Zimmerman booked on 2nd-degree murder charge

Updated 9:51 PM ET

(CBS/AP) JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The neighborhood watch volunteer who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Wednesday after months of mounting tensions and protests across the country.

George Zimmerman, 28, could get up to life in prison if convicted in the slaying of the unarmed black teenager. He is expected to enter a not guilty plea.

Special prosecutor Angela Corey announced the charges but would not discuss how she arrived at them or disclose other details of her investigation, saying: "That's why we try cases in court."

Second-degree murder is typically brought in cases when there is a fight or other confrontation that results in death and but does involve a premeditated plan to kill.

In this Wednesday, April 11, 2012 photo provided by the Sanford Police Department, George Zimmerman is shown in a booking photo.

/ AP Photo/Sanford Police Department

George Zimmerman was brought into the Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, FL. at 8:24 pm by a three-SUV caravan driven by state police officers armed with assault rifles. He walked inside wearing a plaid shirt with a black rain coat over his head.

He had turned himself in to the state police office in Jacksonville and driven from there to Sanford. State police would not reveal where he has spent the last six weeks in hiding.

Zimmerman was processed at the jail Wednesday night, including fingerprinting and a medical and psychological evaluation. He is being held without bail. The sheriff would not discuss whether Zimmerman will be held in protective custody, but that seems certain, according to analysts.

His first court appearance will be tomorrow in a secure courtroom within the jail facility. It will be televised. Although he is currently being held without bond, his new lawyer, Mark O'Mara said he will be seeking his full release on bond.

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O'Mara said: "I'm expecting a lot of work and hopefully justice in the end." On Tuesday, Zimmerman's former lawyers portrayed him as erratic and in precarious mental condition. But O'Mara said Zimmerman was OK: "I'm not concerned about his mental well-being."

The parents of teenager Trayvon Martin, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, watching the special prosecutor, Angela Corey, on TV, April 11, 2012

/ CBS

Trayvon Martin's parents expressed relief over the special prosecutor's decision to charge Zimmerman. Martin's mother said if she could speak directly to Zimmerman, she would allow him a chance to say he is sorry for what happened.

"I would probably give him an opportunity to apologize," Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, told The Associated Press in an interview. "I would probably ask him if there were another way that he could have settled the confrontation that he had with Trayvon, other than the way it ended, with Trayvon being shot."

Her voice trailed off, and tears welled in her eyes. She remained stoic, and expressed faith that the justice system would work as it should.

Trayvon's mom: "We simply wanted an arrest"

On the "CBS Evening News," correspondent John Miller explained to anchor Scott Pelley why the rush to the news conference after the case had been under review for weeks. "One is they clearly had to have developed some new evidence in their reinvestigation of this that brought them to the level that they could bring a murder two charge," said Miller, "where that was not at all clear to police on the first night.

"But the second thing is once [Zimmerman's former] lawyers went out yesterday and said, 'We've lost touch with our client' -- if you're the prosecutors or the investigators, you're going to say, 'I want to know where this guy is...because we can't have this turn into a fugitive case at this stage.'"

Analysis: Prosecutors may have rushed to charge George Zimmerman because of fears he would flee

In explaining why the second-degree murder charge, CBS News legal analyst Jack Ford said: "Second degree murder doesn't have the premeditation. So you're not intending to kill someone. You may have intended to hurt them badly and they die as a result. But it's the absence of that premeditation that drops it down a notch."

Zimmerman's shooting of the unarmed black teenager Feb. 26 brought demands from black leaders for his arrest and set off a furious nationwide debate over race and self-defense that reached all the way to the White House.

The 28-year-old Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother is Hispanic, said the teenager attacked him. Martin's family argued Zimmerman was the aggressor.

On Tuesday, Zimmerman's lawyers announced they were withdrawing from the case because they hadn't heard from him since Sunday and didn't know where he was. They portrayed his mental state as fragile.

16 Photos

Fla. teen Trayvon Martin killed by neighborhood watch volunteer

"He is largely alone. You might even say he is emotionally crippled by virtue of the pressure of this case," said one of the lawyers, Hal Uhrig.

The case has drawn the interest of the highest levels of the Obama administration, with the Justice Department's civil rights division opening its own investigation.

Zimmerman's arrest was delayed partly because of Florida's "stand your ground" law, which gives people wide leeway to use deadly force without having to retreat in the face of danger. Florida is among 21 states with such a law.

Tensions have risen in recent days in Sanford. Someone shot up an unoccupied police car Tuesday as it sat outside the neighborhood where Martin was killed. And a demonstration by college students closed the town's police station Monday.

Six weeks ago, Martin was returning to the home of his father's fiancee from a convenience store when Zimmerman started following him. Zimmerman told police dispatchers he looked suspicious. At some point, the two got into a fight and Zimmerman used his gun.

Zimmerman told police Martin attacked him after he had given up chasing the teenager and was returning to his truck. He told detectives that Martin knocked him to the ground and began slamming his head on the sidewalk. Zimmerman's father said that Martin threatened to kill his son and that Zimmerman suffered a broken nose.

A video taken about 40 minutes after the shooting as Zimmerman arrived at the Sanford police station showed him walking unassisted without difficulty. There were no plainly visible bandages or blood on his clothing, but Zimmerman may have had a small wound on the back of his head.

The shooting ignited resentment toward the police department, and Police Chief Bill Lee temporarily stepped down to let passions cool.

Civil rights groups and others have held rallies around the country, saying the shooting was unjustified. Many of the protesters wore the same type of hooded sweatshirt that Martin had on that day, suggesting his appearance and race had something to do with his killing.

President Barack Obama injected himself into the debate, urging Americans to "do some soul-searching." "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," Obama said March 23.

The local prosecutor disqualified himself from the case, and Gov. Rick Scott appointed Corey, the prosecutor for Jacksonville, to take it over.

Trayvon Martin Shooting: A timeline of events
A profile of State Attorney Angela Corey

[victorjhon]

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[occupy_cbs]

truthwillb: "this was a political re election move at best by the prosecutor and will not result in conviction"




While I will admit this is an uphill battle by the prosecution in a state that passed a ridiculous version of the SYG law, Special Prosecutor Angela Corey is tenacious, dedicated and set in her ways.

When fired in 2006 from her post as a prosecutor in the same office where she had been working since the early 1980s, saying her termination was political, she was undeterred, announcing immediately that she planned to run for her boss' job. With the support of local law enforcement, she won, and was elected state attorney for the district representing her hometown of Jacksonville, Fla., in 2008.

According to Jacksonville defense attorney Mitchell Stone, Corey's reputation for being tough and close with law enforcement is earned. Stone says he worked with Corey at the state attorney's office from 1988 to 1991 and that she is tenacious, dedicated and set in her ways.

"If she sees things a particular way and she believes the evidence confirms her suspicions, it will take an awful lot to get her to back off," says Stone. Stone, who has worked on cases with and against Corey for more than two decades, says her office is "eminently qualified" to handle the investigation into Martin's death.

I think she was a good pick by the republican governor as Special Prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case, and has tried hundreds of murder cases in her career, including many involving Florida's "stand your ground" self-defense law.

Don't sell Corey short, and expect more than politics in this case!

[truthwillb]

No way this will result in conviction on second degree murder . as said by renowned attorney , Alan Dershiwitz publicly said yesterday this was a political re election move at best by the prosecutor and will not result in conviction . The prosecutor even left out both sides of the story in her affidavit yesterday . That , in itself, is unjust . Furthermore, this case was grossly and irresponsibly over charged.

ACQUITTAL OR CASE THROWN OUT BY JUDGE guaranteed . If the judge is any good at all and follows the basic rules of the court the case will be dismissed .

IF it goes beyond that it will be a plea to a greatly reduced charge and a responsibly light sentence . From the evidence known today it was clearly self defense . This Hispanic man will be free after this nightmare in my opinion.

[occupy_cbs]

LOL!

From the evidence known today outside of the sean hannity circus, it was clearly murder by an overly-zealous, cop wannabe, vigilante, with clear racist hatred towards blacks!

[erasmus111]

by cattiej April 11, 2012 7:52 PM EDT
There is so much hate in this world.. We here in America have so much that many other countries do not have....why do we have to kill each other and why is the need for drugs so great...I think it is because we have no morals and no humanity..One would think that as our world gets older and older, we would get better and better toward one another but for some unknown reason we persist on killing one another in the name of religion, politics,selfishness, meaness or just plain crazyness...I don't have much hope for our planet..We are our own worst enemy..I hope the next world that I am in is better than this one.


Great post.

[mick7744]

by smittyc

What's going on is not helping Obama with the hispanic vote, that's for sure. This is one hot political potatoe.

***************************************

Hey smittyc...

You spell the word POTATO just like another clueless imbecile...former VP Dan Quayle

Don't be shy...proclaim your invincible ignorance proudly...just like he always did...

Although anyone reading your posts already knows

[McJen50]

Hey smittyc...

You spell the word POTATO just like another clueless imbecile...former VP Dan Quayle

Howz about that great prez that thinks Austrians speak Austrian, that Hawaii is part of Asia, that there are 57 or 58 states, that a breathalyzer is used for breathing problems?

[ibsteve2u]

Take race out of it, and you have a man in a car following someone on foot around on a dark and rainy night...

And then the man in the car gets out to seek a confrontation...

Were that scenario a "Rocky" movie and it was "Rocky" who was on foot, you'd be screaming so hard for "Rocky" to plow the guy that you'd spilling your popcorn on your date.

[RealiteBites]

I think 2nd degree murder should be easy enough to prove.

2nd degree murder includes when somebody intends to kill or cause serious bodily harm, and thinks they're defending themselves but their belief is unreasonable.

manslaughter is when somebody doesn't intend to kill or cause serious bodily harm, they just intend to injure somebody, or they were just fooling around, but they're really reckless and the gun accidentally went off.

Here, Zimmerman clearly intended to cause serious bodily harm with a gun shot. So the case will probably hinge on whether or not his belief that his life was in danger was reasonable (given that Treyvon was just going to the store, was just a kid, was unarmed).

Also ... ugggh ... it's been a while, but I think there's also a requirement that a shooting be a last resort. So like if Zimmerman could have just walked away, or tried to communicate with Treyvon, it would not have been reasonable for him to shoot him.

I'm not so sure about the last bit. Also there's probably more stuff that I'm not thinking of, but the prosecutor should be able to get a conviction I think.

[RealiteBites]

I understand why race is seen as a core issue of this case.

Because the reasonability of Zimmerman's belief that his life was in danger is at issue.

And if his fear for his life was unreasonable, there's that question of why he felt such fear from a harmless kid ... if not for race, right?

[RealiteBites]

Oh ... interesting - I just read online that manslaughter in Florida is a lesser included offense to 2nd degree murder.

So, it looks like for sure the prosecutor ought to be able to prove that, for those who were worried that she aimed her sights too high. So that's good to hear ...

[betty42254]

I am shocked...a media trial and Jose' Baez didn't take the case...

[cmc1227]

I find it odd that black society only gets upset when somebody from another race kills a black person. You never see them up in arms over murders that go on in this country day after day that involve blacks killing another black. Al and Jesse only come out when they feel whitey has done wrong against a black person. Where is Al and Jesse for the rights of these other dead black people?
Zimmerman's mother is Hispanic but all you hear about is his white father. It's the white blood in him that they're concerned with. Are we only going to put his white side on trial and let his Hispanic side go free?

[cliffwellspdx]

I find it odd that you find it odd that people focus on issues that affect them directly.

[smittyc]

There goes the Hispanic vote for Obama

[McJen50]

No but I am sure that they are against a railroad job.