May 23, 2013|By Rene Stutzman and Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel
The evidence that George Zimmerman's attorneys have uncovered on Trayvon Martin's cellphone paints a troubling picture of the Miami Gardens teenager: He sent text messages about being a fighter, smoking marijuana and being ordered to move out of his home by his mother.
And photos from that phone offer more of the same: healthy green plants — what appear to be marijuana — growing in pots and a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun.
Defense attorneys on Thursday gave formal notice to prosecutors that they intend to use those and other reputation-damaging pieces of evidence about Trayvon once Zimmerman's second-degree-murder trial begins June 10.
Prosecutors say they're not relevant and should be barred.
Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson must decide. Those issues may come up at a hearing Tuesday in Sanford.
Overall, the evidence made public Thursday by Zimmerman's attorneys portray Trayvon as a wannabe gangster who couldn't stay out of trouble.
The high-school junior had no arrest record, but he had been suspended from school more than once.
The evidence packet contains more than two dozen photos, including one that shows Trayvon with gold teeth and two of him making an obscene gesture. Those have been widely circulated online since shortly after the shooting, and it's not clear where defense attorneys found them, but as of Thursday, they officially became part of Zimmerman's criminal case.
The text messages that Trayvon wrote about fighting may be the most damaging to the state.
In October, the judge said any history of violence on his part might be relevant. And violent and aggressive is how Zimmerman, a former Neighborhood Watch volunteer, described Trayvon's actions the day he shot the teenager in Sanford on Feb. 26, 2012.
Zimmerman told police that after the two exchanged words, Trayvon punched him, breaking his nose and knocking him to the ground, then climbed on top and began hammering his head on a sidewalk. The defendant told police he fired in self-defense.
One eyewitness initially described Trayvon as standing over Zimmerman and fighting "MMA-style," a reference to mixed-martial-arts fighting.
The text messages released Thursday were heavily redacted but made no reference to "MMA fighting." They did, however, include references to Trayvon being in fights.
On Nov. 22, 2011, three months before the shooting, Trayvon wrote about being involved in a fight. His unnamed opponent, he wrote, "got mo hits cause in da 1st round he had me on da ground an I couldn't do ntn."
Six weeks earlier he wrote a text message about problems at school involving a fight: "I was watcn a fight nd a teacher say I hit em."
He also exchanged text messages with friends about smoking marijuana.
Defense attorneys are expected to argue the marijuana use is relevant because in a phone call to police a few minutes before the shooting, Zimmerman described Trayvonas acting as if he were on drugs.
In texts on Feb.20, 2012, Trayvon wrote about hiding his "weed," and tells someone he is going to the Orlando area for several days.
That appears to be a reference to his being suspended from school for 10days after being found with an empty marijuana baggie in his backpack.
On Feb. 13, he sent a text to a friend, acknowledging that 10-day suspension: "I got in sum trouble 2day."
The friend responded, "Ok so wen u comin bck 2 skool."
Trayvon's response: "Da 29th."
The defense evidence packet also includes other information from Trayvon's school records, among them five videos from a Miami-Dade schools police investigation that turned up several pieces of women's jewelry in Trayvon's backpack and a screwdriver, what authorities there described as a burglary tool.
Those records were not made public because of student-privacy laws.
In a prepared statement, Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Trayvon's family, described the new pieces of evidence as "irrelevant red herrings" and "a desperate and pathetic attempt by the defense to pollute and sway the jury pool."
He predicted the judge would find them irrelevant and ban them at trial.
After Zimmerman's attorneys released the text messages and photos, Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda filed a new motion asking for a gag order that would prohibit attorneys from discussing the case with reporters.
That's his third such request. The judge is expected to take up the issue Tuesday.
And late Thursday, Zimmerman's attorneys filed paperwork asking the judge to delay the start of his trial for six weeks.
His attorneys said last week they would ask for a delay because they need more time to hire an audio expert to counter the testimony of a state witness expected to testify that the voice heard screaming for help in the background of a 911 call was Trayvon's.
this gotta do with stalking and harassing a minor til you get a reaction from them so you could use your piece. Does this fool really wanna comparing the kids marijuana use and juvenile texts to his cocktail of prescription drugs and criminal record of assaulting a cop and his fiance at trial 
to certain things about the victim that might help him during the trial......no matter how irrelevant it seems?
da fukk is "subscription drugs" 
