I have not seen this on DKos so I am putting it out there. The Orlando Sentinel reported on Tuesday that three witnesses in the Trayvon Martin killing have changed their stories and a fourth 'abandoned' her initial story.
They report that the newly revised stories could be damaging to George Zimmerman who is accused of second degree murder in Martin's killing.
The witnesses are known only by number. Here are the major changes:
Witness #2 originally said she saw two men running, subsequently added a detail that they were ten feet apart. When interviewed by the FDLE she revised this to state that she only saw one person running and because she had just removed her contact lenses and had no glasses on, she didn't really even see the figure but more heard him.
she told lead Investigator Chris Serino, "I saw two guys running. Couldn't tell you who was in front, who was behind."
She stepped away from her window, and when she looked again, she "saw a fistfight. Just fists. I don't know who was hitting who."
A week later, she added a detail when talking again to Serino: During the chase, the two figures had been 10 feet apart.
That all changed when she was reinterviewed March 20 by an FDLE agent. That time, she recalled catching a glimpse of just one running figure, she told FDLE Investigator John Batchelor, and she heard the person more than saw him.
"I couldn't tell you if it was a man, a woman, a kid, black or white. I couldn't tell you because it was dark and because I didn't have my contacts on or glasses. … I just know I saw a person out there."
Witness #12 went from not knowing who was on top to being sure it was Zimmerman on top during the fight. She said she became sure who on top after seeing TV reports about the incident and concluded it was Zimmerman because of his size. Since she revised her story based on news accounts, it's not clear that this will be as helpful to convicting Zimmerman.
she said she saw two people on the ground immediately after the shooting and was not sure who was on top, Zimmerman or Trayvon."I don't know which one. … All I saw when they were on the ground was dark colors," she said.
Six days later, however, she was sure: It was Zimmerman on top, she told trial prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda during a 21/2-minute recorded session.
Witness #13 was the one who lives near where the fight took place and was the first one to see Zimmerman. He had said Zimmerman told him he had to shoot Martin and asked him to call his wife and tell her. In a subsequent interview he provided more detail of Zimmerman's demeanor when saying those words and was surprised at how casually he spoke:
In two subsequent interviews about a month later — one with an FDLE investigator and one with de la Rionda — the witness described Zimmerman's demeanor in greater detail, adding that he spoke as if the shooting were no big deal.
Zimmerman's tone, the witness said, was "not like 'I can't believe I just shot someone!' — it was more like, 'Just tell my wife I shot somebody …,' like it was nothing."
And the last one, Witness #6, may be the most important. This is the man who described Martin pinning down Zimmerman and landing punches, 'MMA' style (mixed martial arts). It seems the MMA fight was a product of his over-active imagination and now says Martin just pinned down Zimmerman. I think this account was the one that was seized on by defenders of Zimmerman, who were convinced this proved Martin was the aggressor. I know there were many comments in diaries here that this account was Zimmerman's guarantee of acquittal.
he told Serino he saw a black man on top of a lighter-skinned man "just throwing down blows on the guy, MMA-style," a reference to mixed martial arts.
He also said the one calling for help was "the one being beat up," a reference to Zimmerman.
But three weeks later, when he was interviewed by an FDLE agent, the man said he was no longer sure which one called for help.
"I truly can't tell who, after thinking about it, was yelling for help just because it was so dark out on that sidewalk," he said.
He also said he was no longer sure Trayvon was throwing punches. The teenager may have simply been keeping Zimmerman pinned to the ground, he said.
He did not equivocate, though, about who was on top.
"The black guy was on top," he said.
The witnesses will all be reinterviewed under oath before trial.