More trouble for the Gun Wielding George Zimmerman

Problems continue for 30yr-old George Zimmerman after being acquitted four months ago of murder in the death teenager Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was arrested Monday night after a “domestic disturbance” with his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe. According to Samantha’s 911 call the incident began when the former neighborhood watch captain grew upset during an argument and brandished a weapon at her. “He's in my house, breaking all my shit because I asked him to leave,” Scheibe told the dispatcher. “He's got a freaking gun breaking all my stuff right now.”

Scheibe said Zimmerman then pushed her out the home that they have shared ever since Zimmerman became estranged with his wife and locked her out. Authorities said when they arrived Scheibe gave them keys to the home, and that they had to push through obstacles by the door to get in. Seminole County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma said at a news conference that when they arrived on the scene Scheibe told police that Zimmerman shoved her then pointed a long-barrel shotgun at her and threatened her. Zimmerman told police that he “never pulled a firearm,” but that when he was packing it he’s “sure she saw it.” He claimed that he kept it next to the bed.

In September of this year Zimmerman was arrested after an altercation with his ex-wife, Shelly Zimmerman. Shelly told 911 dispatched during that incident that Zimmerman had his hand on his gun and was daring people to come closer in a threatening manner, saying that he would shoot them. In an interview Shelly said that Zimmerman feels invincible after his acquittal. Zimmerman has also been pulled over three times since his acquittal for speeding. 

He now faces a felony charge of aggravated assault and the lesser charges of battery domestic violence and criminal mischief in this latest incident. Zimmerman went in front of the judge today and was released on a $9,000 bond. Zimmerman was also ordered to give up his guns, wear an electronic monitor, and to stay away from his girlfriend. Scheibe says she fears for her safety and that Zimmerman had told her that he had “nothing to lose.” Zimmerman’s arraignment will be Jan. 7, 2014.

 

Repost of Raffaele Sollecito’s Interview with Kate Mansey (two days after Kercher’s murder)

The following is a repost of the interview that British Sunday Times journalist, Kate Mansey, did with Raffaele Sollecito (RS) on November 3, 2007 (Two days after Meredith Kercher was murdered), and was published November 4, 2007. Within, Sollecito claims that he and Amanda Knox were at “a party with one of his friends” on the night that Kercher was murdered. Obviously Sollecito has never used this [fake] alibi in any other tale that he has told, nor has he ever addressed this [false] claim. The following article was available on the internet for a couple of years, but has since been removed. Yet, unfortunately for Sollecito; it has not been forgotten.

 

Bold: RS’s own words according to Kate Mansey.
Underlined: untrue, contradictory (compared to other versions) as well as revealing details that should be examined further.

Published in the Sunday Mirror 4/11/2007

ITALY MURDER DETAILS EMERGE
EXCLUSIVE
MURDERED IN ITALY. MEREDITH, 21
Friend tells how he broke down door
Kate Mansey In Perugia, Italy 4/11/2007

A friend of murdered British student Meredith Kercher told last night how he discovered her body in her blood-spattered bedroom.

Raffaele Sollecito, 23, relived the horror of finding the body of the pretty brunette who died when her killer broke into her home and cut her throat as she lay in her bed.

"It is something I never hope to see again," he said. "There was blood everywhere and I couldn't take it all in.

"My girlfriend was her flatmate and she was crying and screaming, 'How could anyone do this?'"

Meredith, 21, who had been studying in Perugia, Italy since August, was murdered the day after a Halloween fancy dress party at the city's British-themed Merlin Pub on Wednesday.
On Thursday she posted happy snaps of herself in fancy dress on the internet and in the evening had returned home alone after watching a film at a friend's house.

But her flatmates - two Italian girls and one American - had all stayed out for the night, so the gruesome discovery wasn't made until the next day.

Raffaele had spent the night at his own house on the other side of the citywith his girlfriend, Meredith's American flatmate Amanda Knox, 22.

He said: "It was a normal night. Meredith had gone out with one of her English friends and Amanda and I went to party with one of my friends.

"The next day, around lunchtime, Amanda went back to their apartment to have a shower."

As Amanda, from Washington DC, stepped into house [sic B] she could tell there was something terribly wrong.

Raffaele said: "When she arrived the front door was wide open. She thought it was weird, but thought maybe someone was in the house and had left it ajar.

"But when she went into the bathroom she saw spots of blood all over the bath and sink. That's when she started getting really afraid and ran back to my place because she didn't want to go into the house alone. So I agreed to go back with her. When we walked in together, I knew straight away it was wrong. It was really eerily silent and the bathroom was speckled with blood like someone had flicked it around, just little spots.

"We went into the bedroom of Philomena (another flatmate who was away) and it had been ransacked, like someone had been looking for something. But when we tried Meredith's room, the door was locked. She never normally locked her bedroom door and that really made us frightened."

Their panic grew as they desperately banged on her door.

Raffaele said: "I tried to knock it down. I thought maybe she was ill... I made a dent, but I wasn't strong enough on my own so I called the police."

When police arrived they knocked the door down straightaway and Raffaele followed them into the room.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," he said. "It was hard to tell it was Meredith at first but Amanda started crying and screaming. I dragged her away because I didn't want her to see it, it was so horrible.

"It seems her killer came through the window because it was smashed and there was glass all over the place. It was so sinister because other parts of the house were just as normal."
Raffaele, a computer science student, said Meredith had recently started seeing an Italian neighbour called Giacamo [sic B] who lived in the apartment beneath the girls. He said: "Meredith was always smiling and happy. She was really popular and it's horrible that someone would want to hurt her."

Police hunting for the killer found two mobile phones in nearby Parco Saint Angelo, a favourite hang out for heroin addicts.

 

Knox & Sollecito: A Closer Look at the Footprint Evidence

If you have listen to anything from the American media about the Amanda Knox case you would likely believe that there was no physical evidence at the crime scene linking Knox and Raffaele Sollecito to the murder of Meredith Kercher. However, with just a simple cursory review of some of the official sources it is easy to see that there is actually an abundance of physical evidence against the two convicts. Perhaps the best place to start is Judge Massei’s Report on the conviction of Knox and Kercher. Furthermore, it is imperative to read the Italian Supreme Court’s Reasoningon the case. Aside from the obvious four spots of blood found at the cottage (3 spots in the bathroom and one in Filomena’s room) mixed with Knox and Kercher’s DNA, there are also several pieces of convincing footprint evidence that was used to help convict the three accused, which includes Rudy Guede. Putting the plethora of circumstantial evidence and the other physical evidence aside and simply focusing on the footprint evidence gives us a very clear picture of exactly what occurred that fateful night.

Luminol (3-aminophthalic hydrazide) is a chemical that reacts with the microscopic particles of iron found in hemoglobin, causing an organic peroxide reaction. If blood is present, its oxidized state is expressed by a chemoluminescent burst, i.e. the sample glows with a bluish color in the dark. This chemical was used in this case to enhance several footprints found at the crime scene to have been cleaned, most likely by the perpetrators.

The picture above provides a very striking visual of what is about to be explained. For the purposes of this exercise I will be using my own labeling system to detail each footprint. Please refer to the picture above for reference sake. Before doing the analysis, it is important to note the size of each foot of each suspect. In doing so, we see the disparity among the participants that shows the unlikelihood of mistaking the identities. The following footprint evidence is taken from the Massei Report (pages 347-349).

Amanda Knox          –     6.5W  (US)
Meredith Kercher     –     8W     (US)  

Raffaele Sollecito     –     8.5M  (US)

Rudy Guede             –     12M    (US)
 

FP1 – This print was located in the bedroom of Amanda Knox, identified as a right barefoot print, which was found to be compatible with Amanda Knox’s right foot and it also included Amanda Knox’s DNA.

FP2 – This print was located in the corridor in the direction facing the exit, right next to Rudy Guede’s second shoe print, facing in the same direction. Being placed on a Robbins grid the investigators were able to get measurements for the big toe, both width and length for the metatarsus, and a width measurement for the heel. The bloody bare footprint was determined to be compatible with Raffaele Sollecito’s right foot.

FP3– This barefoot print was located in the corridor directly in front of the door to Meredith Kercher’s room and pointing towards the entrance as if entering the room. The measurements were found to be compatible with Amanda Knox’s Right foot.

FP4– The notorious bloody barefoot print found on the bathmat that was normally located in the bathroom shared by Knox and Kercher, but which was found in Amanda Knox’s room. This print was compatible with the right foot of Raffaele Sollecito.

 

FP5– For the purposes and practicality of this exercise, all of the footprints identified as Rudy Guede’s will be labeled under FP5. The court found that there was no reason or evidence to believe that Guede removed his shoes at any point. They furthered determined that "…it was his [Rudy Guede’s] shoe prints in the victim’s blood that were left on the floor of the house, in a path leading away from the victim ʹ s room and toward the door exiting the house, a door that had been pulled [shut] behind him” (SC Ruling, pg. 6). As indicated in the picture above, Guede’s bloody shoe prints lead directly from Kercher’s room to and out the front door of the cottage.

FP6 – “Following the procedure of luminol enhancement, it was shown that Knox, her feet stained with the victim’s blood, went into Romanelli’s room… leaving footprints revealed by luminol, some of which were mixed, i.e., constituted from biological traces of both Knox and Kercher” (pg. 11, SC Ruling). This, along with a multitude of other factors, lends itself to the theory that Knox was a major part of the staged break-in in Filomena Romanelli’s room.

The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation (SC) reasoned that Rudy Guede could not have killed Meredith Kercher by himself, based on the evidence; they outright reject the “lone wolf” theory. The SC specifically directs the appeals court to consider prior (and now definitive) findings in the Rudy Guede decision that there were multiple attackers and that the break-in was staged. This ruling stacks the deck against Knox and Sollecito in a big way! The SC also makes clear its belief that the footprints attributed to Knox, which contained both Knox and Kercher’s DNA, were made in blood. They also affirm that they found there was no evidence that contamination occurred.

The upcoming hearing date begins on September 30, followed by October 4, 22, 23; November 6, 7, & 26 (2013). The presiding Judge will be Alessandro Nencini, president of the court’s second chamber, while the lateral judge is expected to be Magistrate Cicheria. A judgment is expected to be heard by the end of the year.