First week of testimony in Martin case wraps up

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — The first week of George Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial wrapped up with testimony from two neighbors and a police officer that seemed to bolster the defense's argument that he was pinned on his back by Trayvon Martin before shooting the teen.

Neighbor Jonathan Good testified Friday that it appeared the unarmed teen was straddling the neighborhood watch volunteer, while another neighbor, Jonathan Manalo, said Zimmerman seemed credible when he said just after the fight that he shot Martin in self-defense. Officer Tim Smith testified that Zimmerman's back side was covered in grass and wetter than his front side.

All three were called as witnesses for prosecutors who are trying to convict him of second-degree murder.

Good, who had perhaps the best view of any witness, said he did not see anyone's head being slammed into the concrete sidewalk, as Zimmerman claims Martin did to him. Good initially testified that it appeared "there were strikes being thrown, punches being thrown," but during detailed questioning he said he saw only "downward" arm movements being made.

Zimmerman has claimed that he fatally shot 17-year-old Martin in February 2012 in self-defense as the Miami-area teen was banging his head into the concrete sidewalk behind the townhomes in a gated community.

Under prosecution questioning, Good said he never saw anyone being attacked that way. Good said he heard a noise behind his townhome and he saw what looked like a tussle when he stepped out onto his patio. He said he yelled: "What's going on? Stop it."

Good testified he saw a person in black clothing on top of another person with "white or red" clothing. He said he couldn't see faces but it looked like the person on the bottom had lighter skin. Martin was black and was wearing a dark hoodie. Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic and was wearing a red jacket. Good was back inside calling 911 when he heard a gunshot.

"It looked like there were strikes being thrown, punches being thrown," Good said.

Later, under cross-examination, he said that it looked like the person on top was straddling the person on bottom in a mixed-martial arts move known as "ground and pound." When defense attorney Mark O'Mara asked him if the person on top was Martin, Good said, "Correct, that's what it looked like." Good also said the person on the bottom yelled for help.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Zimmerman followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.

Manalo, whose wife had testified earlier in the week, was the first neighbor to step outside and see what happened with his flashlight after he heard a gunshot. He took cellphone photos of a bloodied Zimmerman and Martin's body, and those photos were shown to jurors on Friday. Manalo also described Martin's hands as being under his body.

Manalo said Zimmerman didn't appear shocked and acted calmly. After police officers arrived and handcuffed Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer asked Manalo to call his wife and tell her what happened.

Manalo started to tell Zimmerman's wife that her husband had been involved in a shooting and was being questioned by police when "he cut me off and said, 'Just tell her I shot someone,'" Manalo said.

Under cross-examination, Manalo said when he asked Zimmerman what happened, the neighborhood watch volunteer told him, "I was defending myself and I shot him."

"From what you could tell at that moment, that seemed completely true?" asked defense attorney Don West.

"Yes," Manalo said.

Smith, the police officer, testified that when he saw Zimmerman after the shooting, the neighborhood watch volunteer's backside was covered in grass and wetter than his front side, bolstering defense attorneys' contention that Martin was on top of Zimmerman.

As he walked to the squad car after he had been handcuffed, Zimmerman told the officer that "he was yelling for help and nobody would come help him," Smith said.

"It was almost a defeated ... a confused look on his face," Smith said.

Smith said Zimmerman described himself as "lightheaded" during the drive to Sanford Police Station but declined an offer to take him to a hospital.

The physician's assistant who treated Zimmerman the next day said that Zimmerman complained of feeling nauseated upon reflecting what had happened. But Lindzee Folgate attributed that to psychological factors rather than any physical condition. She also said it appeared his nose was broken, but it was impossible to say for sure since no X-rays were taken. She recommended he see an ear-and-nose doctor and a psychologist.

When O'Mara asked if abrasions on his head were consistent with someone who had his had slammed into concrete, Folgate said, "it could be consistent, yes."

She also testified that Zimmerman had written on a form reciting his medical history that he was exercising three times a week by doing mixed martial arts, a statement that prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda asked her to repeat.

Paramedic Stacy Livingston, who responded to the shooting scene, testified Zimmerman had a swollen, bleeding nose and two cuts on the back of his head an inch long. When O'Mara asked if Zimmerman should have been concerned with his medical well-being because of his injuries, Livingston said, "Possibly."

When photos of Martin's body were shown on a courtroom projector during Livingston's testimony, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, looked away and blinked back tears.

___

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KHightower

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Via Yahoo News!

Judgment nears for Casey Anthony, as testimony ends

Orlando (CNN) -- The prosecution wrapped up its rebuttal phase in the Casey Anthony murder trial late Friday afternoon, suggesting judgment was near for the Orlando woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter then lying to authorities.

After an off-day Saturday, both sides will return to court Sunday. Court spokeswoman Karen Connolly Levey said that closing arguments will likely be heard later that day, with deliberations set to continue through July 4 and perhaps beyond.

Orange County Superior Court Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. dismissed jurors around 5 p.m. by telling them that -- following six long, often emotional weeks of testimony -- no more evidence would be presented.

The judge then heard a defense motion requesting an acquittal. Attorney Cheney Mason said that the prosecution had not sufficiently presented its case -- including exactly how Caylee Anthony had died and at whose hands -- while the prosecution claimed the case was best left in the jury's hands.

Perry sided with the prosecution, a decision that promised the drama and intrigue would continue for at least several more days.

Earlier Friday, prosecutors worked to zero in on Casey Anthony, trying to prove Friday that she -- not her mother -- was the one who searched for chloroform and neck-breaking on the family's home computer.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against the 25-year-old woman if a jury convicts her of first-degree murder. Anthony is charged with seven counts overall, including aggravated child abuse and misleading police, in Caylee's 2008 death.

Prosecutors believe Anthony used chloroform to render her daughter, Caylee, unconscious before taping her nose and mouth with duct tape and disposing of her body in a wooded field near their home.

She has pleaded not guilty. Her defense team has claimed the girl was not killed but instead accidentally drowned in the family pool on June 16, 2008. They say Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, panicked and covered up the death. George Anthony has denied the claim.

Last week, the defendant's mother, Cindy Anthony, testified that she was at home during some of the times highlighted by prosecutors, searching for answers to what was making her dog sick and landing on pages mentioning chloroform as a result. The mother testified that she feared her dog became sick from eating bambo that contained chlorophyll.

She said she also searched for terms such as alcohol, acetone and hydrogen peroxide because she had been told of a scare concerning hand sanitizers and children, as well as searches on various injuries because a friend had been in a car accident.

She denied searching for some of the terms retrieved from the computer, including one misspelled search for "how to make chloraform." She also denied making the 84 visits to one site related to chloroform reflected in the computer records.

The prosecution called several law enforcement forensic computer experts, to raise questions regarding Cindy Anthony's testimony.

Orange County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Kevin Stenger claimed there did not appear to be any searches for chlorophyll or for bamboo, as Cindy Anthony had claimed, though he did say there was a specific Google search for neck breaking. And Detective Sandra Osborne testified there were no evidence of a chlorophyll-specific search on the computer's hard drive, though there was evidence of searches for things such bamboo furniture.

Defense attorney Jose Baez tried to cast doubt on these searches as encompassing everything that Cindy Anthony claimed she'd searched for during her testimony.

The personal attorney for the suspect's parents, Mark Lippman, added in a statement, "My client remains steadfast in her statement that she researched chlorophyll and as a byproduct of that research also researched chloroform."

The lawyer for Anthony's former employer also took the stand Friday, bringing with him work records that he testified showed that someone using Cindy Anthony's credentials logged in and was actively using a desktop computer at her office on the days when those searches were made. Cindy Anthony had claimed she'd done many of the questioned searches in that period from home.

While work records showed she was at the office during some of the searches, she told Baez that it was common to enter eight hours on her time card even if she worked more or less than a full day and said it was "virtually impossible" for her company to have kept e-mails and other records showing whether she was working.

However, Gentiva Health Services chief counsel John Camperlengo told jurors that as a health-care company, Gentiva keeps many records for lenghty periods of time.

He said he provided such records to prosecutors after a June 24 subpoena. The records included e-mails sent under Cindy Anthony's login during that week, as well as a detailed log of computer activity showing someone using Anthony's login was actively updating patient records.

The testimony came after another delay in the trial, when Perry pushed back the start of court so Baez could interview in advance these investigators.

Baez complained at the outset of Friday's session that prosecutors were trying to introduce new evidence that had not been disclosed in reports, as Perry has ordered -- a rule the judge has scolded Baez for violating multiple times during the trial.

"They can't decide to ambush the defense after the defense has rested with new evidence," Baez told Perry.

But prosecutor Jeff Ashton said nothing the witnesses were expected to testify to should have been surprising to Baez.

In Session's Grace Wong, Beth Karas and Vivian Kuo contributed to this report.

var cnnOmniPartner="TV-Nancy Grace"Watch Nancy Grace Monday through Sunday starting at 8 p.m. ET on HLN. For the latest from Nancy Grace click here.

CNN

Knox 'shocked' by Guede's testimony

Rudy Guede, pictured in 2009, is expected to testify in the Amanda Knox trial on Monday.Amanda Knox says she is "shocked" by the testimony of Rudy GuedeGuede, convicted separately of killing Meredith Kercher, denies another convict's storyKnox and her former boyfriend were found guilty in 2009 of killing Kercher in PerugiaKnox is fighting the conviction

Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Amanda Knox, the American student convicted of killing her British roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy, faced a surprise accusation Monday from another man behind bars for the murder.

Rudy Guede refused to say Knox was not involved -- and prosecutor Luca Mignini read out a letter saying Guede thought the American and her then-boyfriend had killed Kercher.

Guede wrote to a news website in the spring of 2010, after the three were convicted, referring to "a horrible homicide of a splendid young girl, Meredith Kercher, by Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito."

Mignini produced a copy of the letter on Monday during Knox's appeal against her conviction. Defense lawyers said they did not know of the existence of the letter before Mignini read it in court.

Knox took the stand for emotional testimony after Guede spoke, saying she was "shocked."

"The only time that Rudy Guede, Raffaele Sollecito and I were in one room together was in a court room.... He knows what the truth is. I don't know what happened that night," she said.

Monday's appeal hearing was the first time the three people convicted of the crime appeared in court together since a preliminary hearing years ago.

Kercher was found stabbed to death in 2007 at the house she shared with Knox in Perugia, the central Italian town where both were students. She was semi-naked and her throat had been slashed.

Knox, 23, and her then-boyfriend Sollecito, 27, were convicted of the murder in 2009. Guede was found guilty in a separate fast-track trial and sentenced to 16 years.

Defense lawyer Carlo della Vedova and Knox's mother Edda Mellas both rejected Guede's testimony Monday.

Under cross-examination, Guede said he had written what he always believed, but that it "was not up to me to say who was the killer."

Della Vedova said Guede's letter was based on "a feeling" and that his accusations are not based on facts or events he witnessed.

Mellas said Guede "continues to lie about Amanda and that's unfortunate."

"He didn't say much. He refused to answer most of the important things," she said. "Amanda wanted to be able to confront him and she was denied that."

Mellas said she had suffered watching her daughter testify: "It's devastating to watch your child in pain. It's horrible to see her go through that."

She said before the hearing she cannot understand why Guede might spend only seven years behind bars if he is released early for good conduct, while Knox could serve 26 years.

Sollecito said Monday he and Knox had been behind bars for nearly four years, their lives destroyed based only on suppositions.

The hearing is now adjourned until July 25, with further hearings on July 30 and August 1.

The appeal hearing has heard a confusing array of stories from a range of convicted criminals this month.

Guede had been called as a witness to corroborate the story of another convict who told the court just over a week ago that Guede had said Knox and Sollecito were not involved.

But on the stand, he did not back Mario Alessi's version of events.

As part of the appeal, forensic experts are retesting evidence that was used to convict Knox.

That evidence includes a knife found in Sollecito's apartment with Knox's DNA on the handle and what Perugia prosecutors say is Kercher's DNA in a tiny groove on the blade.

The prosecution contends that the knife was used to stab Kercher in the neck and that it had been cleaned. The DNA matter attributed to Kercher consists of flesh, not blood, they say.

The sample, however, was so small that forensic scientists investigating Kercher's murder were not able to double-test it in accordance with international forensic science norms, which Knox's legal team says raises doubts about its validity.

The second piece of evidence the forensic experts are testing is the tiny metal clasp from Kercher's bra, which was cut from her body after her slaying.

Forensic scientists in the investigatory phase determined that Sollecito's DNA is present on the metal clasp.

The clasp was identified on an investigatory video the same day Kercher's body was found. But it was not collected until nearly six weeks later, giving the defense cause to question whether the sample may have been contaminated.

CNN's Hada Messia and Dan Rivers contributed to this report.

CNN

Barry Bond's jury to re-hear key testimony

STORY HIGHLIGHTSJurors want the judge to re-read the testimony of Kathy HoskinsHoskins says she saw Bonds inject himself with a needleMonday is the second full day of deliberations in Bonds' perjury trialThe home run king allegedly lied about his steroids use San Francisco (CNN) -- Jurors deciding Barry Bonds' fate will hear for a second time Monday the testimony of a woman who said she saw the baseball legend inject himself with a syringe.

Major League Baseball's home run king allegedly lied to a federal grand jury about knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs and about being injected by anyone but his doctors.

A prosecutor argued Thursday that Bonds lied because he knew the truth about his steroids use would "tinge his accomplishments" and hurt his baseball career.

"His secret was so powerful that he couldn't admit it, wouldn't admit it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nedrow said in his closing arguments.

Defense lawyers argued that prosecutors essentially entrapped Bonds with their questioning in December 2003, before the federal grand jury investigating the illegal distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to athletes.

View the Original article