SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Prosecutors want George Zimmerman to pay a higher bond now that his defense has suddenly announced a wave of money Zimmerman raised through private donors who want to help defend him.
Zimmerman is accused of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed at the time.
Zimmerman claims the shooting was self-defense, and he wasn't charged for more than six weeks, leading to nationwide protests.
Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O'Mara, told Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester on Friday that Zimmerman's family hadn't told him about the money before his client was given $150,000 bond.
O’Mara told Lester on Friday that he found out about the $200,000 stash after the bond hearing when Zimmerman's wife and other relatives said they had limited resources to post his bond.
“Look, if it was an oversight by him, then it was,” said O’Mara. “And quite honestly with everything he was going through in the past several weeks, if that's the only oversight that he's committed, well, we'll deal with it.”
O'Mara said Zimmerman did not use the money to flee after being released from jail. Instead, O’Mara said, Zimmer used about $50,000 of the cash for living expenses, setting up a new home according to his bond restrictions.
Lester said he wants to know more about the money before he decides whether to adjust the bond. The judge will make a decision on the bond at a later date.
“I need to see who is in charge of that account,” said Lester. “I might not have jurisdiction to tell anybody to do anything, but I might.”
O'Mara said Zimmerman's family was not aware or didn't know it was fully available to them.
"They were not holding, hiding and planning something else with this money because they didn't use it," said O'Mara.
In the meantime, O'Mara shut down Zimmerman's Pay Pal website and has started a new one for Zimmerman called GZdefensefund.com.
The defense said it is now in control of the money and will disclose all the information to the judge but wants to protect the names of the donors to protect them from any backlash or danger.
Of the already-donated money, O'Mara estimated that only about $5,000 was used to help pay for Zimmerman's bail.
Prosecutors requested that the judge revoke Zimmerman's bail for not disclosing how much money he had at the original bond hearing.
Martin's family attorney, Benjamin Crump, said Martin's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, were "offended" that Zimmerman failed to inform the court of the money.
O’Mara said his services are costing $400 an hour and could reach $800,000 by the end of the trial.
“One-thousand hours is $400,000,” said O’Mara. “It's going to be an enormous undertaking.”
“Certainly, we can expect an attorney is going to spend at least 1,000 hours in this case,” said legal analyst Bill Sheaffer.
O'Mara said he expects to put in a lot more than 1,000 hours, saying it’ll take two to three months to decide whether to ask for an immunity hearing, to ask the judge to throw out the murder charge without going to trial, because he wants to get all the evidence and depose all the witnesses first.
Sheaffer said an immunity hearing would add to the hours.
“O'mara will prepare for this immunity hearing as though he were preparing for trial,” said Sheaffer.
Friday's hearing was initially scheduled to deal with several media organizations, including The Associated Press, asking the judge to unseal documents from Zimmerman's court file.
Also during Friday's hearing, Lester denied a gag order requested against O'Mara.
Lester said he would not stop Zimmerman's attorneys from talking to the media if they chose.
WFTV
