that's all for us tonight. anderson cooper with the george zimmerman trial starts right now. good evening. welcome to our special continuing coverage. self-defense or murder, the george zimmerman trial. every night this week, we'll be digging deeper with the best legal team around and frequently with the principals in the case themselves. tonight, powerful, emotional testimony about trayvon martin's final moments and a legal battle over the 911 tapes. from six months before the 911 tapes that were recorded before the shooting, recordings the state believes will speak to george zimmerman's state of mind to his unjustified suspicion, they say, of trayvon martin. first, the latest on everything that happened today from martin savidge who joins us now. so, what new evidence do we hear today in the courtroom? >> reporter: it was photographs, anderson.

i've seen all the photographs in this case, but i had not seen these before. these were photographs of the body of trayvon martin laying on the ground. i don't care who you are, they have a strong impact to see a young person you know lying lifeless on the ground. so clearly it would impact the jurors and it impacted everyone else in the courtroom. on top of that, we saw the gun that george zirm uszimmerman us, that's the cal tech 9. and then we saw the sweatshirt, very powerful. that's not a piece of evidence to the family, it's an icon. it represents the racial profiling they believe george zimmerman is guilty of. >> the sergeants gave very emotional testimony about finding trayvon martin on the scene. tell us about it. >> reporter: yeah, this was another one of those aspects that humanizes trayvon martin, because he's not there. so we hear these accounts. this was a first responder as he frantically describes trying to revive the young boy. which was impossible but he

still tried. and listen. >> did you see any movement from trayvon martin's body as you approached him? >> no, sir, i did not. >> did you hear any sounds coming from trayvon martin? >> no, sir, i did not. >> did you attempt to see if trayvon martin was still alive? >> yes, sir. >> how did you do that? >> i attempted to get his pulse, sir. >> and where did you attempt to get his pulse? >> on his neck, sir. >> have you had training in that? >> yes, i have. >> did you detect a pulse on trayvon martin? >> no, sir, i did not. >> and mark o'mara grilled an eyewitness toward the end of court today. what was that about? >> reporter: legal experts say that was the most important point of the day. this was a witness who lives in the complex. what she had described was she heard returning and on the stand day, she heard running from the left to right. well, for the defense that could be a real problem because it implies a chase, not

self-defense as the defense is trying to say. so listen how mr. o'mara went after this witness. >> when was the first time you ever told anybody that you heard or saw whatever it was, movement from left to right outside of your back door? was it today? and if so, just tell us. >> i don't know if it was just today. >> okay. i'll ask it this way. could it be that the first time you mentioned this new piece of evidence was just now as you testified? >> it could be. i don't know. >> reporter: this touches upon a sore spot for the defense, because they maintained in the past they believe that in discovery, the prosecution didn't tell them everything. the fact that this witness jumps

up and says left to right, they had never heard that. in the minds of the defense, it might have reinforced their opinion. they're going to go aggressively after all of these witnesses. >> we'll talk to mark o'mara later on tonight. our legal team will be with us throughout the night. jose baez will be here, mark geragos and sunny hostin. powerful testimony we heard today in that court, sunny. >> absolutely. i think for most people what was so powerful were the images themselves. they just spoke so loudly. i've seen so many crime scene photos, but i even gasped when some of those photos came up. and they came up through the testimony of one of these officers who was just the classic officer. i mean, he was dressed up. he had a s.w.a.t. team plate on his shirt, and he started talking about how he was trying to save trayvon martin's life, trying to breathe for him.

and it was really, really remarkable. >> yeah, i want to play some of that right now, the officer on the stand. >> did you hear anything when you were performing cpr on trayvon martin? >> yes, sir. >> what was that? >> bubbling sounds. >> and what did those bubbling sounds indicate to you. >> it meant either air was getting into or escaping from the chest in a manner it was not supposed to, sir. >> what did you do upon hearing those bubbling sounds from trayvon martin's chest? >> i called out to the crowd that was gathering nearby, and i asked for seran wrap and vaseline. >> what would be the purpose for seran wrap and vaseline? >> i was going to seal the chest wound, sir. >> what did you do next? >> i laid him on his back. >> did you continue cpr after you laid him down? >> yes, sir, i did. >> and was rescue called to that scene?

>> yes, sir. >> did they respond? >> yes, sir. >> and did rescue take over the cpr efforts after they arrived? >> yes, sir. >> what did you see the rescue personnel do to treat or assess trayvon martin? >> i watched them hook up the leads to the ekg machine to mr. martin, sir. >> was trayvon martin pronounced dead at the scene? >> yes, sir. >> what are they trying to do? are they just establishing a time line? >> well, they're trying to do a bunch of things. it's a murder case. you have to prove that he died. it's as simple as that. every juror, as well as every spectator knew that he died of a gun shot wound. but it's so much more vivid and real when you hear that officer talk abouter is ran wrap and vasoline. it lends an immediacy and frankly a tragedy. you think of this boy dying on

the floor like that. you know, sure, it doesn't tell you anything about whether it was self-defense or whether it was murder, but it gives a vividness that the prosecution wants and the jury won't forget. >> mark, the defense really didn't have much to ask this police sergeant. what's the thinking when there's very little cross-examination? is it just that not a lot to dispute or just to get the person off the stand? >> well, jeff just said it. the prosecution wasn't proving anything. this was an emotional ploy to get in this -- to deal with stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the evidence. the only part of this case where they dealt with the evidence is when mark o'mara surgically dismantled that witness who had the ah-ha memory today, and you know, when you introduce this segment where you said that they've been complaining about it all along, i frankly had never seen the hide the ball nature of these prosecutors in this case has been astonishing, breathtaking. and today was another example of it.

>> you think they're intentionally hiding evidence? >> absolutely. hey, there's already an osc contempt on the prosecution that the judge put over to the end of the case, because she didn't want to make a circus out of it now. they caught the prosecution already, basically, with their pants down on turning over discovery and again today. >> what is an osc? >> order to show cause re contempt. as to whether or not she's going to sanction the prosecution for some of their discovery abuse. today, this is just infuriating, where all of a sudden they put a witness on, they know what the witness is going to say. they didn't turn that information over. and mind you, in florida, unlike the rest of the lot of these jurisdictions, we don't get depositions in criminal cases. so all of a sudden this key piece of information, this witness has a miraculous memory on the day of trial.

in front of the jury for the very first time -- spare me. >> jeff? >> first of all, you say that the evidence isn't relevant. of course it's relevant, mark. they have to put this evidence on. i mean, a defense attorney may not enjoy listening to it, but it's clearly relevant evidence. >> there is no relevant evidence to the methods by which -- >> that's not true, mark. these are crime scene photos. >> you could stipulate that he died. everybody knows it's a tragedy. >> the prosecution doesn't have to stipulate. >> what's the relevance of this? >> they're crime scene photos. since when are crime scene photos irrelevant to a murder case? >> crime scene photos are relevant. however, this idea of seran wrap and this ghoulish nature of the bubbling and the gurgling, that's pure histrionics. >> okay, jose, the crime scene technique in addition who took the photos of zimmerman's head

also took the stand. i want to play for our viewers that part of what she said. >> that's a picture you took, correct? >> that is correct. >> and you see that sort of lump on the top right of his head? >> yes, i can. >> and you saw it that night too, right? >> yes, i did. >> 67 shows blood dripping behind mr. zimmerman's left hear, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> this would be of his right side again, closer to the front. you see that lump? >> yes, i do. >> and do you see the abrasions in the temple area? >> yes, i do. >> and you saw them that night, too? >> that is correct. >> this is the back of mr. zimmerman's head in exhibit number 74. you see the lacerations? >> yes, i do. >> you saw them that night as well i take it? >> yes, i did.

>> there were over two dozen photos of bruised and bloodied george zimmerman. how effective do you think that was, jose? >> i think it's effective to a certain point. what they're doing is they're taking the defense's best evidence head on. they've already admitted during their opening statements that, at some point, trayvon martin was on top of george zimmerman. so what they're showing this jury or what they're attempting to show the jury is basically this. we know there was a scuffle. we know at some point trayvon martin was getting the best of george zimmerman. and despite all of this, we still think there's a second degree murder charge here. and i think they're doing what they have to do and what they should do, not hide from it because there's going to come a point where the defense is going to hit him over the head with it. >> because it was the prosecution that put those photos into evidence. >> it's all about stealing the thunder. >> and it's relevant. i want to know if mark things

those pictures are irrelevant. >> let me explain something to you, sunny. >> please do, mark. >> there is a difference -- you know i love you, sunny, but there is a difference between somebody stipulating and saying i'm not going to dispute there was a delg death, and then you don't have to put on the evidence, whereas, somebody is disputing whether or not it is self-defense, where you do have to put on evidence and the state has a burden. i know this is a technical question, but that is the law. >> what i find interesting about those head wounds is i don't know as a juror, do i think of those as big wounds or little wounds? they don't look like someone who is in the risk of dieing? >> particularly a head wound which -- heads bleed a lot. >> it's almost a shaved head, so it's not like his head would protect him. so is a jury going to say there was a big struggle or say those look like fairly minor scrapes? i just don't know. >> yesterday in the court when the defense was saying it's not true that trayvon martin wasn't armed. he was armed with the concrete

sidewalk which he repeatedly slammed george zimmerman's head into. the question is, do those wounds indicate that? >> well, how many -- >> they certainly don't look like fingernail scratches. >> how many times do you have to be hit over the head until you realize you're in a deadly situation? >> i defended murder cases where somebody fell once against a curb and was killed. so, i'm with jose on that. i mean, you don't have to get hit on the curb more than once to die. >> stick around, we'll talk more throughout this hour. i want to dig deeper into the fight over those phone calls that george zimmerman made to authorities in the months prior to the shooting. the prosecution wants them in. would they work just as well for the defense? also, later, my exclusive interview with one of the key players, zimmerman's defense attorney mark o'mara. he joins us coming up. i'll ask about his co-counsel's knock knock joke yesterday and

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something's wrong with him. yep, he's coming to check me out. she's got something in his hands. i don't know what his deal is. >> that's part of the 911 call that george zimmerman made just minutes before he shot trayvon martin. jurors will hear that recording. the prosecution also wants them to hear six other 911 calls that zimmerman made before that deadly night to report suspicious people in his neighborhood or people he thought was suspicious. the prosecution say they show his growing frustration at folks breaking into things in the neighborhood. the defense is fighting to keep that out of the trial. today they were played for the judge. here are some of the highlights. >> hey, our neighborhood got burglarized or robbed today, and my wife saw one of the kids that did it. and we see someone that matches his description in the neighborhood right now again.

>> okay, and is he white, black or hispanic? >> black. my wife talked to detective walker and gave him a description of the guy we see now. hi. there was a break-in in my neighborhood recently, and two youths that match the description of the people -- my wife i.d.'d them and saw them. they're back in the neighborhood. >> what do they look like, white, black or hispanic? >> two black males in their late teens. we actually just had our neighborhood watch meeting yesterday and sergeant hertz came out and officer buchanan came out and told us to report anything suspicious. i was just calling because we've had a lot of break-ins in our neighborhood recently and i'm on the neighborhood watch. and there's two suspicious characters at the gate of my neighborhood. i've never seen them before. i have no idea what they're doing, they're just hanging out, loitering.

>> mr. zimmerman, can you describe the two individuals? >> two african-american males. they look -- i know one is in a white impala. >> how do they look to you? >> mid to late 20s, early 30s. >> i'm with the neighborhood watch and we've had some burglaries and vant vandalisms lately. >> is he white, black or hispanic? >> he was black. >> mark, we talked about this in the 8:00 hour tonight. this kind of cuts both ways. you could say well, this shows a concerned citizen, a concerned member of the neighborhood watch. >> well, anderson, you're the

one that brought it up in the 8:00 hour and i couldn't agree more. i don't know why the defense is fighting to keep this stuff out. with this jury demographic, it's almost turned on its head. you have the defense looking for kind of prosecutorial types. and you've got the prosecution looking for what are traditionally defense types. and in this case, i think a lot -- this kind of guy who is constantly out there, calling and making reports and worried about the neighborhood, there's a lot of people who embrace that. and i don't know why, if they're going to denigrate him because he's one of these, you know, concerned citizens, i think that could backfire on them. >> for the prosecution, they're saying this shows a growing frustration on his part at what's happening in the neighborhood. >> see, i think they're inadd missable. because it suggests -- the prosecution is putting them in to show that he's an obsessed wannabe cop, but we don't know whether he actually saw these people.

we don't know whether these were actual suspicious characters around. and the court does not want to get sidetracked into mini trials about whether there were in fact two suspicious characters months earlier. if i were the judge, they should keep the whole thing out. i don't think it's relevant. >> i think it's relevant to state of mind. the government has to prove depraved mind and what was inside george zimmerman's head if they're going to get a second degree murder conviction. >> wasn't that his job? >> he's talking about suspicious black males. african-american males in their teens, in their 20s. when you use the same language over and over again, i think it shows what is in your head and i think that's relevant to this case. >> the problem is -- i'll tell you another thing what's going to happen if these tapes get admitted. one of those prosecutors is going to call that 20-year-old kid that works in their office and they're going to -- in their closing arguments they'll key in on the specific times that he mentions that they're black males, black males, black males

and then play as the last one, the last one when he calls on trayvon martin. i think that's what they're going to use it for. they'll try to ram it down their throat and show some type of pattern to go along with their theory of the case, which is profile, profile, profile. >> how long does the judge have to rule on something like this, mark? >> before they want to call the witness. so that's what they generally do. got to make a decision but rapid areally so. harking back to sunny, the problem is, if you want to show that these calls are a depraved mind, you better hope that you're not -- that the calls and what he's doing does not resonate with one of those jurors. because if one of those jurors say yeah, i would be doing the same thing or i wish my husband or son was doing this, that's going to completely backfire on them. >> it could be a double edge sword, and we can agree on that, mark. >> i want to play the 911 call where the operator asks

zimmerman if he's following trayvon martin. let's listen. >> are you following him? >> yes. >> okay, we don't need you to do that. >> okay. >> a few weeks earlier, there was another 911 call that zimmerman made where he did not want to follow a suspicious personal. let's listen. >> he's going up to the house and then going along the side of it, and then coming to the street. and then going back to the side of it. i don't know what he's doing. i don't want to approach him personally. >> jeff, do you read anything to why he chose not to follow this person? >> i think this is all nad inadmissible evidence. if you're charged with robbing a bank, you don't get to put into evidence all the banks you didn't rob. so i think the judge should keep the evidence focused on what the evidence is. i don't think that tape should come in, i don't think the other tape should come in. i think they're just sideshows that create distractions about evidence that's not before the jury. i think obviously the one where the 911 operator says don't approach him, that's key

evidence. the rest of it is just a distraction. >> i want to play a clip of the woman who helped start the neighborhood watch program in zimmerman's community. let's listen. >> do you address specifically what a neighborhood watch person is to do if they see someone acting suspicious? >> yes, i do. >> and what is that? >> if someone is acting suspicious, you call 911. >> do you tell them to do anything else at that point? >> no. they're the eyes and ears. >> in that instruction, is that also part of the written materials? >> yes. >> all right. >> what do you tell volunteers about following someone they believe is involved in criminal behavior? >> we tell them don't do that, that's the job of law enforcement. >> and what do you tell neighborhood watch participants about confronting someone? >> not to confront us, let the police department do the job.

>> she gives slide presentations to people who want to be in neighborhood watches. one of them says not the vigilante. clearly the prosecution is laying the ground work for this idea that he's some kind of vigilante. even though the defense fought to not allow that word in. >> yeah, it's the wannabe cop thing. but i thought the witness was somewhat helpful to the defense. later on in her examination, he said she found george zimmerman to be meek and thought he was helpful and she wanted him to be in even more sophisticated neighborhood type watch program. and that sort of cuts against this notion that the prosecution has been trying to put forward that he was this initial aggressor. she actually described him as meek. so i don't know that witness was as helpful to the prosecution as i think they thought she would be. >> is that word "vigilante" -- go ahead. >> i thought it was a defense witness they called out of order. you watch that, and what the prosecution thought they were

going to get in this was, okay, he violated these neighborhood watch rules. okay. that isn't a statute. it's not a code section. there's nothing wrong with that. you may get drummed out of neighborhood watch, but you're not going to boot strap that into a murder. and as sunny says, the stuff that the defense got out was exactly what you want, if you're the defense lawyer in this case. >> when you combine that testimony with the 911 operator saying don't approach him, that's pretty bad. that's a very bad piece of evidence for the defense, don't you think, mark? come on. that 911 tape. >> when they say don't approach, that's a bad fact. i'm not going to dispute that. but this woman, when you talk about this woman and what she brought to the prosecution, the burden clearly outweighed the benefits for the prosecution. i don't know what they were

thinking with her. >> when george zimmerman called 911 when someone's garage door wasn't opening. does that indicate to you anything? >> he called constantly. i mean, it hasn't come in yet, but we've been covering this trial for a while, but he called dozens and dozens of times. and i think that's why, jeff, i'm going to disagree with you again, i think it's relevant to his state of mind. i mean, all these calls over and over again. they're telling him not to take the law into his own hands and be a vigilante, but why is he calling so much? >> i guess a key question is how much should someone's past actions be allowed to place in a case like this? and jeff says a lot of the stuff should be in this one. >> in florida, we have what's called williams rule. however, it's generally used for prior bad agents. as been put in this case, these are somewhat good acts so it's a little bit different. however, the theory behind it is to goes to show modus operandi

or motive. and in this case, i think that's what the prosecution is trying to use it for, motive. however, they're supposed to give the defense prior notice of this, and it doesn't appear that was done in this case. so i do think at times -- >> surprise, surprise, surprise. >> especially in mr. zimmerman takes the stand, he's going to be questioned about these prior calls, like that call where he didn't want to follow those times, but did he have his gun with him at that time. >> jose, what are the odds that zimmerman is going to take the stand? >> never. >> i'll give you 50-1 odds and you can lay as much money as you want. >> i'll take that bet. >> zimmerman will never get within five feet of that stand. >> he took the stand during the bond hearing. >> 100 bucks. >> you're so sure because it would be a disaster for the defense? >> there's no way they're going to put george zimmerman -- remember, o'mara, we talked

about the only thing that he could do to lose this case is fall on his head. if he falls on his head and hits it and lets this guy tell more knock knock jokes, maybe they'll put him on the stand. >> he doesn't need to, because he's given so many statements already. it's almost like the conrad murray case. he didn't get on the witness stand, but, wow, did we hear from him. >> mark o'mara is coming up after this next break. i'm going to ask him about that knock knock joke, whether it was planned or not. and you probably noticed how different george zimmerman looks different these days, more than 100 pounds difference. we'll look closer at what could be behind his striking weight gain and what kind of an impact that could have on the jury. bulldog: oh, the dog days of summer!

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center of a public storm is unlike anything else in the legal world. tonight, zimmerman lawyer mark o'mara talked about the case. your co-counsel got some attention yesterday for a knock knock joke he told as an opening statement. was that something the two of you had discussed beforehand. what did you think about it? >> we had not discussed it. don was frut frustrated with what was going on. this attempts to put levity into it. because he's carrying that frustration with him. i would note it didn't work the way he wanted it to. >> the state had wanted to have some audio experts, what they said were audio experts testify saying that -- on that 911 call that according to these two experts it was not george zimmerman's voice yelling for help.

so so-called experts were not allowed to testify because, essentially, the fbi and others said the science just isn't there yet, the techniques aren't there. that must have been a key ruling for you. >> well, you know, yes and no. obviously on the surface it looks like a key ruling, but we have to back up a little bit. we had our witnesses, experts who would say that it was george zimmerman. so i was not worried about the idea of having a sort of spectrum of experts to say everything across the board, but what we realized once we found out about the case, was that no expert could have a firm opinion about whose voice it was. even two of the state's experts, the two that the state pulled off of their witness list the week before the hearing, those witnesses said they thought it may have been trayvon martin on the first scream or two and believe or thought it was probably george zimmerman on the last scream or two.

so it sounds as though this is a huge thing for the defense what we kept this evidence for our client. that's absolutely untrue. the evidence that would have come in, had it come in, would have been across the board. mr. owen, who again has the financial interest in his little magic machine would have said what he said and that was only a tendency and mr. rike, who here states nobody else hears in the universal was not let in because nobody else could recreate his supposed test. so i would almost have encouraged letting those people in front of a jury just so we could have shown them for who they trial are. >> interesting. i want to play this back. >> please don't go off focus here. >> no -- don't no, no, no me either. >> object, he's badgering the witness. now he's coming up with some fanciful thing.

with the door smashed in his face -- >> stop this right now. i have told counsel before, first of all, no one talks over the other, the court reporter can only take one person down at a time. i will not have any speaking objections in the courtroom. what is your legal objection? >> he's harassing the witness, your honor. >> overruled. i don't need a comment, i just need you to show the counsel. >> are those just the ups and downs of a trial, the judge sort of establishing, you know, her jurisdiction? >> it's her domain. it's her courtroom. she knows her rules. i know her rules. i should not be speaking in my objections. nobody should. it's difficult for lawyers not to talk. and this case is sort of packed with emotions, both outside the courtroom and inside the courtroom. but she's going to run the courtroom properly. i don't begrudge her that at all. she was right when she told me to back down. and i take her advice to heart and her rulings. >> was there anything in the

prosecution's opening statement, the 30-minute or so opening statement that surprised you? a lot of people paid attention to their use of george zimmerman's words, really the first things out of the prosecutor's mouth after saying good morning. >> you know, people say i look like joel osteen and now mr. guy is trying to sound like him, i guess. you know, that shock value, it's funny. not to keep mentioning the bizarro case, but generally speaking you have defense attorneys who will try to some maneuver to try and impassion the jury. here we have a prosecutor saying what he's saying to, you know, emotionally charge the jury against mr. zimmerman. >> how concerned are you about the presence of trayvon martin's parents in the courtroom? several times, because of testimony, graphic pictures, they've gotten up, his mother, his father today. apparently jurors are watching that, are seeing that.

does that concern you? i know you wanted the zimmerman parents -- george zimmerman's parents to be able to be in the courtroom. they won't be until they have testified. >> this is a tragedy for both families. i've said that since literally the first day you and i talked. and if they need to leave the courtroom i'm fine. what i don't want is any type of maneuver or show boating or something that would suggest to try to impact on that jury. as long as they stay away from negative impact on the jury, both the martin side and the zimmerman side, then we'll have a good, just verdict based on the evidence. >> it's probably too early to ask this, and you probably wouldn't answer even if you did know, but have you planned to take george zimmerman take the stand? >> i've always said that's a dynamic decision we have to make only once we look at the evidence the state presents. this has always been a case as every criminal case where the state has to prove their case. in this case, they have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt not only that the crime was

committed, and that it was in fact a crime, but george did not do so in self-defense. they have to disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. if i think they ever get to that burden, then we might consider whether we have to present any case at all. >> mark o'mara, good to have you on. thank you. >> sure. >> if you listened during that interview, you could hear mark geragos laughing. just about everybody is saying george zimmerman won't take the stand. george zimmerman's appearance has changed radically. his lawyer says he's gained more than 100 pounds. the question is, how does the jury see this? will this play a role in the case and the way the jury perceives george zimmerman and the physical altercation he had with trayvon martin? that's next. sunblock to your kids' wet skin. neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®.

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there's no way not to notice that george zimmerman looks a lot different now than the night he shot trayvon martin. his lawyer says he's gained more than 100 pounds. in a trial with something like this, how much weight a defendant gains can be analyzed from all sorts of different angles. here's randi kaye. >> reporter: this was george zimmerman when he was first questioned about shooting trayvon martin. he was 5'8" and weighed 194 pounds. that was february 26, 2012. back then, zimmerman was fit.

just look at his mug shot and his early court appearances. but watch as his look changed over the last year or so. his body ballooned. zimmerman's lawyer says he's gained about 120 pounds. does this look like the same man to you? we asked patty wood, a body language expert, to tell us what she sees. then and now. >> this is a skinny george zimmerman. >> yeah. >> reporter: what do you see? >> well, here we see how he's very comfortable. see how he elongates his torso? he's very proud and feels very powerful and strong. >> reporter: even in shackles, that's very interesting. so he's very comfortable in his body. that's important to know. >> do you see that same attitude here? >> yes, obviously his walk is tilted. but again, notice how elongated he is. often i see in this situation, downcast, shoulders over, very, very burdened. in this case, he's not. he's feeling really comfortable in his body.

>> reporter: and when we showed, patty, the heavier-set zimmerman who now weighs about 300 pounds -- >> he's agitated and much more upset. what's remarkable is he's actually comfortable with the excessive weight. so that tells me that he's comfortable and not feeling guilty. >> reporter: how does she think the jury will respond to the more plump george zimmerman? >> weight gain, excessive weight, we have a lot of negative connotations to it. so it can work against him. on the other hand, before he looked like a lean, mean, fighting machine and very young and fit. so why did he need to pull out a gun? so it may work for him in an odd way. >> reporter: that's led to speculation the weight gain might be a deliberate defense strategy to make zimmerman appear less threatening. but on piers morgan, zimmerman's attorney explains the weight gain was less about strategy and more about stress. >> he's gained an enormous

amount of weight, over 120 125 pounds, i think, because he's sitting in a house, stressed, trying to deal with the moniker that's been put on him that he's the most hated man in america for taking the life of somebody when he really feels that he needed to. >> reporter: fat or fit, during the next few weeks, george zimmerman, along with the rest of us, will be on a steady diet of courtroom drama. randi kaye, cnn, atlanta. >> joining me again is sunny hostin, jeffey toobin, jose baez and mark geragos. mark geragos, do you think this matters at all in terms of how the jury perceives him and any altercation he had with trayvon martin? >> actually, i'm of two minds of this. yesterday, i was thinking the geez, he looks so big and somebody else commented he looks like he could roll over and crush trayvon. because he was so huge.

then somebody said today, you know, he doesn't look as threatening this way. he looks like a combination of the pillsbury doughboy meets the michelin man. maybe he's not as threatening. as randi said in that package, he looks fit and athletic or at least to some degree in shape in the one picture. so maybe this is a less threatening zimmerman. i don't know that it's calculated. i don't know that anybody can gain that much weight on purpose that quickly, in a year. >> sunny, jeff, what do you think? >> i was standing next to him in the courtroom. he's massive. he's at least three times my size. when you looked at the -- >> we get it, he gained a lot of weight. >> when i looked at the crime scene photos today with the jury, trayvon martin was pretty thin, tall and thin. and the jury is going to see that when they see the autopsy photos. i suspect they're going to have to compare and contrast the two

images, a very large man, and a young, thin, tall boy. >> hasn't paula deen had a bad enough week? do we have to do this? i mean -- >> jose, it's interesting. we've seen transformations in high profile cases. you look at the jodi arias case where she went from blond to this mousy brunette with glasses and no makeup. that was obviously very conscious. when you're representing someone as a defense attorney, how much focus do you put on a client's appearance during a trial? >> you put a lot of emphasis. because they're essentially in a fishbowl being watched the entire time. first off, i want to say, to suggest that this is a defense strategy to put on 120 pounds -- >> yeah, it's ridiculous. >> -- i think it's ridiculous. it's somewhat of a negative connotation, because they may forget from time to time that he was much lighter at the time. and you don't want to add to the

confusion that's already there, and if it benefits him that he was much thinner and he was in an actual dogfight with trayvon martin, as opposed to being able to roll over and crush him, i think you want to get rid of that confusion that may be there. but i think all of this is much ado about nothing. but if i had to go one way or the other, i would much rather have him thinner. >> it's interesting, though, how perceptions of people's physical appearance can impact things. i mean early on, trayvon martin's family released photographs of trayvon martin, they showed a much younger trayvon martin. this little boy. it was later on you that started to see a 17-year-old as a young man. you know, i'm not sure how that played or impact it had. i don't know if that was conscious on their part. but mark, physical appearance does matter? >> absolutely. jurors are -- they are focused like a laser on the defendant. everything is all about the

defendant. one of the reasons you rarely put your client on the stand is because jurors will inevitably, all they care about after the defendant has testified is what did he say or what did she say? i mean, everything is based upon the client. if you get the jurors to have some kind of empathy for the client, they feel like they're walking in their shoes, if they feel like they have something about them resonates with them, then you have a winner. if they despise, don't like, or effectively demonized, the client has, that's recipe for a guilty verdict. that's what it's all about. >> go ahead. >> there are studies -- there's tons of studies that tell lawyers, you mentioned jodi arias with the glasses. there's been studies that show that people who wear glasses at trial are more likely to be acquitted. so i mean, i happen to think the facts have something to do with that. but there's certainly some

lawyers pay a great deal of attention to this. i agree, you have to -- for me, i think your best -- you're showing the best part of your client, whether it's something that, for example, with casey, we wanted to make her look young, we wanted her to look like she was, which was a 22-year-old girl. so i think that when it comes to these specific things, you want your client to look their best but you don't want to overdo it. >> we have to leave it there. two pairs. jose, mark, sunny, jeff, thank you very much. we'll be right back. more ahead. to fight it... to investigate it... ...prosecute it... and stop criminals. our senior medicare patrol volunteers... are teaching seniors across the country... ...to stop, spot, and report fraud. you can help. guard your medicare card. don't give out your card number over the phone.

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randi kaye has the latest on the stories we're following. >> cnn projects that democratic congressman ed markey has won the special legislation in massachusetts to fill john kerry's senate seat. mark ki beat former navy s.e.a.l. and businessman gabriel gomez. kerry stepped down to become secretary of state with about a year and a half remaining in his turn. edward snowden is thought to be somewhere in the press customs transit area in moscow. russian president putin says

russia won't hand him over to the united states to face espionage charges. but putin says the sooner snowden picks his final destination, the better for him and russia. the fbi is investigating the theft of $1.2 million from a swiss international airlines flight from zurich to new york. investigators don't know when the money was stolen. $100 bills were missing from a bank container stored inside a larger cargo container. >> that's it for us. join us again tonight at 10:00 eastern for more special coverage of the george zimmerman trial. "early start" is coming up after the break.

♪ all night drama, confusion and intrigue. the shocking end in the battle to shut down almost every abortion clinic in texas. history at the supreme court, just hours now, rulings that could completely redefine the status of same-sex marriage in america. and nelson mandela surrounded by family in the hospital. we're live. >> good morning, i'm john berman, welcome to "early start." >> i'm christine romans. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east. >> what a night in texas. what a really really,