Between the testimony of the two detectives and Martin came that of a rather interesting and compelling witness, the owner/operator of the gym of which Zimmerman was a member in the year leading up to the incident in question.
Adam Pollock presented a somewhat charismatic, energetic, and forceful personality, describing his involvement in bodybuilding, martial arts, and all kinds of fitness-related competition, training, and instruction from his early childhood to his current professional standing as a consultant and entrepreneur.
O’Mara put Pollock through the paces for awhile, picking his brain as to the different kinds of fighting skills and mixed-martial arts techniques which exist, and which are taught in classes at his gym.
O’Mara then had Pollock physically, positionally mock-demonstrate on him, on the courtroom floor in front of the jury, the same “ground-n-pound” technique that primary eyewitness John Good described last week, when he testified as to what he saw Trayvon Martin doing to Zimmerman while mounted on him “MMA style.”
Pollock described Zimmerman having come to him and to his gym as a flabby, soft, heavy, and utterly non-athletic specimen with the goal of “losing weight and getting in shape.”
Although Zimmerman did succeed in losing quite a lot of weight through his exercise and dieting efforts–Pollock said 70-80 lbs.–he simply did not have the adequate athletic background from childhood sports activities, nor the overall inclination/scheduling flexibility, to really develop any fighting skills at all. Pollock described at length and in detail the heavy commitment required for someone of Zimmerman’s profile to attain accomplishments of proficiency in the realm of even basic boxing, and that Zimmerman’s non-athletic softness and lack of total dedication/sparse class participation just couldn’t cut it in the least. When asked over and over again by both the defense and prosecuting attorneys, Pollock was steadfast and rock-solid in insisting, rather forcefully, that someone like Zimmerman was only a “0.5” on a scale from 1-10 in terms of being able to even throw a punch effectively. He refused to let Zimmerman ever get in the ring, not rating him beyond mere shadow-boxing out of safety & liability concerns.
Pollock greatly helped the defense by firmly putting into the jury’s minds that Zimmerman was not in any way in a capacity to counter nor withstand the physically overwhelming, blitzkrieg onslaught of flying fists from Trayvon Martin, especially once Martin had him pinned underneath him flat on his back, even attempting to smother him.
What the jury may or may not know is that Martin was a strapping, athletically-conditioned high school football player who had an ardent lust for fighting, even texting to a friend that he wanted a rematch with one opponent he’d already beaten because the guy “didn’t bleed enough for me, only his nose.”
Otserman’s additional testimony helps show the jury that Zimmerman carried his concealed firearm in a conventional, responsible, and safe way, and that Zimmerman deployed it only as a last resort to save his own life.
As for the rest of the day’s courtroom action, once the day’s witnesses had been heard, things pretty much bogged down in involved arguments over prosecutors trying to get judge Nelson to throw out testimony and evidence unfavorable to their side.
Nelson has been helping the prosecution all along, as everyone has been able to see for themselves. I can understand why De la Rionda and his cohorts are grasping for all the help they can get, because they are pushing a train that has no tracks underneath it.
We can only pray that the jury can also recognize this for what it is.
