So, whose voice is screaming in the 911 call? It's important and isn't it interesting that there's such a contest about it? Remember, the prosecution's expert said it was impossible to ID a screaming voice because stress and emotion alter the shape of the tube the sound comes through and it is not the person's normal voice. It's that person's scream. The primal scream is a different sound than the voice makes at any other time. He also said the human ear is the most sensitive instrument there is for trying to recognize the sound. But it is a strong signal that every other human and most animals understand. Both sides herein will argue that a mother knows. Well, one mother doesn't. Maybe the sound is so primal that as mothers they react t the sound no matter who screams.
BTW, I’ve been saying DA all along but these prosecutors are State's Attorneys. A "DA" may slip in time to time. K?
Witness: Sybrina Fulton Mother of Trayvon Martin. He was her youngest. Divorced. Employed by the County she lives in, currently on leave from Public Housing Agency job. Before that she was a code enforcer many years. Has a BA in English with a minor in communication. Q: Trayvon Martin right handed? A: Yes. And Trayvon Martin had two tattoos, one was praying hands with his grandmother and great grand mother's names and one tattoo with his mother’s name.
Q: Ever hear your son scream or yell? A: Yes. DA plays the 911 call for her and she says "That's my son." Cross-X: Objection by DA to O'Mara's expression of sympathy. Sustained. (Oh please.) I thought that Ms. Fulton was a little weaker than I have heard her be in TV interviews on the subject. She's been strident in the past. Today I thought she might be staving off some creeping doubt but she was still steadfast in her testimony that the voice was Trayvon Martin's. She was matter of fact but she was a little flatter than before.
Fascinating is that Ms. Fulton first heard the screaming tape in the Mayor's office. Huh? No cops in the room except Chief Lee who discussed with the Mayor the release of the tape to the public in front of her and her family and her lawyers.. Mayor played the 911 tape for Ms. Fulton, and her posse, Trayvon Martin's dad and the city manager. Q: Terrible to hear? A: Yes. Then: Do you believe that if it's Trayvon Martin's voice that it's George Zimmerman's fault? And that if it's George Zimmerman's voice that Trayvon Martin might have been at fault? She said I don't think it was." No doubt at all in her mind whose voice it is. Q: Well, when you went to the mayor’s office you hoped it wasn't Trayvon Martin's voice, right? A: Didn't know what the tape was going to be. They didn't tell me anything. Q: No one warned you? A: No. Q: No one braced you for what was coming?? A: No. She says she listened one time and she was immediately positive it was Trayvon Martin. Q: Did everyone agree with you? A: I knew. Re-direct: Q: Speaking of hope, did you hope Trayvon Martin was alive? A: Yes. Q: Enjoy listening to tape? A: NO RE-cross X: Q: Don't you hope that Trayvon Martin did nothing to cause his own death? A: I don't believe it was his fault.
Witness: Jabares (sic) Fulton brother, older by 4 and a half years, Bit timid, dressed to the nines,. Lifetime Miami resident, in school, at Fla International U, senior year, info tech school, full time student. Trayvon Martin's dad is his step father. "Close" to Trayvon Martin growing up but four and a half years older. On The Day, the witness had been aware that Trayvon Martin was with his dad in Sanford, Fla. When he got home, his mom told him Trayvon Martin was dead. He has heard the 911 tape 10 to 15 times on a computer and on TV. He says the voice yelling and screaming is Trayvon Martin. Never heard Trayvon Martin scream or yell "like that" before. At first, he wasn't sure it was Trayvon Martin. On Mar 31, five weeks after the death of Trayvon Martin, he told a reporter "I'm not sure, I think it was Trayvon Martin, but I'm not sure." He was in Mayor's office also for the playing of the tape,. There, he says he didn't want to believe it was Trayvon Martin. "That's why I wasn't sure in interview." Two weeks before interview he first heard tape. Reporter also played tape for him. The recording of interview is played outside the jury presence. Rules of impeachment require playing tape for witness, so jury out. Q:, When you heard Help Help who did you hear? "I'm not sure, I haven't heard it that good. I'm not positive." O'Mara argues Best Evidence of the interview is the tape. Court says Collateral. Out. Re-cross-X: Heard tape in Mayors office with all above. Mayor played it at least twice. Decision was to release the tape. Didn't want to hear the tape again but he told interviewer that he wasn't sure. But he has listened to it 10 times since. Lived with mom and Trayvon Martin. Except when he was away at school. Dad left home when TV was five. Brother ran in different circles. Different friends. (Maybe he doesn't know voice that well.) Dad has new wife, boys spent time with dad. Trayvon Martin spent weekends with dad and towards the end, plus when he just wanted to go to dad's. DA Q: When you heard the tape "with your brother's screams on it". (no objection) you weren't sure.... Do you now believe it's Trayvon Martin's voice? A: Yes.
Mom recalled: Break, jury sent out. At the bench. Jury back. DA shows Trayvon Martin's tin button which had been pinned on hoodie. Q: Trayvon Martin's? A: Yes. Excused.
Dr. Shiping Bao - Associate medical examiner. Med degree from China, Lumpy English. Came to US in 1992, to pursue the American Dream. He was a pathologist in Alabama, a deputy med examiner in Texas then he moved to Florida. Board Certified in pathology, with medical licenses in Florida and Texas. Member of Nat'l Assn of Med Examiners. Q; What's an autopsy? A: To see for yourself the course and cause of death. He's done 3000 autopsies, 120 times in court as expert in Fl and TX. Q: You examine Trayvon Martin? A: Yes. Did autopsy and wrote report same day. Cause gunshot, manner homicide. Trayvon Martin arrived as John Doe, "black boy shot". Body sealed in plastic with number. Measured 71" 160 pounds. Hole in both shirts with blood with soot. Left lower chest with soot and stippling. Bullet entered between 5th and 6th rib. Hit heart. Bullet fragmented and also hit lung lobe. Alive, at first. Heart beat pushed blood into lung. Lived "in pain and suffering" (objection relevance (wrong) objection overruled) Bench. Issue: can this expert testify as to pain and suffering? NO. So then, Q: How is body measured? Stays the same after death? Duh.
ID'd by dad. Sent an investigator to scene? Yes. Two assistants under you? Yes Photos taken? Yes Here they are ... exhibits 81 -108. Body bag, seal on bag only he can cut, X-ray films, x-rayed in the bag. found fragments in chest, we see body, hand and legs, shoes and pants. Removed clothes, photo clothes and then photo body. Photo of wound. Back of wet hoodie. Undershirt with hole and blood, no hole in back of under shirt. Pants wet with debris on front. Back of pants without comment about wet. Then upper body of Trayvon Martin. Otherwise healthy but for gunshot. No other "defects." Look at hands... blood? Small abrasions on hands but no other injuries, no blood. 3/8 inch "defect." and abrasion and soot 2x2 inch stippling on chest. An exit wound has no soot and no stippling, Trayvon Martin's wound is entrance wound only. Abrasion on left fourth finger and on pinkie finger also. Injuries on right hand? No. Alive from one to ten minutes, heart was beating till no blood left in ventricle to pump, heart stopped. Two holes in heart, no chance to survive. Soot indicates range. This shot was not "contact wound” This is intermediate range. See stippling. Range is opinion not fact. When asked a question he too often says "Can I just tell the jury about this other thing and then he does. He does a lecture about fact v opinion and has to be called down and then he says this is important in the justice system. He steamrolls on. Then A: No one can determine range by eye. Gun in loose contact with clothes in this case.
Cannot say what position Trayvon Martin was in when shot. Standing or leaning. Re how long alive, conscious a few minutes, Then he starts again "Well first I have to explain to the jury ... No, you answer only. Then in response, Trayvon Martin alive one to ten minutes. Brain still alive. Feel pain? Yes. Could he move? No ***** (so he was face down with his hands under him when shot) ****** DA was sort of deflated when he heard that no movement was possible after fatal shot.
Then about the abrasions on hands: A: Could have happened before event or at the time by blunt force trauma. No contusion just abrasions. (This guy has a discernable bias, more and more visible as testimony goes on.) Court reads stip that the body is Trayvon Martin's. Req for Judicial Notice of weather report on the day of event. Admission of weather report objected to. Later we find it's because the weather station is too far away. Court says various testimony describes rain or drizzle. Admitted. Evidence locker is jammed. Locksmith coming.