SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — Trayvon Martin’s father testified Monday that he never denied it was his son’s voice screaming for help on a 911 call, contradicting police officers’ earlier testimony at George Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial.
Tracy Martin was the latest in a series of witnesses called by lawyers on both sides as they seek to convince jurors of who was the aggressor in the nighttime confrontation that left Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, dead in February 2012. Later in the day, the Florida judge ruled that defense attorneys may present evidence to the jury that Trayvon Martin had marijuana in his system when he died.
The teen’s father testified that he merely told officers he couldn’t tell if it was his son after his first time listening to the call, which captured the audio of a fight between Martin and Zimmerman.
“I never said that wasn’t my son’s voice,” said Tracy Martin, who added that he concluded it was his son after listening to the call as many as 20 times.
Before Tracy Martin took the witness stand, the lead Sanford, Fla. police investigator who probed Martin’s death testified that the father had answered “no” when the detective asked if the screams belonged to Trayvon Martin. Officer Chris Serino played the 911 call for Tracy Martin in the days immediately following Trayvon Martin’s death in February 2012.
“He looked away and under his breath he said ‘no,”’ Serino said of Tracy Martin.
Officer Doris Singleton backed up Serino’s account.
Convincing the jury of who was screaming for help on the tape is important to both sides because it would help jurors evaluate Zimmerman’s self-defense claim. Relatives of Martin’s and George Zimmerman’s have offered conflicting opinions about who is heard screaming.
Late in the day, Judge Debra Nelson made a key ruling out of the presence of the jury.
The judge denied a prosecution request to keep out parts of a toxicology report that shows Trayvon Martin had small amounts of marijuana in his system. Prosecutors argued the information would be prejudicial. But defense attorneys said it was relevant because Zimmerman believed Martin was under the influence at the time he spotted him in his neighborhood. Nelson had ruled before the trial that mention of marijuana wouldn’t be allowed in opening statements.
Next, the judge considered a prosecution motion to stop defense attorneys from presenting an animated depiction of the fatal fight between Martin and Zimmerman. Prosecutors had requested that the animation commissioned by the defense not be mentioned or played at Zimmerman’s trial, claiming it would only confuse jurors. The judge hadn’t made a ruling Monday afternoon.
Most of the day was taken up with testimony by a series of Zimmerman’s friends, called to testify that the screams on the recording were his. The recording of the 911 call was played multiple times in the courtroom. A gym owner who trained Zimmerman also described him as physically soft and an inferior fighter.
The emergency call captured the confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin shortly before Zimmerman fatally shot the 17-year-old Martin. Zimmerman’s mother and uncle testified last Friday it was Zimmerman screaming. Martin’s mother and brother also took the witness stand last Friday to say the voice belongs to Martin.
Zimmerman himself once said during a police interview that the screams didn’t sound like him, though he and his family later said the screams were his.