Rachel Jeantel, the friend to whom Trayvon Martin was speaking moments before he was shot dead by George Zimmerman, took the stand for a second day on Thursday.
Defense attorney Don West continued his grilling of Jeantel, trying to point out inconsistencies and contradictions in statements she had given to law enforcement, during her deposition and in her testimony on the stand.
West questioned Jeantel about a letter she had a friend write under her guidance to Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother, noting that there was different language used in the letter than what she had stated in her deposition.
The letter stated: ‘He started walking then noticed someone was following him. Then he decided to find a shortcut cause the man wouldn’t follow him. Then he said the man didn’t follow him again.
‘Then he looked back and saw the man again. The man started getting closer. Then Trevon [sic] turned around and said Why are you following me!! Then I heard him fall.
‘Then the phone hung up. I called back and got no response. In my mind I thought it was just a fight. Then I found out this tragic story. Thank you.’
“Contrary to what you said at the deposition, this [the letter] doesn’t contain any response from the person following,” West pressed Jeantel.
“No, sir,” she replied.
West also pointed out that Jeantel had not revealed in the letter that Martin had referred to the man following him as a “creepy-a** cracker,” as she had done during deposition. Jeantel said she cleaned up the language of the letter as it was for Martin’s mother.
One embarrassing moment came when West asked Jeantel to read aloud the letter she had her friend write and which she had signed as ‘Diamond Eugene.’ Jeantel said she couldn’t read all the words and didn’t read cursive.
West also questioned Jeantel on why she believed the fatal shooting of Martin was a racial incident and suggested that it was Martin who had introduced race by referring to the man following him as a “creepy-a** cracker.”
“So it was racial because Trayvon Martin introduced it,” West inquired.
“No,” Jeantel replied.
“You don’t think “creepy, a** cracker is a racial think?,” West asked incredulously.
“No,” Jeantel responded.
Jeantel told jurors that Martin told her that a man was following him as he walked back from the 7-11 store, as the two spoke on the phone. She also said she believed at one point Martin was running as he was breathing hard and his voice changed to a whisper. She said Martin told her the man continued to follow him and was “close to him.”
West tried to get Jeantel to admit that it was Martin who turned around and confronted Zimmerman with the words, “Why are you following me for?”
Jeantel said she believed that it was Martin who was being attacked by Zimmerman. She said the last thing she heard was a noise, “like something hitting somebody, like Trayvon got hit.” At one point she said, she could hear who she believed was Martin say, “Get off, get off.”
West also suggested to Jeantel that it was Martin who could have started the fight with Zimmerman and she would not have known. She held firm that it was Martin who was being assaulted.
“Maybe if he [Trayvon Martin] decided to assault George Zimmerman he didn’t want you to know about [it],” West suggested.
“That’s real retarded, sir,” she responded. “If you don’t know the person, why do that, sir. Trayvon didn’t know him.”
Jeantel also said that if Martin was going to confront and fight with Zimmerman, he would have ended the phone call with her. Instead, the phone call ended abruptly.
Prosecutors also called a former resident of Twin Lakes, Jenna Lauer to the stand.
Lauer testified that she heard voices having a conversation outside her townhome, before hearing shoes on the grass and pavement. She said she couldn’t tell how many individuals but described the “flustered” voices as a three-part exchange.
Lauer also told jurors she heard grunts, which turned into yelps and then cries for help.
Jurors listened to Lauer’s 911 call in which screams could be heard in the background. She said the screams sounded desperate as if “the person really needed help.”
Another resident of the community townhomes, Selma Mora, also took the witness stand on Thursday afternoon.
Speaking through a court translator, Columbian-born Mora said she heard “soft, low cries” outside her townhome. She testified that she couldn’t make out any specific words.
Mora said she then heard what sounded like a thump, describing the sound like a child falling. She said when she went to investigate the sound, she saw one person on the ground and another person on top with his knees on the ground, as if riding a horse.
Mora told jurors that the person on top had on a patterned black and red jacket. Zimmerman was wearing a red and black jacket on the night he murdered Martin. She said she asked the question, “What’s going on?,” but got no answer. On the third occasion when she asked the same question, the person on top said, “just call the police.”
Mora also said the person on top got up and walked back and forth in the direction of the dog receptacles. She said the man would put one hand on his head and the other on his hip.
Asked by defense attorney Mark O’Mara whether the man walking back and forth was acting “confused,” Mora replied, “not to my understanding.”
Mora clarified that the man was acting “like he was concerned,” when pressed by O’Mara.
