Martin Spoke of 'Crazy and Creepy' Man Following Him, Friend Says

Sanford, Florida 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot to death in a racially-motivated attack. Residents of the central Florida city say the action was taken by vigilante George Zimmerman who has not been arrested., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

May 18, 2012

Martin Spoke of ‘Crazy and Creepy’ Man Following Him, Friend Says

By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
New York Times

A girl who talked on the phone with Trayvon Martin on the night of Feb. 26 has told a state prosecutor that she heard rising fear in Mr. Martin’s voice that peaked with words like “get off, get off,” right before she lost contact with him and he was shot to death.

In the sworn interview recorded on April 2, which runs more than 22 minutes, the unidentified 16-year-old said Mr. Martin described a man who was “crazy and creepy” and on the phone, watching him from a vehicle before he started to follow him on foot.

The girl implored Mr. Martin, 17, who said he put his sweatshirt hood up because of the rain, to run to the town house where he was staying with his father, his father’s girlfriend and her 14-year-old son.

“I could hear the wind blowing” and “he said he lost him,” said the girl, who is from Miami and who said she had known Mr. Martin since kindergarten. She has not been identified because she is a minor and a witness in the case.

“He was breathing hard,” she said, and “his voice kind of changed. I know he was scared. His voice was getting kind of low.”

The recording is one of several dozen released by State Attorney Angela B. Corey, who has charged the gunman, George Zimmerman, 28, with second-degree murder. It is part of the discovery material made public this week that also includes hundreds of pages of documents and photographs. Mr. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer at the gated community called Retreat at Twin Lakes, in Sanford, Fla., where the shooting took place. He suffered a broken nose, black eyes, cuts to the back of his head and back pains, all of which he said were the result of a struggle with Mr. Martin, who was unarmed.

Mr. Zimmerman has told the police that he saw a suspicious teenager roaming around the Retreat and followed him on foot before losing sight of him. As Mr. Zimmerman was walking back to his vehicle, he told investigators, Mr. Martin emerged and punched him in the nose before jumping on top of him and attacking him. Mr. Zimmerman said that he then shot Mr. Martin to save his own life.

Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, said he was unable to discuss specific evidence. But he said the claims from Mr. Martin’s friend “make up one piece of evidence in the case and that it has to be taken within the context of all the other evidence.”

In the taped interview with Bernie Delario, the state prosecutor, the girl said that Mr. Martin, after evading Mr. Zimmerman for a while, noticed that he was being pursued again and mentioned this to her.

A sense of urgency grew. Mr. Martin alerted the girl to the fact that Mr. Zimmerman “was getting close to him.” She strongly urged him to run, but she could tell he did not because he was out of breath and tired, and kept saying he was close to the town house where he was a guest.

The girl, who talked with Mr. Martin several times that evening, told the investigator that she then heard Mr. Martin ask, “Why are you following me for?” She heard the other man ask, “What are you doing around here?” Earlier, Mr. Martin had temporarily sought cover from the rain by one of the buildings.

After calling out “Trayvon” several times over the phone, and getting no response, she heard somebody bump Mr. Martin.

Subsequently she heard him utter what sounded like, “Get off, get off.” Then the call ended.

Several weeks after Mr. Martin’s death, his father, Tracy, discovered that his son had been talking to the girl just before he was shot. He learned this by reviewing Mr. Martin’s phone bills. She was subsequently interviewed by the Martin family’s lawyer, Benjamin L. Crump, but not by the Sanford police.

One police document contained in the discovery concluded, “The encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement, or conversely if he had identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and initiated dialogue in an effort to dispel each party’s concerns.”

It added, “There is no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter.”

Timothy Williams contributed reporting.