The defense in the George Zimmerman murder trial appears close to wrapping up their case, they could rest as early as Wednesday afternoon. The key testimony on Tuesday came from a forensic pathology expert, Dr. Vincent Di Maio, who testified that Trayvon Martin's injuries suggest that he was leaning over Zimmerman at the time that he was shot, according to The New York Times.
"This is consistent with Mr. Zimmerman's account," Di Maio said. "That Mr. Martin was over him, leaning forward, at the time that he was shot."
Di Maio also testified that all of the injuries sustained by Zimmerman were indicative of him being in a fight; a broken nose that was put back into place and marking on his forehead were indicative of punches and the swollen spots on the back of his head were consistent with having his head shoved into concrete, according to The New York Times.
Di Maio emphasized that a lack of lacerations to the back of Zimmerman's head shouldn't convince the jury that he did not suffer severe head trauma.
"Everyone has fallen and hit their head, and you don't get lacerations," Di Maio said. "You can get severe head trauma actually without any marks on the head. Or you can get marks, lacerations and contusions and have head trauma."
Tuesday's marathon court session ended with a high level of tension between the two sides as Judge Debra Nelson stormed off of the bench after the 13 hour day. Once the jury was released for the day the two sides argued over the admissibility of an animation made by the defense that they wish to submit as evidence, according to ABC News.
Prosecuting attorney Rich Mantei was especially dismissive of the animation which depicts Zimmerman's version of the events that led to Martin's death.
"They say they use this for the movies," Mantei said of the technology used to create the animation. "Great, this is a murder trial."
Judge Nelson also questioned the accuracy of the animation. One point in particular that the judge brought up was that it depicted Martin throwing punches with his left hand despite Martin being right handed, reports ABC News.
Once the animation hearing was finished the defense attempted to submit text messages that had been extracted from Martin's phone as evidence. In the texts, some of which were read out loud by Richard Conner, the expert who extracted them, Martin talks about fighting. Defense attorney Don West accused the prosecution of knowing about the texts and hiding them from the defense, reports ABC News.
"I would offer him the opportunity right now to apologize to me for suggesting that I stood by silently with information I did not have," prosecutor John Guy responded to the accusation.
Judge Nelson is expected to rule on whether the animation or Martin's text messages will be admissible as evidence on what could be the last day of testimony in the trial. Defense attorney Mark O'Mara has not indicated whether or not Zimmerman will take the stand, experts think that it is unlikely, according to HLN.
Watch all of the proceedings on a live stream here.
