jeantel's mind. she tells the story to ms. fulton over the phone in a very weird, awkward way, and then it's exacerbated by mr. de la rionda having her retell the story with ms. fulton sitting on the couch crying. it's the worst way to present a witness. it should never have been in front of the victim's mother. having said all of that, i think ms. jeantel came across as being not wanting to be there, i think she had a bit of an attitude because she was there, i don't think she took very kindly to the way mr. west was examining her -- >> i think you're quite right, yeah. >> -- and i think that showed, and i give her her due in that she didn't want to be involved in our system. she was thrust into our system, one that she's completely unaware of and she was sort of stuck and prodded. if you put me in a hospital and started sticking needles in my arm and pull blood, i resist. and i think that's what she did. >> bernie de la rionda. what do you think of him? >> he's a career prosecutor who i've never been up against before, and h

as seema said, it's very clear that the prosecution did not sit down with ms. jeantel. they did not go over questions with her. they did not make her feel comfortable. they did not prepare her that she would be there for a long time, and to remain calm when she was cross-examined. i go through each question and make sure they feel comfortable. credibility is key in any juror trial. unfortunately, i think the prosecution blew this case. >> let's get into particulars here. seema, what could the witness there for the prosecution, could she have said rachel jeantel, could she have said to that jury of six women that would have altered their judgment? >> with a she could have done is her demeanor was off and presented the inconsistencies that frankly were trivial to the relevancy of the case. and, again, i just -- chris, i'm sorry. i put this on the prosecution. there were so many questions that don west posed to ms. jeantel about trayvon martin, what was he thinking and why was he doing certain things. chris, that is legally objectionable. you cannot ask a witness on the st

there were so many questions that don west posed to ms. jeantel about trayvon martin, what was he thinking and why was he doing certain things. chris, that is legally objectionable. you cannot ask a witness on the stand about what someone else, someone else who frankly is dead, what they were thinking and what they were doing because you did not observe it, and that is state of mind. so i put this on the prosecution. >> and i also agree that with ms. jeantel's demeanor and her somewhat aggressiveness, it kind of put in the jurors' minds, okay, if she has this type of attitude, is that what trayvon martin had? >> that's right. >> is that why -- >> what about the cracker comment? i'm a northerner. cracker is not a word i hear from black or white. it must be a local term, southern, i guess, certainly southern. what did you make of it? didn't seem to bother her as an ethnic term of drigs? >> i think it was an ignorant term. i think her being 19 years old did not think of the consequence of using those types of terms. i think it did hurt the pr

i think what was established with ms. jeantel, there were challenges within it. we showed through her testimony, the second to last phone call ended with trayvon martin. it started and then when the event itself occurred, through that testimony, it was pointed out that there were four minutes in between the time when trayvon martin ran off until he reappeared and the confrontation with george zimmerman occurred. as well, the circumstances under which ms. jeantel was asked to answer questions were extraordinarily challenging for her. my goodness. she wanted to be left alone. she did not volunteer anything until she was pulled out of this. and the first interview she gave was with the family lawyer, with the family present on the other end of the phone. it was an interview made for tv, not for law enforcement. it was then followed by an interview with state attorney's office on april 2nd under the most extraordinary circumstances. it took place in miss fulton's living room with miss fulton sitting next to ms. jeantel, that was the witness saying i was uncomfortable

ms. jeantel didn't want to be here, and i am -- i don't want to the ask for sympathy. i'm sorry she had to involve her life in our lives in a way that she never wanted to be involved. unfortunately, she was a witness, and we had to deal with it. and some of her frailties came out in the courtroom, on tv that i'm sure she never wanted out. and probably every other witnesses. you know witnesses want to be anonymous. you know all that. they were concerned. and she's one of them. some of the stuff she said was, you know, that it was close to the dad's fiancee's place. i actually think she meant close as compared to the 7/eleven. makes more sense. took him 45 minutes to go from the 7/eleven home. probably just happening out at some mailbox, i showed you the map between the two. doesn't make any sense he was hanging out at the mailbox at retreat view circle, but whatever. and her why you following me for, somebody said what are you talking about? then it changed. i think that change occurred because of the way her initial interview was handled by one of the attorneys. horrib

and you have ms. jeantel talked about losing contact and you have the call. and i was able to tell you as to when the gun shot occurred because we were able to time when she made the call and you hear the gun shot, unfortunately, in that call. and then you have other calls that you heard speak and then you have when officer smith arrived at the retreat at twin lakes and mr. good's call. so i would submit to you that's relevant in terms of establishing the time line as best as we can as to what occurred. now are people off, you know, by a few minutes, possibly, but the phone records don't lie. because my recollection was that we spent, i think, half a day one day and possibly half the day the next day hearing from one witness. her name was rachel jeantel. now, this young lady i will submit to you is not a sophisticated person. not the most educated. but she's a human being. she happens to be, what, haitian or of haitian descent and made a big deal about, oh, you can't read cursive. yes, you can, unfortunately. she's what, 18, 19? but did what she tell you as b

jeantel talked of she lost contact and got it back up. then ms. lauer's call. that's when i was able to tell you unequivocally as to when the gunshot occurred. we were able to time when ms. lauer made the call. you hear the gunshot unfortunately in that call. you have other calls to mr. dyka. officer smith arrived at the retreat at twin lakes. you have mr. good's call. i would submit to you that's relevant in terms of establishing the timeline as best we can as to what occurred. now, are people off by a few minutes? possibly. but the phone records don't lie. because my recollection was that we spent, i think, half a day one day and possibly half a day the next day hearing from one witness. her name was rachel jeantel. now, this young lady, i will submit to you, is not a very sophisticated person. she's not educated. she's a human being. she spoke as best she could. she happens to be haitian or of haitian descent. made a big deal about, oh, you can't read cursive. yeah, she can't. unfortunately. she's, what, 18, 19? but did what she tell you as best she could an

that's clear from ms. jen jeantel and frankly any other evidence. we know that happened from the physical evidence as well as the circumstantial evidence which is just as good as direct evidence. so that's established clearly. there was no pursuit. you heard the call. mr. zimmerman says when he was told we don't need you do that, okay. and he was on the phone for another, what, minute or so. we know where the event took place. it started at the t. george zimmerman's key with the flashlight was found right there, the one he had on n. his hand on the way back to the car thinking that the police were going to arrive any minute. it is outrageous to suggest that there is sufficient evidence to offer to this jury that george zimmerman provoked this incident because what the law requires in order to have provoked this incident is proof that there was the use of force, the actual use of force, or the threatened use of force. walking up to somebody, following somebody is not enough to get you to the legal definition of provoke. that's the gibbs case. it's cl

ms. jeantel didn't want to be here, and i don't want to seem like i'm asking for sympathy. i'm sorry she had to involve her life in our lives in a way she never wanted to be involved. unfortunately, she was a witness and we had to deal with it. and some of her frailties came out in the courtroom, on tv, and i'm sure she never wanted that. and probably every other witness. some witness it is wanted to be anonymous, you know, that they were concerned, and she's one of them. some of the stuff she said, i think she probably meant close as compared to the 7-eleven. it took him 45 minutes to go from the 7-eleven home, probably was hanging out. i'll show you the map between the two. somebody said, why are you talking about? i think that change occurred because of way her initial interview was handled by one of the attorneys. horribly appropriate to not get this person to law enforcement. almost as bad as to have the moment on the couch next to you cry i crying when the state does the first interview. their call, but wow, to do it that way. of course she was concerned about ms. mar

testimony before the trial, it doesn't show up in the internal conversation with ms. fulton or mr. de la rionda and showed up slightly in a deposition. if that fact, trayvon martin was that concerned about his safety, let just say that was better communicated to ms. jeantel and the prosecutor, then why in those four minutes when he had 80 yards why did he stay around so that altercation could occur? because he made the decision to not go home what might have been in his mind? sgh dporg zimmerman could have gone him? >> absolutely. there was a thousand points this could have not happened. >> anderson cooper had a fascinating interview with a juror, how confusing they found the law. >> the law became very confusing. >> tell me about that. >> it became very confusing. we had stuff thrown at us. we had the second-degree murder charge, the manslaughter charge, then we had self-defense, stand your ground. >> did you feel like you understood the instructions from the judge because they were very complex. >> that was our problem. i mean, it was just so confusing what went --

you but that with ms. jeantel, a lot of issues, but i believe her, evidence about that. >> let me go to a big point that came out today. he said before he knew there was ever a recording of his voice screaming, he said to the police he was screaming help, help, help. does that help his credibility, peter? >> oh, sure. different accounts, up to 50 times he's screaming for help. i'm still focusing on this notion they are lies. waited for ana to expose some. haven't exposed any. talks about induction, logic, maybe we've even talked about common sense, though not a lot of it in terms of actual evidence. the evidence we've heard so far is consistent with self-defense, and the issue becomes how far do you have to come near death in order to act in self-defense? and was it commence rate with the risk that he was facing at this time? now, he's made clear that he is afraid, and i think he did to you, he would go unconscious. and he said his head was being banged on the ground repeatedly. no objective standard in th

testimony before the trial, it doesn't show up in the internal conversation with ms. fulton or mr. de la rionda and showed up slightly in a deposition. if that fact, trayvon martin was that concerned about his safety, let just say that was better communicated to ms. jeantel and the prosecutor, then why in those four minutes when he had 80 yards why did he stay around so that altercation could occur? because he made the decision to not go home what might have been in his mind? george zimmerman could have gone him? >> absolutely. there was a thousand points this could have not happened. >> anderson cooper had a fascinating interview with a juror, how confusing they found the law. >> the law became very confusing. >> tell me about that. >> it became very confusing. we had stuff thrown at us. we had the second-degree murder charge, the manslaughter charge, then we had self-defense, stand your ground. >> did you feel like you understood the instructions from the judge because they were very complex. >> that was our problem. i mean, it was just so confusing what went -- wha

>> not according to what we hear from his parents, not according to what we hear from ms. jeantel. now, the state opted not to put any other family members on. we didn't see any of his friends being put on. we didn't get a picture of trayvon martin, at least from the state perspective. you know, let people ask the state, why did they not put on other people who could give a better picture, better composite of who trayvon martin was? you can't fault the defense for having done that for george zimmerman. that's their job. the question people need to ask is, why did the state not do that? >> can you blame the jury for coming to its conclusion? >> well, i don't think blame is necessarily the word. i think the bigger issue here is just how the presentation did not match the seriousness of the crime and how the presentation paled in comparison to what the defense did. i think this is very telling, if we had seen that rachel jeantel from piers morgan's interview last night and she had been transformed into the rachel jeantel last week because of don west cross examination, it would have b

. >> laura: i mean, for ms. jeantel's appearance on the stand. people thought people were being unfair to her. the woman on the phone with trayvon, when of course, he was approaching trayvon -- approaching zimmerman. and that was obviously not a good moment for the prosecution. but even past that, i mean, you can't supplant and philip, can you chime. in you can't supplant emotion with where the facts are supposed to be in the case to prove that element of ill will or anger or visceral hatred of trayvon martin or a black person in order to prove that second degree murder charge. might be different for the manslaughter. >> i would absolutely agree with you. i think they painted themselves in the corner from the beginning by locking themselves into the version that they thought was going to come out. and quite frankly, that version did not come out. that being said at the end of the day, you still have a 17-year-old child. you still have an individual who is dead through no fault of his own. i think that if -- if the state could show enough emotion

if we could get the court reporter's note from the date that ms. jeantel testified, it was two different dates. i believe is it defense exhibit "dd"? is that how it was identified? i have that as a tape of jeantel interview with the state attorney's office. >> i believe it was, your honor. >> is that "dd"? it was not played in front of the jury, but we can verify it. is there any way to get -- >> it looks as though there may be an issue. we'll have some time between now and the time the jury would get it. we'll take care of fixing it. the only concern was that this is now in evidence as "dd" -- >> not in evidence. it's identified. >> so this is just marked. i apologize. >> it's marked for identification purposes. okay. were there any more of those house -- any more housekeeping matters? >> we'll get you the weather information. i think that's it, your honor. >> okay. mr. zimmerman, please stand up. i'll remind you, sir, that you're still under oath from when we had you sworn in earlier before the break. did you now have sufficient time to discuss w

i heard somebody today commenting they will call ms. jeantel. you don't want to do that. she can't be resuscitated. you are the government, you need no rally. i don't know if forensics or ballistics or forensic pathologists will help them on the homestretch. i hope some of. >> jim, let's go to you. we have to go. i think ballistics are very important. the direction of the bullet into the chest will corroborate or defeat what george zimmerman says happen. the medical examiner is important. what are your thoughts? >> at the end of the day, let's not lose sight of the fact, a 17-year-old boy, not a man walking home with skittles, confronts an adult man. you don't get to leave a fight with somebody dead unarmed, unless you have a compelling reason your life was in danger. losing a fight is not enough to commit burden. otherwise every bar in america would end in murder every night. because you could shoot them. >> i had say -- >> some racist on a jihad to go kill a black guy that night. this is a manslaughter case at least. settle on that, try to get a conviction. my advice. >

jeantel. she is so solid on a core event and it had the ring of truth to it. so the prosecutor can make those kind of arguments. then when you get to this person, this person as the pursuer, he is armed with a gun, he ultimately kills this kid. and he claims the justification for it that he was getting beat when he was in fact the initial pursuer. he never retreated. he never got away from him. he never said i'm sorry, i'm not involved in this, backed away. as the aggressor, the prosecutor can make the argument but for his aggressive conduct, this never would have happened. >> now, you also have the situation where he said that had spread trayvon martin's hands out once he had shot him. and because he didn't know if he had something in his hands, and he spread them out to make sure he had nothing that he was going to assault him with, faith. but then we find that trayvon martin's hands were folded underneath him, and that he had not spread out his hands, which is another total fabrication from zimmerman. >> right. and some people say well, that's minor. perhap

it took place in miss fulton's living room with miss fulton sitting next to ms. jeantel. that set the stage for the wit herself saying i was uncomfortable. i changed my testimony to really to accommodate the feelings of miss fulton. that was the setting for all of this. plus, as -- she really didn't want to be there. was that a challenge? of course, it was, but i think ultimately, when you distill it to its important parts that we did accomplish ultimately what we wanted. as to druxt bao, did you hear dr. dimaio's testimony? much of my cross-examination of the doctor was to set the stage for that. indicating where they would clearly disagree trying to identify xwr and how they would disagree and then offering i think the foremost expert in the country on the very issue we had in our case. >> fox 35 news. two questions. do you think the judge was fair or unfair to you and my other question is, do you think this verdict will hurt race relations? >> judge nelson runs her courtroom very well. and she moved this case along at a pace that i appreciated. obviously we were asking

i think ms. jeantel came across as being not wanting to be there. i think she had a bit of an attitude because she was there. i don't think she took very kindly to the way mr. west was examining her. >> reporter: i think you're quite right, yeah. >> i think that showed. i give her her due in that she didn't want to be involved in our system. >> reporter: do you think that george zimmerman, your client, if he's acquitted, what kind of life will he have? >> not a good one. i think he has to live mostly in hiding. he's got to be able to protect himself from that periphery that still believe that he's some racist murderer or acted in a bad way. and that you don't know who they are. they don't know if they're down the street. or you don't know if they're across the country. i think that he's probably concerned about living still in central florida. and never having a normal life. >> reporter: is this the case you want to be remembered for? >> well, i'd like to wait until an acquittal happens before i'm remembered for it. but yes. i'm okay with that. for

go to trayvon's mother's house and sit her down next to ms. fulton and interview her. >> that's outrageous. is that reason for appeal? >> no, but, wait a minute, why would a prosecution do this? no homicide case you wouldn't jeopardize your case to appease everybody. the mother, father, brother, relatives, all in one room at the same time. when one says it's trayvon, it poisons all the other. they tainted the family's testimony which hurt the case. that's one of the things that makes you go this is not right. >> you agree? >> i do agree with this. i think the evidence is there. i think they hurt the case. how did they not pick up trayvon martin's cell phone the night he died and go to that person on the phone with him minutes before right away? why the prosecution came forward, i don't necessarily agree with that? i think there was social pressure, political pressure, all the way around. but i think a lot was incomplete police work. >> mark fuhrman. >> i have an answer for that. >> jose, go ahead. >> yes, i do. trayvon martin's phone died and