Trayvon's Texts Reveal Fistfights, Eerie Warning

Friend's text: Don't get shot
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2013 5:45 AM CDT
Updated May 24, 2013 7:54 AM CDT
Trayvon's Texts Reveal Fistfights, Eerie Warning
George Zimmerman, defendant in the killing of Trayvon Martin, is seen in Seminole circuit court, in Sanford, Fla., for a pre-trial hearing, Tuesday, April 30, 2013.   (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Joe Burbank, Pool)

George Zimmerman's defense team is painting an unflattering picture of Trayvon Martin through his text messages, which it released yesterday—and they contain a haunting warning from a friend: "Boy don’t get one planted in ya chest," the friend writes. The text came three months before Trayvon was shot, the Miami Herald reports. The same friend earlier said Trayvon was "turning into a lil hoodlum." ("No not at all," Trayvon replied.) In another text, Trayvon says he was suspended from school over fighting; later, he says he fought a friend who "snitched on me." "I lost da 1st round :) but won da 2nd nd 3rd," he says.

In other texts, however, he suggests that he got in trouble for fights he wasn't involved in. Several later messages appear to discuss getting a gun, with questions like "U got heat??" and a later question posed to him: "You want a 22 revolver?" The texts also contain discussions of marijuana; Trayvon gets called a "weedhead." The Herald describes the release as "part of Zimmerman's defense plan to put [Trayvon] posthumously on trial." Prosecutors say the text messages, as well as Trayvon's school records and some photos, aren't pertinent evidence; images like one of him displaying gold teeth play on "stereotypical and close-minded thinking." The Orlando Sentinel has more on the defense's argument for the evidence (for instance, it's expected to argue that marijuana references are admissible because Zimmerman said in his 911 call that Trayvon was acting like he was high). The judge will decide whether to allow the materials. (More Trayvon Martin stories.)

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