George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin Case: Timelines, Screams and Reasonable Doubt

Thus far, most people have reached their own verdict based on emotion alone.

On Sunday February 26, 2012 at roughly 7:09 pm, George Zimmerman places a call to a non emergency police line in which he reports Trayvon Martin as a suspicious person. Several minutes prior, he first observed Martin between some houses on the outskirts of gated community. It aroused his suspicions due to the fact it was raining and Martin appeared to be looking around the houses in the dark, aimlessly, in no hurry to get out of the rain. Zimmerman, now pulled over at the community's clubhouse continues to watch Trayvon.

In the course of the 4 minute and 7 second police call he describes Martin, his mannerisms and where he is headed. Zimmerman also maintains view in his car, driving more than 100 yards from the clubhouse on Retreat View Circle to Twin Trees Lane. He parks for a second time there while still on the phone with the police dispatcher. Suddenly, the focus of the call shifts from Zimmerman giving distracted directions where to find him - to the fact Martin just approached his vehicle and then inexplicably ran off out of sight.

At roughly 7:14 pm, Zimmerman is now on foot, yards away from his parked truck on a dog walk that serves as a cut through to the adjacent street, in the backyard area between the rows of adjoined houses. Around this time he ends his call, Martin has vanished and he now proceeds to walk westbound back to his truck, expecting to meet up with police shortly.

Exactly what happens in the next few minutes is unknown. A violent encounter occurs between the two people, 911 calls begin pouring in regarding the fight, one call capturing numerous screams from the scuffle and also the fatal gunshot, moments before police arrive on scene at 7:17 pm. The first responding officer finds a bloodied Zimmerman near an unresponsive Martin, laying face down with a single gunshot wound to the chest, a bit more than 50 yards from where he first starting running.

Over the past year, many new revelations have come to light. Some important, some irrelevant. However, what hasn't changed is the lack of insight as to what happened in the minutes after Zimmerman got off the phone with police. By all accounts, both had ample time to get to their implied destinations (Zimmerman, back to his truck; Martin back to his house or out of the immediate area) but neither of them did, and neither seemed to go very far despite fast movements on both sides. Interestingly, Martin's 'girlfriend' alluded to him being out of breath, but also that he was "not going to run". Zimmerman also seemed to engage in some sort of quick sprint, but appeared to stop when the dispatcher told him following the suspect wasn't necessary. The question is why neither party achieved any sort of distance on one another.

Seemingly, without any major evidence as to who started the altercation, the prosecution has focused again on its contention that the screams on the 911 call were in fact from Trayvon. They have also procured a few audio expects who side with them to back their claims up. However, this seems to be a shaky point. The FBI's analysis came up inconclusive as they felt the quality was too poor and there were too many other variables to reach any sort of conclusion. Other experts conceded the screams might be from both Martin and Zimmerman as well.

Mark O'Mara could theoretically bring in his his own "experts" as well and simply turn this into a duel of audiologists. However, that takes time and money, something the defense doesn't have so likely his route will be to try and have the judge rule to exclude this from court proceedings.

However, given the facts, one has to ask, for what reason would Martin be screaming? Clearly, Martin was on the better end of the fight. Zimmerman, not so much with the fractured, bloody, swollen nose and lacerations, bruises, scrapes etc. Aside from the single gunshot, Martin was virtually unscathed with just a minor cut on his knuckle. Couple that with the closest eyewitness adamant that he was on top of Zimmerman, is there really a plausible situation where he'd be screaming?

Sure, many people out there would like to think Zimmerman was prowling around with his gun drawn and racking the slide, but realistically with no evidence to support that, what scenario would fit Martin being the screamer? Besides, who in their right mind would, unarmed, attempt to attack someone with a gun? Even in a situation like that, how could Martin have such an upper hand in the fight and not manage to get his hands (or at least a fingerprint) on the weapon?

As stated before, the fight was relatively brief, Zimmerman clearly took a beating. I just don't see a possibility that, while doling out this beating, Martin decided to start screaming at the top of his lungs for 30 plus seconds. Or conversely, I can't imagine Zimmerman somehow gaining control and then perhaps waving his gun around for that long, causing Martin to scream, calling attention to fact that he is now out of harm's way and about to commit murder.

And let's not forget the fact that Trayvon's own father initially denied it was him screaming upon first hearing the recording. To me, that is way more damning than some random expert claiming he hears all sorts of weird utterances from Zimmerman and somehow matches the screams to Martin without any type of reasonable exemplar from him to base his "opinion" on.

With this case, people are favoring their emotions over any sort of legal basis here. We are forgetting we are missing the most vital pieces to the puzzle - any solid evidence as to who started the fight. All that we're left with is two sides of a story, one we'll never hear and one that presents a case of self defense that has yet to be conclusively disproved. That, my friends, is called reasonable doubt.