Attorneys for George Zimmerman question Trayvon Martin's girlfriendBy Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel
5:06 p.m. EDT, March 20, 2013
George Zimmerman's attorneys were in South Florida late last week, deposing Trayvon Martin's girlfriend, dad, mom and brother, according to newly-filed case records.
On Wednesday Mark O'Mara took the sworn account of Trayvon's girlfriend, the state's most important witness, at a Miami office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Shortly after Trayvon's death, she told authorities that she was on the phone with him a few moments before he was shot by Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer who had called Sanford police a few minutes earlier, describing the unarmed 17-year-old as suspicious.
Zimmerman, 29, is charged with second-degree murder and is awaiting trial in Sanford.
He says he acted in self-defense.
It's not clear what Trayvon's girlfriend told Zimmerman's attorneys, but they were expected to challenge her on statements she's made that appear to be untrue.
She was 18 at the time of the shooting, but when an attorney for Trayvon's family, Benjamin Crump, introduced a recorded statement she gave to him, he described her as age 16.
And she told Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda that she missed Trayvon's funeral because she was in a hospital.
Prosecutors earlier this month admitted there were no medical records that would bear out her claim.
She's important because of what she says she heard that night while on the phone with Trayvon.
She has said that Trayvon described to her a man who was following and frightening him.
She told Crump she heard Trayvon and the man exchange words then Trayvon's phone went dead.
Zimmerman's attorneys did not finish questioning the 19-year-old woman, his office said, and
will schedule another session.She was one of seven witnesses that defense attorneys deposed in South Florida late last week.
That includes Trayvon's father on Thursday and his mother and half-brother on Friday.
It's not clear what they disclosed.
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