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'Boy's voice' called for help, testifies eyewitness in Trayvon Martin case

Three witnesses in the Trayvon Martin shooting offered testimony Wednesday that appears to contradict defendant George Zimmerman's account of events. Two said they believed a boy's voice was the one yelling for help.

In arguably the boldest testimony yet in the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, three witnesses 鈥� including a friend who was talking to Trayvon on the phone 鈥� on Wednesday described a scene in which they believe a boy was yelling for help while being attacked by a larger and 鈥渄ominant鈥� man.

Rachel Jeantel, 19, cried on the stand as she described Trayvon saying on the phone that he was being followed by a 鈥渃reepy ass cracker鈥� and then, a bit later, overheard him saying, 鈥淲hy are you following me for?" 鈥淭hen I heard a hard-breathing man say, 'What are you doing around here?' 鈥� Ms. Jeantel testified. After hearing a 鈥渂ump,鈥� she said she heard Trayvon say, "Get off, get off,鈥� before the phone disconnected.

Two eyewitnesses, meanwhile, said they thought Trayvon cried out for help during a struggle on the sidewalk.

鈥淚 felt like it was the boy鈥檚 voice,鈥� Jayne Surdyka told jurors about the deadly scene that unfolded on a rainy February night last year in her Sanford, Fla., neighborhood.

If true, those statements appear to contradict Mr. Zimmerman鈥檚 story, which is that an unarmed young black man, whom the world came to know as Trayvon Martin, attacked him, broke his nose, bashed his head, tussled for his gun 鈥� all before Zimmerman found his 9mm pistol and fired once, killing Trayvon almost instantly.

Police in Sanford, Fla., let Zimmerman go without charges, saying his claims of self-defense could not be聽countered. Zimmerman was indicted 44 days later by a special state prosecutor, whose assistants are now in the unusual position of proving that local police made the wrong call given the evidence at the scene. Zimmerman faces a second-degree murder charge for pursuing and confronting an unarmed teenager, who then ended up dead. He faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in state prison.

The case has divided America along racial and cultural lines. Many Americans believe Zimmerman acted in the role of a criminal vigilante by pursuing an innocent young black teenager without any evidence he鈥檇 done anything wrong, and against the advice of a nonemergency police dispatcher.

Others point to evidence 鈥� including photos of Zimmerman with a broken nose and cuts on the back of his head 鈥� that suggests that Trayvon was the aggressor. Social media postings indicating that Trayvon smoked pot and talked about guns and martial arts fighting, Zimmerman鈥檚 defenders say, raise questions about whether Trayvon in fact targeted Zimmerman and put him in a position where he had to defend himself with deadly force. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to die tonight,鈥� Zimmerman told police Trayvon said as he was beating him up.

That story, however, seemed to contradict testimony on Wednesday by Ms. Surdyka and another neighbor, Jeannee Manalo.

Ms. Manalo said she thought Zimmerman was astride Trayvon during a violent struggle. But she also said it was too dark to see exactly what was going on, and she made the judgment about who was the aggressor by looking at photos of Zimmerman and Trayvon afterward. She said she still believed she saw Zimmerman 鈥渉itting down鈥� on a prone Trayvon.

Surdyka testifed she heard from her second-floor window two loud voices, including an 鈥渁ggressive voice鈥� and a voice that belonged to 鈥渁 boy.鈥�

"I could see two people on the ground, one on top of each other," Surdyka said, acknowledging that the dark and rain precluded her from seeing clearly the people 鈥渨restling or shuffling鈥� near her house.

Then she said she heard two cries for help. "They were excruciating," she testified. "I felt like it was the boy's voice."

The testimony is the best analysis jurors may get of the manic struggle. Judge Debra Nelson barred state prosecutors from calling two expert witnesses who had pegged the pleading voice as Trayvon's. Other experts said those conclusions were drawn from methods that are not widely accepted in the audio analysis community.

Defense attorneys Mark O鈥橫ara and Don West noted on cross-examination that Surdyka may have mistook what happened, because Zimmerman has said he got on top of Trayvon after shooting the boy. They asked Manalo why she hadn鈥檛 drawn such a definite conclusion in testimony to police, and they had her read a portion of previous testimony in which she said she could identify only 鈥渟hadows.鈥�

Jeantel also acknowledged previously lying about her age as well as about the reason she didn't attend Trayvon's funeral, saying she didn't want to become part of the public story.

On Wednesday, the jury also heard a series of taped 911 calls Zimmerman had previously made to police regarding his neighborhood-watch duties at the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford. He had called more than 50 times in an eight-year span, but the five calls played to the jury included a segment in which he identifies himself as a neighborhood watch captain and describes suspicious black men near a garage. In another call, he urged the police to respond right away because the suspects 鈥渢ypically get away quickly.鈥�

Judge Nelson this week warned prosecutors to refrain from using the phrase 鈥渞acial profiling鈥� when talking about Zimmerman鈥檚 actions. But the issue of racial stereotyping and injustice has dominated national debate about the case, though those complaints are complicated by Zimmerman鈥檚 own multi-ethnic heritage and indications that Zimmerman weighed other factors when deciding to get out of his car to take a closer look at Trayvon. Neighborhood watch groups expressly forbid watch members from pursuing suspects by themselves.

Six women 鈥� five of them mothers 鈥� make up the jury in the case. An alternate juror, a male arm-wrestler, was dismissed Wednesday for personal reasons.