out how he repeatedly exaggerated his story and told one lie after the other, in order to bolster his self-defense claim. As an example, he pointed out that the defendant not remembering the street name and having to walk a long distance to find it after he made the 911 non-emergency call, was a pre-text for him following Martin. Among other lies, De la Rionda also pointed to the implausibility of the teen first seeing and grabbing Zimmerman’s gun, as the defendant claimed.
“If he [Zimmerman] is so scared of Martin and he didn’t realize he shot Martin, why is he holstering his gun,” De la Rionda asked rhetorically.
“Why does he [Zimmerman] have to lie?,” he asked. “Doesn’t this show his mental state?”
De la Rionda also pointed out the lack of DNA or blood found on Martin, although Zimmerman has claimed that the teen had his hand over his mouth and nose as the two tussled.
On particularly powerful moment in the state’s closing argument was when De la Rionda displayed the gun that Zimmerman used to kill Martin on the one hand and the bag of skittles that was found on Martin after he was killed, on the other.
De la Rionda asked the jury to come back with a verdict that is “fair and just.” He also said that if the jury could not return a second-degree murder conviction Zimmerman should be found guilty of manslaughter.
