Teen slaying trial focuses on DNA

DNA evidence took center stage Wednesday as prosecutors presented some of their final witnesses in Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman’s trial on a charge of second-degree murder in the killing of teen Trayvon Martin.

Neither gun nor fingernails

Defense attorneys maintain Zimmerman shot Martin in self defense after the teen pinned him to the ground and beat him him, saying Zimmerman felt his life was threatened. Mark Osterman, who described Zimmerman as his best friend, testified Tuesday that Zimmerman told him his shirt was pulled up during the struggle and that he felt Martin grab either his gun or holster. Osterman said Zimmerman told him that, fearing for his life, he knocked Martin’s hand away, grabbed the gun and fired.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement DNA expert Anthony Gorgone testified Wednesday that Martin’s DNA was not found on the gun or under Zimmerman’s fingernails, though some of Zimmerman’s DNA was found among blood on a shirt Martin was wearing beneath his hooded sweatshirt.

Famous hoodie

The famous sweatshirt was displayed, arms spread wide, in a sealed, transparent container. In the wake of the February 2012 shooting in Florida, thousands of people across the nation protesting the fact that Zimmerman wasn’t immediately charged in the case wore hoodies to show their solidarity.

Interest in law enforcement

Another point prosecutors have sought to make is that Zimmerman had aspirations of becoming a police officer and knew about Florida’s “stand-your-ground” law, which says a person has no duty to retreat and can invoke self-defense in killing someone if it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm.

Zimmerman had maintained in an interview with Fox News last year that he did not know about the law. But prosecutors say the Neighborhood Watch volunteer took a college class that covered the law, and on Wednesday, they called as a witness Alexis Francisco Carter, the military attorney who taught the class. Carter described Zimmerman as one of his better students and said the neighborhood watch volunteer got an “A” in his class.

Cross-examined by Zimmeran’s attorneys, Carter said the law’s requirement that a person must have a “reasonable apprehension” of death or great bodily harm before using deadly force is not negated by lack of an injury. Witnesses have questioned the severity of the alleged beating Zimmerman suffered.

“The fact alone that there isn’t an injury doesn’t necessarily mean that the person didn’t have a reasonable apprehension or fear,” Carter said.

Skype attack?