LIVE VIDEO ? George Zimmerman faces charges of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Editor's note: This is a live feed of a criminal trial and may contain graphic imagery and language that could offend some viewers.
By James Novogrod, Tom Winter and Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News
The jury in the George Zimmerman second-degree murder trial will be allowed to consider the lesser charge of manslaughter, the judge ruled Thursday.
The ruling was a partial victory for the prosecution, which sought to include two lesser charges from the original charge of murder in the second degree: manslaughter and felony murder in the third degree with child abuse as the underlying felony.?
The charges stem from the Feb. 26, 2012, killing of Trayvon Martin, 17, in a gated community in Sanford, Fla.?
The defense argued against allowing the jury to consider any lesser charges, and defense attorney Don West called the child-abuse allegation "outrageous."
"Just when I thought this case couldn't get any more bizarre, the state is seeking third-degree murder charges based on child abuse?" West said.
"This is outrageous," West later said, adding, "It's just hard for me to imagine that the court could take this seriously."??
Judge Debra Nelson later struck down the possibility of a third-degree felony murder based on child abuse charge being given for the all-women, six-member jury to decide, saying the evidence didn't support it.
Zimmerman, 29, has pleaded not guilty, saying he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Martin last year. Zimmerman did not testify on his own behalf during the trial.
If convicted of second-degree murder, Zimmerman could face up to life in prison.?
In the state?s closing arguments Thursday, prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda painted Zimmerman as an over-eager neighborhood watchman and aspiring police officer who got himself into the tussle with Martin based on a series of assumptions.
?He automatically assumed Trayvon Martin was a criminal,? de la Rionda said. ?And that?s why we?re here.??
Martin, de la Rionda told the jury after showing them the last photo ever taken of him ? his autopsy picture ? was an ?innocent 17-year-old kid??who had just celebrated his birthday three weeks prior to the shooting and was just walking back from buying Skittles and a drink a convenience store. He was heading back to his father?s fiancee?s home on a Sunday evening ? not late at night, de la Rionda added ? when Zimmerman allegedly started following him in his vehicle.
If either of them should have felt scared, de la Rionda argued, it should have been Martin, who was ?minding his own business?when Zimmerman ?decided he was up to no good.??
Zimmerman?s assumption about Martin, de la Rionda said, was based on months? worth of burglaries at the Retreat at Twin Lakes, his gated community ? but had nothing to do with Martin himself.
?He was tired of criminals,? de la Rionda said. ??He went over the line. He assumed things that weren?t true. Instead of waiting for the police to come and do their job, he did not. He, the defendant, wanted to make sure that Trayvon Martin didn?t get out of the neighborhood.?
De la Rionda also offered some suggestions of what Zimmerman could have done: ?He didn?t say [to Martin], ?Hold on, I?m sorry, I?m with the neighborhood watch. Can I assist you in some way??? but instead just assumed he was a criminal.
The defense will present its closing arguments Friday morning.?
The defense rested Wednesday after briefly hearing testimony from Robert Zimmerman, George Zimmerman?s father, and Olivia Bertalan, a resident at the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community where Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer and where he and Martin had their fatal encounter.
Bertalan had been robbed while she was home with her young son by what she told the court were two teenagers about six months before Martin was killed. She said Zimmerman came over to her house and offered her a lock for her sliding glass door.
"We were terrified when this happened," she said. "He was just saying he wanted to make sure we were OK."
Robert Zimmerman,?the defense's final witness,?testified that on 911 calls from the night of the shooting, screams of ?help? were ?absolutely? his son George, despite conflicting opinions from others,?including Martin's mom,?that the yells could be from Martin.
George Zimmerman?s mom, Gladys, testified the screams belonged to George Zimmerman, as did several other people.
Jury deliberations will begin on Friday, Judge Nelson said Wednesday.
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This story was originally published on Thu Jul 11, 2013 9:51 AM EDT
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