Zimmerdown

Taari Coleman | Staff Writer

George Zimmerman is a man who needs no introduction. Since the verdict of his infamous trial against the state of Florida, Zimmerman’s life has taken many fascinating turns.

On July 13, 2013, the former neighborhood watch coordinator was acquitted of both the murder and manslaughter charges he was convicted of in 2012. Four days after this verdict was delivered, USA Today reported that Zimmerman was one of two men  to assist a family of four to safety from an overturned SUV after a vehicular collision down the street from where Trayvon Martin was murdered. Unfortunately, that was his only positive upswing.

On the ninth of September, Zimmerman’s estranged wife, Shellie Zimmerman, called 911 after her husband physically assaulted her father. According to an interview on NBC’s Today Show, Shellie placed a 911 call in which she can be heard telling the dispatcher that her husband had smashed and cut an iPad she had been holding, punched her father in the face, and threatened them both with a gun. When the police arrived, however, they were unable to locate the firearm and Shellie later retracted her claim that a firearm had been present. Shellie and her father agreed not to press charges after being informed that she and George would both serve time for the incident. This quarrel may or may not have been the result of Zimmerman being accused of property theft by his mother in law.

Machelle Dean, Shellie Zimmerman’s mother, called Lake Mary, FL after police the home she and her husband had rented to Shellie and George Zimmerman had been damaged and was missing hundreds of dollars worth of property. CBS News reports that George Zimmerman was told to vacate the dwelling by the 26th of September, but when Machelle and David Dean arrived to regain control, they found a television and several pieces of furniture unaccounted for, as well as damage to the house itself.

Through all the negativity, Zimmerman and his wife are also going through a divorce that was filed on September 5, 2013. Shellie was also convicted and plead guilty to a perjury charge on August 28th for lying about the family’s finances during the State of Florida v. Zimmerman trial. Since the verdict, Shellie has expressed doubts of her husband’s innocence in the death of Trayvon Martin. She told USA Today, “I don’t know the person I’ve been married to…and I really don’t know what he’s capable of.” She does however report that she believes in the evidence used to defend her husband, respects and supports the jury’s verdict, and does not think her husband racially profiled Martin. She told Huffington Post, “I believe the evidence, but this revelation in my life has really helped me to take the blinders off.”

It is fascinating, the way things begin to appear when one is put in the victim’s perspective. It calls to question whether Shellie would have been as supportive throughout her husband’s trial if the incidents that occurred after the trial, had occurred before. It also makes one question the anger and psychological issues that Zimmerman may have had, and whether or not Martin’s death was only a one time circumstantial occasion.