title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: The puzzle is created by various freelance constructors and has been edited by Will Shortz since 1993. The crosswords are designed to increase in difficulty throughout the week, with the easiest puzzle on Monday and the most difficult on Saturday. The larger Sunday crossword, which appears in "The New York Times Magazine", is an icon in American culture; it is typically intended to be as difficult as a Thursday puzzle. The standard daily crossword is 15 by 15 squares, while the Sunday crossword measures 21 by 21 squares.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: Although crosswords became popular in the early 1920s, "The New York Times" (which initially regarded crosswords as frivolous, calling them "a primitive form of mental exercise") did not begin to run a crossword until 1942, in its Sunday edition. The first puzzle ran on Sunday, February 15, 1942. The motivating impulse for the "Times" to finally run the puzzle (which took over 20 years even though its publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, was a longtime crossword fan) appears to have been the bombing of Pearl Harbor; in a memo dated December 18, 1941, an editor conceded that the puzzle deserved space in the paper, considering what was happening elsewhere in the world and that readers might need something to occupy themselves during blackouts. The puzzle proved popular, and Sulzberger himself authored a "Times" puzzle before the year was out.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: In 1950, the crossword became a daily feature. That first daily puzzle was published without an author line, and as of 2001 the identity of the author of the first weekday "Times" crossword remained unknown.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: There have been four editors of the puzzle: Margaret Farrar from the puzzle's inception until 1969; Will Weng, former head of the "Times" metropolitan copy desk, until 1977; Eugene T. Maleska until his death in 1993; and the current editor, Will Shortz. In addition to editing the "Times" crosswords, Shortz founded and runs the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament as well as the World Puzzle Championship (where he remains captain of the US team), has published numerous books of crosswords, sudoku, and other puzzles, authors occasional variety puzzles (also known as "Second Sunday puzzles") to appear alongside the Sunday "Times" puzzle, and serves as "Puzzlemaster" on the NPR show "Weekend Edition Sunday".


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: The puzzle's popularity grew over the years, until it came to be considered the most prestigious of the widely circulated U.S. crosswords. Many celebrities and public figures who have publicly proclaimed their liking for the puzzle, including opera singer Beverly Sills, author Norman Mailer, baseball pitcher Mike Mussina, former President Bill Clinton, conductor Leonard Bernstein, TV host Jon Stewart, and music duo the Indigo Girls.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: The "Times" puzzles have been collected in hundreds of books by various publishers, most notably Random House and St. Martin's Press, the current publisher of the series. In addition to appearing in the printed newspaper, the puzzles also appear online on the paper's website, where they require a separate subscription to access. In 2007, Majesco Entertainment released "The New York Times Crosswords" game, a video game adaptation for the Nintendo DS handheld. The game includes over 1,000 "Times" crosswords from all days of the week. Various other forms of merchandise featuring the puzzle have been created, including dedicated electronic crossword handhelds that just contain "Times" crosswords, and a variety of "Times" crossword-themed memorabilia, including cookie jars, baseballs, cufflinks, plates, coasters, and mousepads.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: Will Shortz does not write the "Times" crossword himself; a wide variety of contributors submit puzzles to him. A full specification sheet listing the paper's requirements for crossword puzzle submission can be found online or by writing to the paper.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: The Monday–Thursday puzzles and the Sunday puzzle always have a theme, some sort of connection between at least three long (usually Across) answers, such as a similar type of pun, letter substitution, or alteration in each entry. Another theme type is that of a quotation broken up into symmetrical portions and spread throughout the grid. For example, the February 11, 2004, puzzle by Ethan Friedman featured a theme quotation: ANY IDIOT CAN FACE / A CRISIS IT'S THIS / DAY-TO-DAY LIVING / THAT WEARS YOU OUT. (This quotation has been attributed to Anton Chekhov, but that attribution is disputed and the specific source has not been identified.) Notable dates such as holidays or anniversaries of famous events are often commemorated with an appropriately themed puzzle, although only two are routinely commemorated annually: Christmas and April Fool's Day.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: The Friday and Saturday puzzles, the most difficult, are usually themeless and "wide open", with fewer black squares and more long words. The maximum word count for a themed weekday puzzle is normally 78 words, while the maximum for a themeless Friday or Saturday puzzle is 72; Sunday puzzles must contain 140 words or fewer. Given the "Times"'s reputation as a paper for a literate, well-read, and somewhat arty audience, puzzles frequently reference works of literature, art, or classical music, as well as modern TV, movies, or other touchstones of popular culture.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: The puzzle follows a number of conventions, both for tradition's sake and to aid solvers in completing the crossword:


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: In addition to the primary crossword, the "Times" publishes a second Sunday puzzle each week, of varying types, something that the first crossword editor, Margaret Farrar, saw as a part of the paper's Sunday puzzle offering from the start; she wrote in a memo when the "Times" was considering whether or not to start running crosswords that "The smaller puzzle, which would occupy the lower part of the page, could provide variety each Sunday. It could be topical, humorous, have rhymed definitions or story definitions or quiz definitions. The combination of these two would offer meat and dessert, and catch the fancy of all types of puzzlers." Currently, every other week is an acrostic puzzle authored by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, with a rotating selection of other puzzles, including diagramless crosswords, Puns and Anagrams, cryptics (a.k.a. "British-style crosswords"), Split Decisions, Spiral Crosswords, word games, and more rarely, other types (some authored by Shortz himself—the only puzzles he has created for the "Times" during his tenure as crossword editor). Of these types, the acrostic has the longest and most interesting history, beginning on May 9, 1943, authored by Elizabeth S. Kingsley, who is credited with inventing the puzzle type, and continued to write the "Times" acrostic until December 28, 1952. From then until August 13, 1967, it was written by Kingsley's former assistant, Doris Nash Wortman; then it was taken over by Thomas H. Middleton for a period of over 30 years, until August 15, 1999, when the pair of Cox and Rathvon became just the fourth author of the puzzle in its history. The name of the puzzle also changed over the years, from "Double-Crostic" to "Kingsley Double-Crostic," "Acrostic Puzzle," and finally (since 1991) just "Acrostic."


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: As well as a second word puzzle on Sundays, the "Times" publishes a KenKen numbers puzzle (a variant of the popular sudoku logic puzzles) each day of the week. The KenKen and second Sunday puzzles are available online at the New York Times crosswords and games page, as are "SET!" logic puzzles, a word search variant called "Spelling Bee" in which the solver uses a hexagonal diagram of letters to spell words of four or more letters in length, and a monthly bonus crossword with a theme relating to the month. The Times Online also publishes a daily "mini" crossword by Joel Fagliano, which is 5×5 Sunday through Friday and 7×7 on Saturdays and is significantly easier than the traditional daily puzzle. Other "mini" and larger 11×11 "midi" puzzles are sometimes offered as bonuses.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: Fans of the "Times" crossword have kept track of a number of records and interesting puzzles (primarily from among those published in Shortz's tenure), including those below. (All puzzles published from November 21, 1993, on are available to online subscribers to the "Times" crossword.)


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: A few crosswords have achieved recognition beyond the community of crossword solvers. Perhaps the most famous is the November 5, 1996, puzzle by Jeremiah Farrell, published on the day of the U.S. presidential election, which has been featured in the movie "Wordplay" and the book "The Crossword Obsession" by Coral Amende, as well as discussed by Peter Jennings on ABC News, featured on CNN, and elsewhere. The two leading candidates that year were Bill Clinton and Bob Dole; in Farrell's puzzle one of the long clue/answer combinations read "Title for 39-Across next year" = MISTER PRESIDENT. The remarkable feature of the puzzle is that 39-Across could be answered either CLINTON or BOB DOLE, and all the Down clues and answers that crossed it would work either way (e.g., "Black Halloween animal" could be either BAT or CAT depending on which answer you filled in at 39-Across; similarly "French 101 word" could equal LUI or OUI, etc.). Constructors have dubbed this type of puzzle a Schrödinger or quantum puzzle after the famous paradox of Schrödinger's cat, which was both alive and dead at the same time. Since Farrell's invention of it, 16 other constructors—Patrick Merrell, Ethan Friedman, David J. Kahn, Damon J. Gulczynski, Dan Schoenholz, Andrew Reynolds, Kacey Walker and David Quarfoot (in collaboration), Ben Tausig, Timothy Polin, Xan Vongsathorn, Andrew Kingsley and John Lieb (in collaboration), Zachary Spitz, David Steinberg and Stephen McCarthy have used a similar trick.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: In another notable "Times" crossword, 27-year-old Bill Gottlieb proposed to his girlfriend, Emily Mindel, via the crossword puzzle of January 7, 1998, written by noted crossword constructor Bob Klahn. The answer to 14-Across, "Microsoft chief, to some" was BILLG, also Gottlieb's name and last initial. 20-Across, "1729 Jonathan Swift pamphlet", was A MODEST PROPOSAL. And 56-Across, "1992 Paula Abdul hit", was WILL YOU MARRY ME. Gottlieb's girlfriend said yes. The puzzle attracted attention in the AP, an article in the "Times" itself, and elsewhere. Other Times crosswords with a notable wedding element include the June 25, 2010, puzzle by Byron Walden and Robin Schulman, which has rebuses spelling I DO throughout, and the January 8, 2020, puzzle by Joon Pahk and Amanda Yesnowitz, which was used at the latter’s wedding reception.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: On May 7, 2007, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, a self-professed long-time fan of the "Times" crossword, collaborated with noted crossword constructor Cathy Millhauser on an online-only crossword in which Millhauser constructed the grid and Clinton wrote the clues. Shortz described the President's work as "laugh out loud" and noted that he as editor changed very little of Clinton's clues, which featured more wordplay than found in a standard puzzle. Clinton made his print constructing debut on Friday, May 12, 2017, collaborating with Vic Fleming on one of the co-constructed puzzles celebrating the crossword's 75th Anniversary.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: The "Times" crossword of Thursday, April 2, 2009, by Brendan Emmett Quigley, featured theme answers that all ran the gamut of movie ratings—beginning with the kid-friendly "G" and finishing with adults-only "X" (now replaced by the less crossword-friendly "NC-17"). The seven theme entries were GARY GYGAX, GRAND PRIX, GORE-TEX, GAG REFLEX, GUMMO MARX, GASOLINE TAX, and GENERATION X. In addition, the puzzle contained the clues/answers of 'Weird Al' Yankovic's '__ on Jeopardy = I LOST and "I'll take "New York Times" crossword for $200, __" = ALEX. What made the puzzle notable is that the prior night's episode of the US television show "Jeopardy!" featured video clues of Will Shortz for five of the theme answers (all but GARY GYGAX and GENERATION X) which the contestants attempted to answer during the course of the show.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: The "Times" crossword has been criticized for a lack of diversity in its constructors and clues. Major crosswords like those in the "Times" have historically been largely written, edited, fact-checked, and test-solved by older white men. Less than 30% of puzzle constructors in the Shortz Era have been women. In the 2010s, only 27% of clued figures were female, and 20% were of minority racial groups.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: In January 2019, the "Times" crossword was criticized for including the racial slur "BEANER" (clued as "Pitch to the head, informally", but also a derogatory slur for Mexicans). Shortz apologized for the distraction this may have caused solvers, claiming that he had never heard the slur before.


title: The New York Times crossword puzzle

text: On December 18, 2022, the "Times" was heavily criticized on social media due to claims that its Sunday crossword grid resembled a Nazi swastika. In a statement, the "Times" claimed the resemblance was unintentional, incidentally stemming from the rotational symmetry of the grid.


title: Kelli Stavast

text: Kelli L. Stavast is an American sportscaster who works for NBC Sports as a pit reporter for both their NASCAR (in both the Cup and Xfinity Series) and IndyCar Series coverage. She has reported for numerous other forms of motorsports throughout her career, as well as diving at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and freestyle skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongchang.


title: Kelli Stavast

text: Stavast was raised in Denver, Colorado. She attended Chapman University where she graduated in 2002 with a broadcast journalism degree.


title: Kelli Stavast

text: In 2015, Stavast joined NBC's returning NASCAR coverage as a pit reporter. She was announced to be joining the broadcast team on January 22, 2014, along with Marty Snider. They would be joined by Dave Burns and Mike Massaro (announced later in the year) as NBC's four pit reporters for the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series. Stavast was the only original member of the NBC broadcast team hired without a prior experience covering NASCAR, although she did report for other forms of motorsports for NBC, Speed, and ESPN including the Grand-Am, American Le Mans Series (and those two series when they merged to become IMSA), Stadium Super Truck Series, and Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series.


title: Kelli Stavast

text: She was also a reporter for NBC coverage of diving at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, as well as freestyle skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongchang. Stavast interviewed skier Madison Olsen.


title: Kelli Stavast

text: On October 2, 2021, Stavast interviewed Brandon Brown after his victory at the Xfinity Series' Sparks 300, while the crowd was chanting "Fuck Joe Biden" in the background. Stavast quoted the chant as "Let's Go Brandon"; it is unclear whether she misheard it or whether she intentionally misquoted it. After footage of the interview went viral, the phrase "Let's Go Brandon" became a political slogan and a meme to mock president Joe Biden as a minced oath.


title: Kelli Stavast

text: Stavast moved to Las Vegas where her then-fiancé Gavin Kelly also an American sportscaster who works for the NBC Sports, NASCAR, and IndyCar Series was living, when they got engaged in 2016. The couple were introduced to each other through Kurt Busch, who is a close friend of Gavin's.


title: Prediabetes

text: Prediabetes is a component of the metabolic syndrome and is characterized by elevated blood sugar levels that fall below the threshold to diagnose diabetes mellitus. It usually does not cause symptoms but people with prediabetes often have obesity (especially abdominal or visceral obesity), dyslipidemia with high triglycerides and/or low HDL cholesterol, and hypertension. It is also associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Prediabetes is more accurately considered an early stage of diabetes as health complications associated with type 2 diabetes often occur before the diagnosis of diabetes.


title: Prediabetes

text: Prediabetes can be diagnosed by measuring hemoglobin A1c, fasting glucose, or glucose tolerance test. Many people may be diagnosed through routine screening tests. The primary treatment approach includes lifestyle changes such as exercise and dietary adjustments. Some medications can be used to reduce the risks associated with prediabetes. There is a high rate of progression to type 2 diabetes but not everyone with prediabetes develops type 2 diabetes. Prediabetes can be a reversible condition with lifestyle changes.


title: Prediabetes

text: For many people, prediabetes and diabetes are diagnosed through a routine screening at a check-up. However, an additional routine screening done by dentists, a new and promising concept, and not only medical doctors, can be very effective in early detection and treatment. The earlier prediabetes is diagnosed, the more likely an intervention will be successful.


title: Prediabetes

text: Prediabetes typically has no distinct signs or symptoms except the sole sign of high blood sugar. Patients should monitor for signs and symptoms of type 2 diabetes mellitus such as increased thirst, increased urination, and feeling tired.


title: Prediabetes

text: The cause of prediabetes is multifactorial and is known to have contributions from lifestyle and genetic factors. Ultimately prediabetes occurs when control of insulin and blood glucose in the body becomes abnormal, also known as insulin resistance. Risk factors for prediabetes include family history of diabetes, older age, women who have a history of gestational diabetes or high birth weight babies (greater than 9 lbs.).


title: Prediabetes

text: The increasing rates of prediabetes and diabetes suggest lifestyle and/or environmental factors that contribute to prediabetes. It remains unclear which dietary components are causative and risk is likely influenced by genetic background. Lack of physical activity is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and physical activity can reduce the risk of progressing to type 2 diabetes.


title: Prediabetes

text: Normal glucose homeostasis is controlled by three interrelated processes. These processes include gluconeogenesis (glucose production that occurs in the liver), uptake and utilization of glucose by the peripheral tissues of the body, and insulin secretion by the pancreatic beta islet cells. The presence of glucose in the bloodstream triggers the production and release of insulin from the pancreas' beta islet cells. The main function of insulin is to increase the rate of transport of glucose from the bloodstream into certain cells of the body, such as striated muscles, fibroblasts, and fat cells. It also is necessary for transport of amino acids, glycogen formation in the liver and skeletal muscles, triglyceride formation from glucose, nucleic acid synthesis, and protein synthesis. In individuals with prediabetes, a failure of pancreatic hormone release, failure of targeted tissues to respond to the insulin present or both leads to blood glucose rises to abnormally high levels.


title: Prediabetes

text: Impaired fasting glycemia or impaired fasting glucose (IFG) refers to a condition in which the fasting blood glucose is elevated above what is considered normal levels but is not high enough to be classified as diabetes mellitus. It is considered a pre-diabetic state, associated with insulin resistance and increased risk of cardiovascular pathology, although of lesser risk than impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). IFG sometimes progresses to type 2 diabetes mellitus.


title: Prediabetes

text: Fasting blood glucose levels are in a continuum within a given population, with higher fasting glucose levels corresponding to a higher risk for complications caused by the high glucose levels. Some patients with impaired fasting glucose also may be diagnosed with impaired glucose tolerance, but many have normal responses to a glucose tolerance test. Fasting glucose is helpful in identifying prediabetes when positive but has a risk of false negatives.


title: Prediabetes

text: World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for impaired fasting glucose differs from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) criteria, because the normal range of glucose is defined differently by each. Fasting plasma glucose levels 100 mg/dL (5.5 mmol/L) and higher have been shown to increase complication rates significantly, however, WHO opted to keep its upper limit of normal at under 110 mg/dL for fear of causing too many people to be diagnosed as having impaired fasting glucose, whereas the ADA lowered the upper limit of normal to a fasting plasma glucose under 100 mg/dL.


title: Prediabetes

text: Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) is diagnosed with an oral glucose tolerance test. According to the criteria of the World Health Organization and the American Diabetes Association, impaired glucose tolerance is defined as:


title: Prediabetes

text: From 10 to 15 percent of adults in the United States have impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose.


title: Prediabetes

text: Hemoglobin A1c is a measure of the percent of red blood cells that are glycated, or have a glucose molecule attached. This can be used as an indicator of blood glucose level over a longer period of time and is often used to diagnose prediabetes as well as diabetes. HbA1c may not accurately represent blood glucose levels and should not be used in certain medical conditions such as iron-deficiency anemia, Vitamin B12 and folate deficiency, pregnancy, hemolytic anemia, an enlarged spleen, and end-stage kidney failure.


title: Prediabetes

text: Hyperinsulinemia due to insulin resistance may occur in individuals with normal glucose levels and therefore is not diagnosed with usual tests. Hyperinsulinemia precedes prediabetes and diabetes that are characterized by hyperglycemia. Insulin resistance can be diagnosed by measures of plasma insulin, both fasting or during a glucose tolerance test. The use of fasting insulin to identify patients at risk has been proposed, but is currently not commonly used in clinical practice.


title: Prediabetes

text: The implications of hyperinsulinemia is the risk of comorbidities related to diabetes that may precede changes in blood glucose, including cardiovascular diseases.


title: Prediabetes

text: Fasting plasma glucose screening should begin at age 30–45 and be repeated at least every three years. Earlier and more frequent screening should be conducted in at-risk individuals. The risk factors for which are listed below:


title: Prediabetes

text: The United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends adults who are overweight/obese and aged 40–70 years old to get screened during visits to their regular physician. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends normal testing repeated every three years and recommends a larger range of people get tested: anyone over the age of 45 regardless of risk; an adult of any age who is obese or overweight and has one or more risk factors, which includes hypertension, a first degree relative with diabetes, physical inactivity, high risk race/ethnicity, Asian Americans with BMI of ≥23 kg/m, HDL < 35 mg/dL or TG > 250 mg/dL, women who have delivered child >9 lbs or with gestational diabetes, A1c ≥ 5.7%, impaired fasting glucose (IFG) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).


title: Prediabetes

text: In the UK, NICE guidelines suggest taking action to prevent diabetes for people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30. For people of Black African, African-Caribbean, South Asian and Chinese descent the recommendation to start prevention starts at the BMI of 27,5. A study based on a large sample of people in England suggest even lower BMIs for certain ethnic groups for the start of prevention, for example 24 in South Asian and 21 in Bangladeshi populations.


title: Prediabetes

text: Over half the people who are diagnosed with prediabetes eventually develop type 2 diabetes and once diagnosed with prediabetes, people experience a range of emotions: distress and fear; denial and downplay of risks; guilt and self-criticism; and self-compassion. While prediabetes is a reversible condition, it requires diet change and exercise, which may be more difficult for people diagnosed prediabetes because facing the risk of a chronic condition is associated with negative emotions, which further hinder the self-regulation that is required in reversing a prediabetes diagnosis. Still, without taking action, 37% of individuals with prediabetes will develop diabetes in only 4 years, and lifestyle intervention may decrease the percentage of prediabetic patients in whom diabetes develops to 20%. The National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) has a Center of Disease Control (CDC)-recognized lifestyle change program that showed prediabetic people following the structured program can cut their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58% (71% for people over 60 years old). Considering the possibility to recover from the prediabetic status but also this emotional struggle upon diagnosis, it is encouraged for higher risk patients to get tested early. Having an additional screening option in the dental setting may offset some of the emotional struggle because it is more regularly visited and therefore has the potential to initiate earlier recognition and intervention.


title: Prediabetes

text: It's been found that people will visit their dentist more regularly than their primary physician for checkups, so the dentist's office becomes a very useful place for potentially checking for diabetes. For people who are unaware of their diabetes risk and fall into the non-White, obese, or ≥45 y old category, screening at the dentist's would have the highest odds of getting identified as someone at risk. Studies have been done to evaluate the overall effectiveness and value of prediabetes testing in the dental setting, usually at dental schools. One study has looked at screening through dental visits followed up by intervention programs such as the commercial Weight Watchers and found it a cost-effective means to identify and treat affected people in the long term. Cost is a factor people at risk might need to consider, since, on average, people diagnosed with diabetes have approximately 2.3 times higher medical expenditure that what expenditures would be in its absence.


title: Prediabetes

text: A simple test may be instituted at the dentist's office, in which an oral blood sample is taken during a normal visit to the dentist's. This sample tests for glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels; HbA1c gives healthcare professionals an idea of blood glucose levels and is the most reliable form of testing for diabetes in asymptomatic patients. Fasting and "acute perturbations" are not needed for HbA1c test and it reveals average glycemic control over 3-month period. HbA1c less than 5.6% is considered normal. Glucose status can also be tested through fasting blood sugar (FBS) and requires a blood sample after a patient has fasted for at least eight hours, so it might not be as convenient. Patients who have gotten oral blood samples taken say it feels as if part of a normal procedure, and dentists say it is convenient.


title: Prediabetes

text: In a study that analyzed data from 10,472 adults from 2013 to 2014 and 2015 to 2016, it was revealed that screening for risk of prediabetes in the dental setting has the potential to alert an estimated 22.36 million adults. Diabetes may be asymptomatic for a long time, but since it would be wasteful to test every patient at the dental office, utilizing known risk factors may guide who is ideal for testing. Since a history is already taken at a dental office, a few additional questions would help guide a dentist on narrowing down who the test is recommended for. For example, people with high BMI are at higher risk for diabetes. A study done by the School of Dentistry, Diabetes Research Centre, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in Sari, Iran found a relation between periodontitis and the prediabetic condition, and this could be another tool to help guide who might be recommended to take the test. Periodontal disease occurs when a number of anaerobic bacteria living on the tooth surface cause infections, which leads to a potentially sustained immune response. Diabetes is a type of condition in which infections are easier to get, and hyperglycemia contributes to the mechanism causing oral complications.


title: Prediabetes

text: The American College of Endocrinology (ACE) and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) have developed "lifestyle intervention" guidelines for preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes:


title: Prediabetes

text: There is evidence that prediabetes is a curable disease state. Although some drugs can delay the onset of diabetes, lifestyle modifications play a greater role in the prevention of diabetes. Intensive weight loss and lifestyle intervention, if sustained, may improve glucose tolerance substantially and prevent progression from IGT to type 2 diabetes. The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) study found a 16% reduction in diabetes risk for every kilogram of weight loss. Reducing weight by 7% through a low-fat diet and performing 150 minutes of exercise a week is the goal. The ADA guidelines recommend modest weight loss (5–10% body weight), moderate-intensity exercise (30 minutes daily), and smoking cessation.


title: Prediabetes

text: There are many dietary approaches that can reduce the risk of progression to diabetes. Most involve the reduction of added sugars and fats but there remains a lack of conclusive evidence proving the best approach.


title: Prediabetes

text: For patients with severe risk factors, prescription medication may be appropriate. This may be considered in patients for whom lifestyle therapy has failed, or is not sustainable, and who are at high-risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Metformin and acarbose help prevent the development of prediabetes, and also have a good safety profile. Evidence also supports thiazolidinediones but there are safety concerns, and data on newer agents such as GLP-1 receptor agonists, DPP4 inhibitors or meglitinides are lacking.


title: Prediabetes

text: The progression to type 2 diabetes mellitus is not inevitable for those with prediabetes. The progression into diabetes mellitus from prediabetes is approximately 25% over three to five years. This increases to 50% risk of progressing to diabetes over 10 years. Diabetes is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Effects of the disease may affect larger blood vessels (e.g., atherosclerosis within the larger arteries of the cardiovascular system) or smaller blood vessels, as seen with damage to the retina of the eye, damage to the kidney, and damage to the nerves.


title: Prediabetes

text: Prediabetes is a risk factor for mortality and there is evidence of cardiovascular disease developing prior to a diagnosis of diabetes.


title: Prediabetes

text: Studies conducted from 1988 to 1994 indicated that of the total population of US in the age group 40–74 years, 34% had IFG, 15% had IGT, and 40% had prediabetes (IFG, IGT, or both). Eighteen million people (6% of the population) had type 2 diabetes in 2002.


title: Prediabetes

text: The incidence of diabetes is growing. In 2014, 29.1 million people or 9% of the US population had diabetes. In 2011–2012, the prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. using hemoglobin A1C, fasting plasma glucose or the two-hour plasma glucose definition was 14% for total diabetes, 9% for diagnosed diabetes, 5% for undiagnosed diabetes and 38% for prediabetes.


title: Thad Matta

text: Thad Michael Matta (born July 11, 1967) is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team. From 2004 to 2017, Matta led the Ohio State Buckeyes to five Big Ten Conference regular season championships (2006, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012), four Big Ten tournament titles (2007, 2010, 2011 and 2013), two Final Four appearances (2007 and 2012), and the 2008 NIT Championship. He is the winningest coach in Ohio State history.


title: Thad Matta

text: Before returning to Butler, Matta spent a season (2021–22) as the Associate Athletic Director for Indiana and the men's basketball team.


title: Thad Matta

text: A basketball standout for the Cornjerkers at Hoopeston-East Lynn High School in Hoopeston, Illinois, Matta was a two-year starter for the Butler University Bulldogs in three seasons after transferring from Southern Illinois University as a sophomore. He led Butler in assists (100) and three-point field goal percentage (.433) in 1987–88 and in free-throw percentage in 1988–89 (.872). He served as a team captain (one of the Butler tri-captains that year) on Barry Collier's first team in 1989–90 and finished his career in sixth place on Butler's all-time list for free-throw percentage (.800). He earned a B.S. degree from Butler in 1990. Matta enjoyed his Butler career-high point total of 21 points against Xavier University at the Cincinnati Gardens on March 2, 1989.


title: Thad Matta

text: In total, Matta spent six seasons as a full-time assistant coach at three different universities, helping his squads compile a composite 128–58 (.688) record and make six postseason tournament appearances. He was on the bench in five consecutive conference tournament championship games and won four league tournament championship rings. He was in the NCAA tournament five times as an assistant under four different head coaches and in the postseason National Invitation Tournament once.


title: Thad Matta

text: Matta began his coaching career at Indiana State University as a graduate assistant under head coach Tates Locke in 1990–91. Matta served as an academic coordinator and administrative assistant at Butler (1991–94) before moving into the full-time coaching ranks.


title: Thad Matta

text: Matta took his first full-time assistant coaching position under Herb Sendek at Miami University (Ohio) in 1994–95 and helped Miami to a 23–7 record, a Mid-American Conference regular-season championship and a first-round win in the NCAA tournament.


title: Thad Matta

text: The following year, Matta accepted a coaching position at Western Carolina University under Phil Hopkins and helped the Catamounts to a 17–13 record, the school's first winning record in 10 years. Western Carolina captured the Southern Conference tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament. Matta returned to Miami under new head coach Charlie Coles in 1996–97 and helped the RedHawks to a 21–9 record, the MAC regular season and tournament championships and a berth in the NCAA tournament.


title: Thad Matta

text: Matta rejoined Butler University's staff in 1997 and helped the Bulldogs to three consecutive 20-win seasons. He established himself as one of the nation's best young coaching prospects during a six-year assistant coaching stint. In his three seasons as Barry Collier's top assistant, Butler compiled a 67–29 (.698) record, won two Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament championships and one MCC regular-season title, made two NCAA tournament appearances and earned one NIT berth. He served as Butler's primary recruiter.


title: Thad Matta

text: Matta took over as head coach of Butler when Barry Collier left after the 1999–2000 season to coach at the University of Nebraska. Matta was named 2000–01 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year in his first and only season as head coach at Butler, after leading the Bulldogs to a school record 24 wins. He was also named National "Rookie Coach of the Year" by CBS SportsLine.com and College Insider.com.


title: Thad Matta

text: Butler was 24–8 under Matta's direction that year with an 11–3 record and an MCC regular season championship, a MCC tournament championship and an appearance in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Butler won 13 of its last 15 games. Eventual NCAA runner-up Arizona ended the Butler run in the second round of the NCAA tournament.


title: Thad Matta

text: At Xavier, Matta led the Musketeers to three consecutive 26-win seasons, back-to-back Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season championships in 2002 and 2003 and two league tournament titles in 2002 and 2004. Xavier advanced to three NCAA tournaments, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2004 following two second-round trips.


title: Thad Matta

text: Matta's 26 wins for the 2002–03 season marked the highest win total ever for a second-year Xavier head coach. He also broke the school record for most victories by a Xavier rookie head coach. Xavier's 26–6 record in the 2001–02 campaign set the record.


title: Thad Matta

text: Matta was named 2002 Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year, while leading the Musketeers to the top regular season finish in the league at 14–2 and an Atlantic 10 Conference tournament championship. In addition, Matta became the only first-year coach in conference history to ever win both the A–10 regular season and tourney championships.


title: Thad Matta

text: Matta, a finalist for the 2002–03 Naismith National Coach of the Year Award, was hired as the 13th head coach in Ohio State history on July 7, 2004 after the school had fired previous coach Jim O'Brien. No time was wasted preparing for his first season in Columbus, which culminated in a 65–64 victory over undefeated and top–ranked University of Illinois in the regular-season finale at Value City Arena before a packed house and a national television audience. The Buckeyes' final record for the 2004–05 campaign was 20–12, but did not include any postseason play, as the team was ineligible.


title: Thad Matta

text: In the 2005–06 season Matta led the Buckeyes to an outright Big Ten Championship for the first time since 1992, finishing one game ahead of Iowa and Illinois. The Buckeyes' season came to an end during the second round of the NCAA tournament when they lost to Georgetown on March 19, 2006. Their final overall record was 26–6. The Buckeyes were thought to be a year away from competing for the league crown, as they were to add a highly regarded recruiting class, dubbed the "Thad Five", led by center Greg Oden of Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis for the 2006–07 season. The Buckeyes did win the Big Ten and Matta led Ohio State all the way to the national championship game, where they lost to defending national champion Florida.


title: Thad Matta

text: In the 2007–08 season, Matta's Buckeyes did not make the NCAA tournament. However, they won the 2008 NIT championship, despite playing with four new starters for the second consecutive year.


title: Thad Matta

text: In 2009, Ohio State went to the NCAA Tournament, but were eliminated in the first round by Siena. In 2010, the Buckeyes won a share of the Big Ten and the 2010 conference tournament title. In the NCAA tournament they beat UC–Santa Barbara in the first round 68–51. The next round they beat Georgia Tech 75–66, but went on to lose to Tennessee in the Sweet 16.


title: Thad Matta

text: In the 2010–11 season, Matta's Buckeyes were 29–2, ranked #1 in all polls (16–2 in conference play), and won the outright Big Ten Championship. The Buckeyes beat Penn State on March 13 to win their 2nd consecutive Big Ten tournament title. The Buckeyes were the overall number one seed in the 2011 NCAA tournament and the number one seed in the Eastern bracket, where the Buckeyes won two games in Cleveland before losing to eventual Eastern regional champion Kentucky.


title: Thad Matta

text: In the 2011–12 season, Matta led Ohio State to its third straight Big Ten championship, shared with Michigan and Michigan State. Ohio State advanced to the Final Four for the second time in Matta's career, before losing to Kansas in a game the Buckeyes led by nine at halftime.


title: Thad Matta

text: In the 2012–13 season, Ohio State finished second in the Big Ten regular season, one game behind league champion Indiana. The Buckeyes went on to win the Big Ten tournament in Chicago, which was Matta's fourth Big Ten tournament championship. The Buckeyes were a 2 seed in the 2013 NCAA tournament. They lost in the Elite Eight to Wichita State.


title: Thad Matta

text: On March 12, 2015, Matta set a school record for victories, winning his 298th game for OSU after defeating Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament.


title: Thad Matta

text: On June 5, 2017, Matta mutually agreed with Ohio State to step down as its head coach due to health issues that were causing a decline in team performance and recruiting. His final season at Ohio State was the only in Matta's entire career that he failed to achieve at least 20 wins.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The AE85 series of the Toyota Corolla Levin and Toyota Sprinter Trueno are small, front-engine/rear-wheel-drive compact cars within the front-engine/front-wheel-drive fifth-generation Corolla (E80) range—manufactured by Toyota from 1983 to 1987 in coupé and liftback configurations.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The AE85 shares its chassis and basic design with the famous AE86, however the AE85 was designed for economy and mainly differs in its engine, whereas the AE86 was designed for performance.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The AE85 was only sold in Japan and was not sold in North America or other regions. The leading characters in the VIN do not always use the same characters as the chassis code, so some less powerful variants of the AE86 (with the 1.6 L 4A engine) were sold there with an AE86 chassis code on the build plate in the engine bay but with AE85 in the VIN.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The car is known colloquially in Japan as the , meaning "Eight-Five". The word "trueno" is Spanish for thunder, and "levin" is Old English for "lightning". The Corolla Levin was sold at "Toyota Corolla Store" locations, whereas the Sprinter Trueno was sold at "Toyota Auto Store" locations.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The chassis code "AE85" is used to describe the 1500 cc RWD model from the range. In classic Toyota code, the "A" represents the engine that came in the car (3A series), "E" represents the Corolla, "8" represents the fifth generation (E80 series) and "5" represents the variation within this generation.


title: Toyota AE85

text: Pre-facelift models from 1983-1985 were known as ""zenki"" (前期, lit. "early period"), while the facelift 1985-1987 models were known as ""kouki"" (後期, lit. "latter period").


title: Toyota AE85

text: The AE85 was available with a carburetor-equipped 3A-U inline-four engine, an SOHC (Single overhead cam) two-valve-per-cylinder motor, which at the time was nothing new; the previous fourth generation Toyota Corollas and Sprinters such as the AE70 featured the same engine. Toyota opted to use the older, less powerful engine in the AE85 to keep costs down, while still providing enough power for an economy-class car. This decision led the AE85 to be outclassed in horsepower by not only the stronger AE86, but most other options at the time. However, it was rated by the Japanese Ministry of Transport to have a fuel economy of 26.4 km/L (62.1 mi/gal) when running at a constant speed of 60 km/h (37.28 mph) which was drastically better than most other cars of its class.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The AE85 featured solid disc brakes on the front and drum brakes on the back, rack and pinion steering, and a K50 cable-clutch manual transmission (an optional automatic transmission was available). It did not incorporate a limited-slip differential (LSD) or ventilated disc brakes in the front and rear of the higher-performing AE86.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The AE85 and AE86 was available in multiple body variations, with the Levin and Trueno featuring fixed-headlights and retractable pop-up headlights respectively. Because of their identical outward appearance, the variants can sometimes be mistaken. All AE85 variants have 1.5 L engines, and are nearly identical in form to their 1.6 L counterparts found in the AE86. The AE85 (as well as the AE86) was rear-wheel drive, built on the E70 Corolla platform (same wheelbase length, interchangeable parts, etc.), unlike the front wheel drive E80 models in the same range.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The AE85 SR and SE came in both Levin or Trueno versions, the former being a 3-door liftback, and the latter being the 2-door coupé.


title: Toyota AE85

text: Both of these models were low grade versions that were less expensive. The XL model is a 2-door Trueno, and the GL is a 2-door Levin.


title: Toyota AE85

text: The Lissé and Lime were luxury variants of the XL and GL models respectively, marketed heavily towards women in Japan. They featured automatic transmission (some came from the factory in manual) and power steering as standard, and had unique upholstery in the interior. The Lissé is a 2-door Trueno, and the Lime is a 2-door Levin.


title: Toyota AE85

text: There are several differences with the AE85 that sets it apart from the more sportier and upmarket AE86.


title: Toyota AE85

text: Privateer racing teams in Japan would use the AE85 and convert it to an AE86 since it is much cheaper by performing an engine swap. Using modifications such as a bolt-on turbocharger or supercharger, racers can strengthen their vehicle while keeping the light weight of the AE85 body.


title: Toyota AE85

text: In the Initial D anime and manga, side character and Takumi Fujiwara's friend, Itsuki Takeuchi, mistakenly purchases an AE85 Levin thinking it was an AE86 Levin, which led to him being initially ridiculed by his co-workers (except for Takumi) and several street racers in the process. Itsuki would then later put a turbocharger in his AE85 for more power, testing it out on the mountain pass.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: State of Florida v. George Zimmerman was a criminal prosecution of George Zimmerman on the charge of second-degree murder stemming from the killing of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On April 11, 2012, George Zimmerman, a Hispanic, was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In support of the charges, the State filed an affidavit of probable cause, stating that Zimmerman profiled and confronted Martin and shot him to death while Martin was committing no crimes. Florida State Attorney Angela Corey announced the charges against Zimmerman during a televised press conference and reported that Zimmerman was in custody after turning himself in to law enforcement. Zimmerman was injured during the encounter and said he shot Martin in self-defense.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: After 16 hours of deliberations over the course of two days, on July 13, 2013, a six-person jury rendered a not guilty verdict.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On March 22, 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced his appointment of Angela Corey as the Special Prosecutor in the Martin investigation. She was the State Attorney for Duval, Clay and Nassau counties. When Corey took the case, she chose Bernie de la Rionda as lead prosecutor. De la Rionda was an Assistant State Attorney in Corey's office and had been a prosecutor for 29 years. Prosecutors John Guy and Richard Mantei assisted, with Guy making the opening statement.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: The prosecutor initially responsible for the case was Norm Wolfinger, a State Attorney whose jurisdiction included Seminole County where the shooting occurred on February 26, 2012. On March 22, 2012, he requested to be removed from the case to help "tone down the rhetoric" for the public good.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On April 11, 2012, Mark M. O'Mara announced that he was the attorney representing Zimmerman. O'Mara is president of the Seminole County Bar Association, is a legal commentator for WKMG news, and had previously tried cases that involved the stand-your-ground law. When he took the case, O'Mara said that Zimmerman had no money and that the state may help pay the costs. When reporters asked why he took the case, O'Mara said, "That's what I do."


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On May 31, 2012, Orlando attorney Don West left his job as a federal public defender to join the defense team led by O'Mara. West specialized in murder cases and had been a board certified criminal trial specialist for 25 years. He and O'Mara had been friends for a long time.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Judge Debra S. Nelson of the 18th Circuit Court of Florida was the fourth judge to preside over the case. Nelson had been a judge for thirteen years, much of it handling criminal matters. Before becoming a judge she had worked in civil litigation. Nelson succeeded Judge Kenneth Lester on August 30, 2012, after a Florida appeals court ruled that remarks he made about Zimmerman could make a reasonable person believe Lester was biased against Zimmerman. Lester had taken over the case in April 2012, after Judge Jessica Recksiedler recused herself due to a potential conflict of interest involving her husband's work.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: At a pretrial hearing on April 12, Judge Mark Herr ruled that the affidavit was legally sufficient to establish probable cause. Court documents, including witness statements and other information, were sealed at the request of the defense team, and Zimmerman's arraignment was scheduled for May 29. Zimmerman took the witness stand at a bail hearing on April 20 and told the parents of Martin he was "sorry for the loss of your son". Zimmerman was released on a $150,000 bond and was fitted with an electronic monitoring device for monitoring his whereabouts in real-time. Zimmerman's attorney waived Zimmerman's right to appear at the arraignment and entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: In June 2012, Judge Lester revoked Zimmerman's bond and sent him back to jail after the prosecution alleged that Zimmerman and his wife had misled the court about their finances at an earlier bond hearing. Zimmerman's wife had testified at the hearing that they had very little money, and neither she nor Zimmerman revealed to the court that he had received $135,000 in donations. The prosecution alleged that recordings of telephone conversations Zimmerman had had with his wife from jail showed that they had been speaking using a code about their finances, with repeated mentions of "Peter Pan" in apparent reference to a PayPal account. The judge charged Zimmerman's wife with perjury, and at a second bond hearing for Zimmerman held the following month, re-released Zimmerman with the new bond set at $1 million.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, filed a motion to disqualify Judge Lester, alleging that Lester had made disparaging and gratuitous remarks about his client in the July 2012 bond order. O'Mara said the judge's statement that he believed Zimmerman had misled the court at his first hearing was an indication of bias against Zimmerman and would impact Zimmerman's ability to get a fair trial. The state criticized the motion for citing "facts that are inaccurate, misleading and/or incomplete".


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: When Judge Lester refused to recuse himself and ruled that the defense's motion was legally insufficient, the defense appealed. On August 29, 2012, the Fifth District Court of Appeal granted the petition for a new judge for the trial. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson was assigned to the case.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Under Florida law, the use of deadly force against an attacker is permissible in certain situations. The adoption of the Stand Your Ground law in 2005 modified the self-defense law so that a person who reasonably believes they must use deadly force to prevent serious injury to themself may lawfully do so without first attempting to retreat from an attacker; prosecution for using deadly force in such situations is prohibited. A defendant in a homicide case who claims to have acted in self-defense may petition the court to grant the defendant immunity from prosecution under these provisions of the law. Legal experts say that in a pretrial immunity hearing, the burden of proof is on the defendant to show from "a preponderance of the evidence" that they acted lawfully, whereas in a trial by jury the burden of proof is on the prosecution, who must show "beyond a reasonable doubt" (a much higher standard than required for establishing "a preponderance of the evidence") that the defendant acted unlawfully.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On August 9, 2012, Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, announced that the defense team was planning to present their case to the judge at an immunity hearing before going to trial in order to request that the case be dismissed under the protection from prosecution provided for by the state's Stand Your Ground law. At a press conference held the following week, O'Mara said that "the facts don't seem to support a 'stand your ground' defense". He said that rather than seeking to have the charges dropped based on Stand Your Ground-law immunity, the defense team would ask at the pretrial hearing that the case be dismissed on the basis of immunity from prosecution provided for in traditional self-defense cases. In April 2013, on the advice of his attorneys, Zimmerman waived his right to a pretrial immunity hearing, and the court began preparations for the case to be tried by a jury. O'Mara would later say, after the trial had concluded, that he had not relied during the trial on the Stand Your Ground provision of the law because Zimmerman had not had an option of retreating. O'Mara would also say that he ultimately had not sought a pretrial immunity hearing because his case for defense would have been revealed during the hearing to the prosecution, which would have put the defense team at a disadvantage had the immunity request been denied and the case proceeded to trial.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On October 19, Judge Nelson granted the defense's request for access to Martin's school records, cell phone records, and social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) posts. In her ruling, Nelson said that Zimmerman's attorneys needed to know whether Martin's school records and social media postings revealed any evidence that he had had violent tendencies. Martin's parents said the defense's request for school records and social media was a "fishing expedition" aimed at attacking their son and an attempt to assassinate his character. She also ruled that Zimmerman's medical records be provided to prosecutors. Nelson said she would review the medical records and decide whether anything should be withheld.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: The defense additionally requested from ABC News and reporter Matt Gutman all recordings, notes and correspondence related to Witness Number 8, Trayvon Martin's friend who said she was speaking with Martin by phone just before he was shot. O'Mara's motion stated the call lasted more than 26 minutes and the recording they received from the authorities was only 12 minutes, 44 seconds long.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: In May 2012, the defense received the first round of discovery evidence: 67 compact discs, a list of witnesses that included 50 possible law enforcement officers, 28 officers from the Sanford Police Department, 28 civilian witnesses, members of Martin's family, two of Zimmerman's friends and his father, Robert Zimmerman. Also listed as potential prosecution witnesses were technicians in biological and DNA evidence, trace evidence, gunshot residue, fingerprints and firearms, two FBI agents, and two audio technicians who analyzed the emergency calls made during the confrontation to determine who was heard screaming in the background. Additional evidence released were audio and video recordings, photos, witness statements, forensic findings, Martin's autopsy report, evidence taken from Zimmerman after the shooting – his weapon, bullets, clothes, a DNA sample, medical records and his cell phone data.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: In June 2012, the prosecution released recordings of two 911 calls placed by Martin's father the morning after the shooting. In the calls, Mr. Martin expressed worry that his son had not returned home, and inquired about filing a missing person report.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Additional discovery released was a report containing the results of Zimmerman's voice stress test, and Zimmerman's account of the events and written statements.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: The defense also released audio and video recordings of Zimmerman's police interviews and re-enactment following the shooting.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: In July 2012, evidence released included: FBI interviews with people involved in the case, including Sanford police officers, family, friends and associates of Zimmerman. Also released were photos of Martin's bloodied sweatshirt and hoodie with a single bullet hole and several phone calls made by Zimmerman to Sanford police to report suspicious activity in the six months leading up to his encounter with Martin.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: In August 2012, the State's 6th Supplemental Discovery included 76 pages containing the audio statement from witness 31, three photos taken by witness 13 at the scene showing the back of Zimmerman's head, a flashlight on the ground, the FDLE report with analyst's notes, emails from the Sanford Police Department, copies of Tracy Martin's 911 call reporting his son missing and Zimmerman's Seminole County Sheriff's Office Academy application.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: In September 2012, the DNA report on the gun used in the shooting was released with only Zimmerman's DNA being found on the gun, no trace of Martin's.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On December 3, 2012, defense attorney Mark O'Mara stated that he was "frustrated" that in the original discovery, a grainy black-and-white photo of Zimmerman had been substituted for the original color photo of Zimmerman's bloody nose. Criminal attorney David Wohl said the submission of the copy "borders on prosecutorial misconduct".


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On July 11, 2013, Special Prosecutor Angela Corey fired Ben Kruidbos, the information technology director for the State Attorney's office, for alleged misconduct and violations of "numerous state attorney's office policies and procedures." Kruidbos had alleged in a pre-trial hearing that the prosecutors had failed to provide full discovery to Zimmerman's defense team as required by law.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On May 28, 2013, Judge Nelson denied a defense motion to delay the trial for six weeks. She also declined the prosecution's request to implement a gag order to keep the lawyers from discussing the details of the case in the media.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On June 10, 2013, jury selection began with 100 prospective jurors filling out questionnaires. Five hundred people received summonses, and the process for picking a jury was expected to take two weeks. At the request of the defense, the judge agreed to establish an anonymous jury, where the identity of the jury would be revealed only to the prosecution and defense, but not released to the public or media. In the motion for the request, the defense said that "[jurors] may be subject to rebuke and possible retribution, should the verdict not comport with certain factions' desires in this matter."


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: In Florida, juries consist of six people; 12 jurors are required only for criminal trials involving capital cases, where the death penalty is applicable. Zimmerman's jury consisted of six members and four alternates. The population of Seminole County is 10 percent African American, a percentage which may differ from that of the 500-member pool of potential jurors.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: During the fourth day of jury selection, Judge Nelson announced that the jury would be sequestered during the trial, which was expected to take two to four weeks.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On June 18, 2013, forty potential jurors (16 men and 24 women) made it past the initial screening process.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: The defense struck one potential juror, a female African American, as a "stealth juror" for failing to disclose that her pastor had advocated strongly on behalf of Trayvon Martin. The state attempted to strike one woman whose husband owned guns and who said she might have difficulty sending someone to prison. They also attempted to strike a woman who asked why Martin was out at night. The judge denied the strikes, and both women were part of the six person jury.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: The prosecution struck one potential juror who was a black gun-owner who stated he watched Fox News. This particular prospective juror had been a defense favorite.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On June 20, 2013, jury selection was completed. Six jurors and four alternates were selected. All six of the jurors were female, while two of the alternate jurors were male and two female. Five of the jurors were white; one was of mixed black and Mestizo ancestry. All of the alternates were white, and of those, one of the male alternates was said to have been white Hispanic. The jury was sworn in, and all remaining potential jurors were dismissed.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Judge Nelson ruled that Martin's school records, history of marijuana use, fights, and photos and text from the teen's phone should not be mentioned during the trial. The judge did say that she might change her mind during the trial if the subjects become relevant.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Zimmerman's attorneys had requested a "Frye" hearing regarding the admissibility of the testimony of the audio analysts, to determine if the methods used by them were generally accepted by the scientific community. At the time of the hearing, Florida used the "Frye" standard, but during the course of the case Florida switched to the "Daubert" standard, effective July 1, 2013. The "Daubert" standard is a more modern standard that considers several factors (not just general acceptance in the scientific community) in determining admissibility of expert testimony.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On June 22, Judge Nelson ruled that the audio experts would not be allowed to testify at Zimmerman's trial. The prosecution wanted to use voice experts that had been hired by lawyers and news organizations to analyze the 911 calls recorded during the confrontation to determine whether it was Martin or Zimmerman yelling for help. The experts arrived at mixed conclusions. The judge said in her ruling, "There is no evidence to establish that their scientific techniques have been tested and found reliable." Her ruling didn't prevent the 911 calls from being played at trial.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On July 8, Judge Nelson ruled that the defense could tell the jury that Martin had a small amount of marijuana in his system at the time of his death. Assistant State Attorney John Guy argued that it was a backdoor attack on Martin's character, while defense attorney Don West argued that an expert would tell the jury that the amount was enough to create "some level of impairment". Although admissible, the defense ultimately did not present this information to the jury, and it was not put into evidence.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: The prosecution made a thirty-minute opening statement. Prosecutor John Guy began by quoting remarks made by Zimmerman during the non-emergency call: "Fucking punks, these assholes always get away." The prosecution's statement focused on the lack of evidence of bodily harm to both Zimmerman and Martin, and portrayed Zimmerman as a liar who would be contradicted by witnesses and evidence. Guy also compared Zimmerman's and Martin's physical size, and commented on how small Martin was. The prosecution said Zimmerman was a "wannabe cop" who had trained in martial arts, that he was looking for "people who didn't belong," and that he profiled Martin as "someone about to commit a crime in his neighborhood."


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Don West made a lengthy opening statement for the defense, beginning with a knock-knock joke about jury selection. West stated that "there are no monsters" in the case, but that Zimmerman shot Martin "after being viciously attacked." West stated that Zimmerman was "sucker punched in the face, and had his head hammered against the ground." West played Zimmerman's non-emergency phone call twice, and used several visual aids to show jurors the location of various events in the case and to outline a timeline of the phone calls and events. West asserted that Martin had plenty of time to go home during the phone calls, but decided to confront Zimmerman. West attempted to reconstruct the shooting, using witness statements, crime scene photographs, and a discussion of Zimmerman's injuries that used photos. West then described Zimmerman's actions after the incident, and summarized witness and police statements and observations about Zimmerman's appearance and behavior. After the recess, West continued, pointing out that the gunshot was at contact range for Martin's sweatshirt, but several inches away from Martin's body, and said this proved that Martin was on top at the moment of the shot, with his shirt hanging down.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Chad Joseph, the 15-year-old son of Tracy Martin's girlfriend, was called by the state as the first witness and testified that he asked Martin to buy him Skittles. He did not go with Martin, because he was playing a PS3 game.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Next, testimony came from Andrew Gaugh, who was the 7-Eleven clerk who sold Martin snacks. He said that Martin paid with cash, and he did not see anything suspicious about Martin's behavior.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Ramona Rumph from the Sheriff's communications office testified regarding how time stamps are applied in 911 calls. Rumph testified that 911 calls are initially coded as "routine" but can be upgraded, and that multiple calls can be linked together. Rumph testified as to the times of the various witness 911 calls. She testified about details of Zimmerman's prior 911 and non-emergency calls. The state then played several of his previous 911 and non-emergency calls for the jury. After the calls were played on cross-examination O'Mara asked Rumph about the results of these calls, and she testified that some had resulted in contacts with suspects. She could not comment on if the number of calls Zimmerman made was unusual.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Donald O'Brien, the HOA president, testified that Zimmerman and the neighborhood watch were not affiliated with the HOA. O'Brien said he felt that Zimmerman was the coordinator of the program because Zimmerman had taken the initiative to get the program started, and that the watch program had instructed participants not to follow suspects but call 911. He said he did not feel that the neighborhood needed a watch program. On cross-examination, he testified that the police did not do regular patrols of the area due to the lack of a written agreement between the HOA and the police department. O'Brian testified that construction workers in the neighborhood had followed a burglary suspect in the past, resulting in an arrest, and that he had sent out a congratulatory email. During several rounds of redirects he said "do not follow", as well as "follow at a safe distance".


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Raymond MacDonald, an executive from T-Mobile, testified as to how cell phone records for calls and text-messages were collected and stored. MacDonald testified that billing records round the length of call up to the next highest minute, but that other records break calls to the second. MacDonald testified that on Martin's phone records, after a disconnected call at 7:26, all future incoming calls listed on the page went to voicemail. The records that broke to the second were only available for six months, so some records for the trial were rounded up to the minute.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Greg McKinney, who worked for the company that ran the Retreat's security cameras, testified as to why the cameras near the front gate were not working at the time of the incident, and that security camera clocks may be off by as much as 18 minutes.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Sean Noffke, the dispatcher who was on the phone during Zimmerman's non-emergency call, testified regarding his own statements at that time. Noffke said that when he told Zimmerman, "We don't need you to do that," he was making a suggestion, not giving an order. He said that dispatchers do not give orders because of liability issues. During cross-examination, Noffke testified that Zimmerman did not seem angry during the call, and that he wanted the police to come to his location. Noffke also testified that he asked Zimmerman which way Martin was going, and that his question could be interpreted as a request to go and see which way he was going. He clarified his statement that dispatchers do not give orders but suggestions for the safety of the caller. He testified that Zimmerman's swearing and comments about Martin did not raise any particular concern, but under redirect said that Zimmerman's language could be interpreted as "hostile." The defense then asked if Noffke actually heard hostility, and he said "no". The defense asked about the statements regarding Martin's race and appearance, and Noffke testified that all of the discussion was for the purpose of identification of the suspect, and did not seem unusual.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Wendy Dorival was the Sanford police neighborhood watch coordinator who helped to form the "Retreat at Twin Lakes" neighborhood watch program. Dorival testified as to various roles and duties that volunteers had within the neighborhood watch program, and that watch participants were instructed not to follow or confront suspects, but only to call the police to report suspicious activity. She said that Zimmerman called to organize a watch program, and about 25 residents attended the meeting. Because Zimmerman told her he was selected as the coordinator by the HOA, she gave Zimmerman the watch coordinator handbook, which instructed watch participants not to confront suspects and that the watch was "not the vigilante police". On cross-examination, she testified that the community was worried about recent burglaries and that since the community was not walled in, nonresidents could enter and exit other than at the gates. Dorival testified that she attempted to recruit Zimmerman as a "Citizen on Patrol" but he refused. She testified that she did not give any instructions about watch participants not being allowed to carry a gun as watch members. She testified that people should err on the side of caution and make calls to police if they thought something might be suspicious, and categorized "walking in the rain without a purpose" as something that could be suspicious.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Anthony Raimondo, a sergeant with the Sanford police, was a responding officer to Zimmerman's non-emergency call and the shooting of Martin. He testified that it was raining at the time and the lighting at the scene was very poor, and that when he arrived other officers were already on the scene. He saw Martin face down with his hands underneath him. He was unable to find a pulse and attempted CPR, but Martin was declared dead. He then placed a plastic sheet over Martin's body out of respect and to preserve evidence from the rain.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Diana Smith, the crime scene technician for the shooting (and wife of Tim Smith, the first officer on the scene), testified regarding the scene. Using photos and computer reconstructions of the scene, she pointed out locations of all the objects in the scene, as well as described photographs of Martin's body. She further testified to the process she used to gather DNA evidence and photographs she took of Zimmerman at the station. On cross-examination, West asked her the methods she used to look for blood on the scene and the timing of the collection of evidence. She testified that items were swabbed for touch DNA, but that the item itself was not directly tested. She said that someone could touch an item but not leave sufficient cells for analysis, or those cells could be removed by later contact. West then asked Smith to identify injuries to Zimmerman she saw the night of the shooting, visible in the photographs she had taken several hours after the incident. On redirect, Guy clarified she had assistance looking for blood at the scene and that she did not see any blood at the scene, nor was she notified of blood by any of those that assisted her.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Sanford Police Department officer Ricardo Ayala was dispatched to the scene on a suspicious persons call that was later upgraded to "shots fired". Ayala testified that it was very dark and raining when he arrived, and officer Smith (husband of Diana Smith, the crime scene technician) was holding Zimmerman at gunpoint at that time. Ayala then approached Martin, and he believed he was the first officer to do so. Ayala did not know if Martin was alive or not, and as Martin's hands were beneath his face-down body, he told him to "show me your hands". Ayala did not see any sounds, words, or motions from Martin. Ayala and officer Raimando attempted to perform CPR on Martin and moved his body in doing so. In cross-examination Ayala testified that holding Zimmerman was standard procedure in a "shots fired" call, and was not an indication of any risk from Zimmerman at that time. Ayala testified that Zimmerman was not confrontational and complied with all officer requests.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Stacy Livingston, an EMT and firefighter with the Sanford Fire Department, testified that Martin was unresponsive and had no pulse when she arrived on the scene. Livingston said Martin was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m. the night of the shooting. She also testified that she treated Zimmerman at the scene and that he had a swollen, bleeding nose and two cuts on the back of his head. When O'Mara asked if Zimmerman should have been concerned with his medical well-being because of his injuries, Livingston said, "Possibly."


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Sanford Police Department officer Timothy Smith was the first officer on the scene. Smith testified that when he saw Zimmerman after the shooting, his backside was wet and had grass blades on it. He also saw several injuries on Zimmerman, which included contusions, lacerations, and a bloody nose. Smith said that after Zimmerman had his gun taken away and was handcuffed, he told Smith that "he was yelling for help and nobody would come help him." Smith also testified that Zimmerman said he was "lightheaded" during the drive to the police station but declined to go to a hospital.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Sanford Police Department officer Doris Singleton assisted with the investigation of the incident and conducted interviews with Zimmerman at the police department on the night of the shooting. Singleton recorded her interview with Zimmerman after reading Zimmerman his Miranda rights. Singleton testified that during her interview with Zimmerman, he told her that his neighborhood was dealing with an increase in burglaries, and he started a neighborhood watch program. He told her that he had previously called the police on suspicious people, but often they weren't stopped. Zimmerman told Singleton that while in his car, he saw Martin walking in the neighborhood in the rain. Zimmerman said he called police and pulled over before Martin started circling his car and then walked off. Zimmerman also told Singleton that he got out of his car to find a street sign and to see where Martin was going. Zimmerman said in the interview that he was walking back to his car when Martin jumped out from the bushes and said to him, "What the fuck is your problem, homie?" Zimmerman said he got his cell phone out to call 911, and he told Martin, "I don't have a problem." Martin then said to him, "No, now you have a problem." Singleton testified that Zimmerman told her that Martin then punched him and was banging his head into the concrete. Zimmerman also said that within seconds, Martin's hand was moving down his body toward his gun, and fearing for his life, he shot Martin. Singleton testified that during her interview with him, Zimmerman didn't appear angry or spiteful toward Martin.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Sanford Police Department officer Christopher Serino was the lead investigator for the incident. Recordings of Serino's interviews with Zimmerman were played for the jury, as well as the reenactment that Zimmerman performed with Serino.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On direct examination, Serino testified that Zimmerman said Martin came out and punched him and told him he was going to kill him. Serino said there was evidence to suggest that Zimmerman was still following Martin after the non-emergency dispatcher suggested that he not do so. Serino said red flags were raised for him when Zimmerman didn't know the names of the streets in his neighborhood, although there are only three. Serino testified that he felt Zimmerman exaggerated the number of times he was hit that night but said he didn't feel any "active deception" on Zimmerman's part when he said he got out of his vehicle to follow Martin to see what street he was on. Serino also testified that no major discrepancies came to his mind about the varying accounts given by Zimmerman at different times or with other witness accounts. Under cross-examination Serino testified that Zimmerman did not seem "cagey" or to be sidestepping questions. When O'Mara asked Serino if he thought Zimmerman was telling the truth, Serino said yes. Judge Nelson ruled that this answer to O'Mara's question was an improper statement made by the witness about Zimmerman's credibility, and the jurors were to dismiss Serino's testimony in regards to the question and his answer. On redirect, the prosecutor asked Serino, "If I were to believe that somebody was committing a crime, could that not be profiling that person?" Serino said it could be construed as such, yes. De La Rionda also asked Serino if there was any evidence that Martin was committing a crime that evening or any evidence that Martin was armed. Serino answered no. The prosecutor also questioned Serino about the language Zimmerman used in his call to police when Zimmerman said, "These fucking punks always get away."


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: De La Rionda asked, "Is that something you would use in reference to somebody that you're going to invite over to dinner?" Serino, said "No, sir, I would not." He also asked him if he thought it was a friendly comment. Serino again answered,


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: "No, sir, it does not." Serino also testified that calling someone "fucking punks" is ill will and spite.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Dr. Shiping Bao, the associate medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Martin, testified that he didn't die immediately and that his heart was still beating after being shot. Bao said Martin was shot from intermediate range, which he defined as between 0.4 inches and 4 feet, and said the muzzle had loose contact with Martin's clothing. Bao also testified that he didn't believe that Martin could have moved after being shot. Dr. Bao stated that Martin was 5 feet 11 inches and 158 pounds when he died, was healthy at the time of the shooting, and had a small abrasion on his fourth and fifth left fingers. Bao also said that the knees of Martin's pants were stained.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Dr. Valerie Rao, a medical examiner who reviewed video and photographs of Zimmerman's injuries, testified that she thought Zimmerman's wounds were "insignificant" and "non-life threatening." She said that Zimmerman's head might have only hit the concrete a single time and the injuries were so minor that they were not consistent with grave force.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Anthony Gorgone, a crime lab analyst with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, testified that he found no traces of Zimmerman's DNA in scrapings taken from Martin's fingernails. Gorgone said he did find both Zimmerman's and Martin's DNA on the gray sweatshirt Martin was wearing, and both of their DNA was found on Zimmerman's jacket. Gorgone said Zimmerman's DNA was found on the grip of his gun, but that Martin's was not found.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Hirotaka Nakasone, a voice analysis expert, was called by the state after previously being called by the defense during the Frye hearing. Nakasone testified that the recordings of the screams on the 911 calls were of poor quality due to the distance from the phone and compression introduced by the cell phone. He found 45 seconds of recording between the start of the screaming until the gunshot. Approximately 19 seconds was actual screaming, of which 3.5 seconds were able to be isolated for analysis. He testified that it was not possible to do voice analysis on this data as it was "not fit for the purpose of voice comparison", which generally requires 30 seconds for analysis. He further testified that doing age estimation by listening or pitch analysis has a high margin of error. Nakasone testified that someone who is familiar with voices can recognize those voices and identify them more easily than someone unfamiliar with the voices. Nakasone testified that for these samples, someone who had heard a person in a variety of situations speaking, uttering, and screaming in a similar situation could be better able to recognize the speaker. On cross-examination, Nakasone testified that there could be significant listener bias which could impact the reliability of "familiar voice recognition", introduced by having multiple people attempting to identify a voice together. Nakasone testified that the same word repeated is generally unsuitable for analysis, because there is not a sufficient number of the phonemes which can be used to identify the voice. Nakasone said that the screams were made under "extreme duress" and in a "life-threatening situation", and that due to physiological changes during life-threatening screams, any analysis using such screaming was not possible. Nakasone also testified that using screams like this for age estimation would be "very very challenging" and that it would generally not be attempted.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Selene Bahadoor was a resident of the Retreat at Twin Lakes who worked in IT for a hospital. She was at home with relatives and friends on the night of the shooting. She testified that she heard noises outside, moving from the south (left) towards the north (right) towards the top of the T (where two sidewalks met). She went to her window and did not see anything, but moved to her sliding glass door and saw "figures and arms flailing" and that two people appeared to be standing, but it was too dark to identify them or their clothes. She said she heard something that sounded like "No" and then went back to her kitchen to turn off the stove, heard a shot, and then returned to the sliding door. At that time she saw someone lying in the grass face down. She saw several neighbors also looking at the scene, and then the police, but did not go outside. Bahadoor testified that she had previously known Zimmerman as a neighborhood watch person. On cross-examination by O'Mara, Bahadoor testified that she discussed her testimony with the police and did not recall if she had said the noise moved from south to north during her initial interview with Chris Serino or FDLE. When presented with her transcripts from those interviews, the transcripts said only "running" but not the direction. She testified that she had mentioned the left to right (south to north) motion to her sister. She "liked" the Justice4Trayvon Facebook page and signed the Change.org petition, but said she has sympathy for both families. She reiterated that it was too dark to see which participant was which, or what positions they were in. On redirect, she said she had not been asked about the direction of movement previously, and had not come forward earlier because she did not want to be in the public eye. On re-cross, she said that she had done an interview for national television, but that it did not air.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Jayne Surdyka was a neighbor in the Retreat who was in her upstairs bedroom at the time of the incident. She went to close her window due to the "pouring down rain", when she heard a loud "dominant" voice. She reopened the window to see into the courtyard and heard a voice that sounded "angry, very agitated" but that she could not hear words. She shut off her lights to reduce glare and see better, and saw two men on the ground one on top of the other. She heard a cry for help that she thought was made by "the boy" and then heard "pop, pop, pop". She saw one of the men get up and hold his head while the other stayed on the ground face down. Surdyka's 911 call was then played.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On cross-examination, the defense asked about the cries for help that she heard, and she confirmed she heard only two cries: one for help, and then a "yelp" just before the gunshot. West asked her if she had heard the other 911 calls and cries for help previously. West asked her if "the loud voice could have been someone on a cell phone in the wind", and she replied, "I guess". She clarified that there was five to ten minutes between the initial "loud voice" and the later argument and fight; she assumed they were the same voice. She said that during the argument the "loud" voice initiated and a "meek" voice replied. She commented that when the porch lights were off it was "pitch black" in the yard, but that she could see well enough to see that the person on top was wearing a dark or black shirt or jacket. West asked her to reconcile Martin's chest wound with her testimony that Zimmerman stood up from on top, with Martin underneath him, face down. West pressed her to admit that she assumed which voice was which, but she replied that she felt the aggressive voice was "a man's" and that the other voice was higher pitched and she felt that it was "a boy's".


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Jeannee Manalo was with her family watching TV in the living room at her home in the Retreat at the time of the incident. Manalo said she heard a "howling" sound and looked out the sliding door, but was unable to see anything due to the darkness. Later, she heard a yelling that she thought was "help". She looked out and could not see anything, but heard struggling. After hearing "help", she returned to watching TV, and then only looked out again after hearing the gunshot. She then looked out again and saw two people on the grass, with a neighbor outside with them who was asking if he should call 911. Manalo testified that she did not notice the size at the time, but after seeing the news, she believes Zimmerman was on top. Manalo could not tell which person was screaming for help. After she heard the shot, she looked out again. Her husband went outside and then returned to get a plastic Walmart bag to be used for CPR. On cross-examination, she said that noises seemed to move closer over the incident, moving from the top of the "T" slightly further south. West questioned Manalo about differences between her current recollections and the statements she made during investigator interviews at the time. In her earlier statements, Manalo did not describe the sizes of the individuals or compare them. West asked about seeing Zimmerman after the incident and referred to a photo of his injuries, but Manalo replied that she did not get a good look at his face that night. West asked what photos she used to develop her understanding of the relative sizes of Martin and Zimmerman. She testified that she had seen full body photos of Zimmerman from the police station, and the "hoodie", "hollister", and "football" shots of Martin. She had not seen photos of Martin from the 7-Eleven surveillance video. She stated she did not look at photos of Zimmerman's injuries, including one taken by her husband, until later. Manolo testified that she might be wrong on the size comparison, and that "I don't know who's bigger now". She later testified that her opinion of the relative sizes of Martin and Zimmerman the night of the incident was based on old photographs of Martin. After several rounds of questioning, she said her opinion of the sizes was based on the photographs, but that the person who was on top got up.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Jennifer Lauer worked in real estate and was living in the Retreat at Twin lakes at the time of the incident. Lauer testified that she was in her living room watching Celebrity Apprentice on the television with the volume up "pretty high". Lauer testified that she did not see anything, due to her blinds being closed, and that her statements were based on what she heard. She heard voices in her backyard; she was unable to make out any words or tell how many people were talking, but she assumed it was two people due to the pattern. She said the sounds were coming from the left (north) outside her window. Lauer testified that both voices were about the same volume and were "flustered" instead of "confrontational". Lauer then muted the TV and then immediately began to hear scuffling ("like playing basketball on pavement"), and the sound of shoes on pavement and grass. Lauer said she then heard "grunting" and "wrestling", or rolling in the grass, that was getting closer. Lauer said the grunting gradually turned into "yelping". Lauer and her husband called 911 about thirty seconds after she initially muted the TV. Lauer moved away from the window so that her call could not be heard outside, and while on the call, Lauer testified that she heard cries for help and a gunshot. Lauer testified that there was only one voice yelling for help, but that she could not identify who it was, and that the cries for help stopped at the gunshot. Lauer and her husband (then fiancé) then went upstairs for safety and did not look out the window. Lauer testified that she heard her neighbor, John Good, outside saying something like, "What is going on" while the yelling continued. She testified that she did not hear anyone say, "You are going to die motherfucker" or anything similar. Lauer's call to 911 was played for the jury.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: After her call, she heard talking outside and someone saying, "Take my gun". Lauer testified that while walking in front of her house, the address numbers on her house are visible from the sidewalk, but might be blocked depending on where you were standing on the walk. She also said that there were only 3 streets within the community. Lauer testified that she knew of Zimmerman from her role on the HOA board, but that she never formally met him. She was slightly aware of the neighborhood watch and that Zimmerman was involved, but did not know details. Lauer testified she could not identify the yells as Zimmerman's because she had not heard him yell in the meetings. On cross-examination, O'Mara clarified that the first thing that captured her attention was loud talking near the T, that was a back and forth discussion, but she could not make out words. Specifically she said she did not hear anyone say, "What are you following me for" or "What are you doing here?" Lauer testified that the cries for help or yelping had started before her 911 call began. She said that her ability to hear the yells in person was better than the ability to hear them on the 911 recordings. Lauer said the person yelling for help "was in danger", and "needed help"


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Jonathan (John) Good, a neighbor at the retreat, testified that he heard a faint noise outside but could not tell the direction. As the noises grew louder, he looked outside through his blinds. He opened his door and looked out and saw "some sort of tussle" where the participants were on the ground. He called out, "What's going on?" and "Stop it" as he started to step outside. Good said the participant wearing "dark or black" was on top and the person wearing "red or white" was on the bottom, and the person on the bottom had lighter skin. He described the person on top having their legs straddling the person on the bottom, who was face up.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: He could not hear any pounding or hitting, but did see "downward arm motion, multiple times" that "looked like punches" from the person on top. He heard a "help" from the person on the bottom, and Good said, "Cut it out" and that he was going to call 911. He went back inside to call 911, but he heard a gunshot before the call was completed. Good's call to 911 was played for the jury.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Good testified that his statement in earlier interviews of "MMA-style" was in reference to the person on top straddling the person on the bottom and striking them. He testified he did not see the person on top slamming the person on bottom's body or head into the concrete. He said the recorded calls for help from the other's 911 calls did not sound the same as the cries for help he heard. On cross-examination he stated that he could not be sure that additional hitting or head pounding was not happening; he just did not see well enough to say that it did happen. Using photographs of Zimmerman and Martin from that night, he identified Martin as the person on top, and Zimmerman as the person on the bottom. Defense attorney West had Good go over a sketch of the scene and positions of the participants that he had made shortly after the incident. Between the time Good was initially outside and when his 911 call began, he went upstairs and down a hallway to get his phone, at which time he looked out a window and saw Martin's body on the ground. Good stated that in his opinion it was Zimmerman's voice screaming for help.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Jonathan Manalo, whose wife testified earlier, told the jury he was the first person to make contact with Zimmerman after the shooting. Manalo said that Zimmerman was calm and easy to understand before police arrived. Manalo said as soon as he saw Zimmerman, he started explaining what happened. Manalo testified that Zimmerman told him that he was defending himself when he shot Martin. Manalo also testified that after police arrived, Zimmerman asked him to call his wife and "tell her I shot someone."


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Jeantel testified that she was on the phone with Martin during the incident and that they were on the phone together while Martin was at the 7-Eleven. The call was disconnected and Martin later called her back. Jeantel testified that during the second call, Martin said a man was watching him, but that she did not think it was a "big idea." Jeantel asked Martin how the man looked and he told her that he was "a creepy-ass cracker." Jeantel warned Martin to walk away because "it might be a rapist." Martin, she said, told her that the "nigga is still following me" so he was going to try to "lose him" and get back to the home where he was staying. As Jeantel remained on the phone with Martin, he said, "The nigga is behind me." The man who was allegedly following him reappeared and Martin said, "Why are you following me for," and then Jeantel heard a hard-breathed man come and say, "What are you doing around here?" Jeantel testified that she said, "Trayvon, Trayvon" and she "started to hear a little bit of Trayvon saying, get off, get off." Jeantel then said she heard Martin's phone headset fall and Martin say, "Get off." The phone went dead and Jeantel said she didn't speak to Martin again. Jeantel also testified that she believed the screams heard on the 911 call were Martin's, because "Trayvon has kind of a baby voice."


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: On cross-examination by defense attorney Don West, Jeantel testified that she had lied about her reasons for not going to Martin's funeral and said the reason she didn't go was because she felt guilty and didn't want to see the body. West asked her why she didn't call police after the phone went dead. Jeantel said, "I thought he was going to be OK because he was right by his daddy's house." West also asked her about the last thing she had heard, which was "something hitting somebody." Jeantel told West that "Trayvon got hit," and West then asked her, "You don't know that, do you?" Jeantel testified, "No sir."


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: West also questioned her about the term "creepy ass cracker." West asked her, "Do people that you live around and with call white people 'creepy ass crackers'?" Jeantel said, "Not creepy, but cracker, yeah." West then asked her if she was saying that people in her community and culture that she lived in called white people crackers. Jeantel testified, "Yes, sir." West also asked her if she thought the term was a racial comment and offensive. Jeantel said she didn't believe "creepy ass cracker" was a racial comment and said, "No," it wasn't offensive. She also testified that the reference to cracker referred to "a pervert." Jeantel said she never told anyone about Martin saying that term until a year after the shooting.


title: Trial of George Zimmerman

text: Zimmerman's defense attorney asked her if Martin had perhaps lied to her because he did not want her to know if he decided to assault Zimmerman that night. Jeantel testified, "That's real retarded, sir. That's real retarded to do that, sir. Why on earth – Trayvon did not know."