{"id":13949,"date":"2012-04-12T15:38:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T19:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13949"},"modified":"2012-04-12T15:47:10","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T19:47:10","slug":"authorities-charge-zimmerman-with-second-degree-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13949","title":{"rendered":"Authorities Charge Zimmer- man With Second-Degree Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, <strong>George Zimmerman<\/strong> turned himself in to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Special prosecutor <strong>Angela Corey<\/strong> announced earlier that <strong>Zimmerman<\/strong> would be charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old<strong> Trayvon Martin<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Zimmerman<\/strong> shot <strong>Martin<\/strong> February 26th in a gated community in Sanford, Florida. <strong>Martin<\/strong> was not armed, and<strong> Zimmerman<\/strong>, 28, alleged the shooting was first a \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d incident, then later said it was in self defense.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zimmerman<\/strong> made is first court appearance Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zimmerman<\/strong> was booked into the Seminole County Jail on the charge and he could face a minimum of 25 years in prison or a maximum of life if he is convicted.<\/p>\n<p>While making the announcement, <strong>Corey<\/strong> said she would not discuss how she reconciled the conflicting accounts of what happened that rainy night or explain how she arrived at the charges. A second-degree murder charge in Florida is typically charged when there is a fight or other confrontation that results in death and where there is no premeditated plan to kill someone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Martin\u2019s<\/strong> parents said charges against <strong>Zimmerman<\/strong> would start the healing process, but they won\u2019t stop fighting until he is convicted.<\/p>\n<p>Some legal experts had expected the prosecutor to opt for the lesser charge of manslaughter, which usually carries 15 years in prison and covers reckless or negligent killings, rather than second-degree murder which involves a killing that results from a depraved disregard for human life.<\/p>\n<p>The allegedly confrontation took place in a gated community where <strong>Martin<\/strong> was staying with his father and his father\u2019s fianc\u00e9e. In phone calls, <strong>Zimmerman<\/strong> told an emergency dispatcher <strong>Martin<\/strong> looked suspicious, and he followed the teen despite the dispatcher telling him to stay in his vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>The U. S. Justice department\u2019s civil Rights Division is conducting its own investigation, but federal authorities usually wait until a state prosecution is complete before deciding how to proceed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, George Zimmerman turned himself in to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Special prosecutor Angela Corey announced earlier that Zimmerman would be charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman shot Martin February 26th in a gated community in Sanford, Florida. Martin was not armed, and Zimmerman, 28, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}