“He won’t even give me a collect call,” attorney Craig Sonner said, shortly after Zimmerman — the man who killed unarmed Trayvon Martin, 17, in Sanford, Florida — reportedly contacted special prosecutor Andrea Corey without first consulting the legal advice of Sonner and Hal Uhrig. Sonner also says that Zimmerman phoned Fox News’ Sean Hannity without first consulting his lawyers; that conversation was reportedly off the record.
At their press conference, Sonner and Uhrig said that Zimmerman had ignored their advice several times, and confirmed that the “last straw” was when Zimmerman called prosecutor Corey directly. “We were a bit astonished and had some conversation back and forth with the prosecutor’s office,” Uhrig said.”They told us what we expected, [that they] were not going to talk to a criminal or [defendant] without counsel.”
The resignation of Zimmerman’s attorneys comes a day after Corey said she will not convene a grand jury in the controversial case — meaning that Zimmerman cannot be charged with first-degree murder, and that it will be entirely up to her whether he will face prosecution on manslaughter and other charges. Despite their withdrawal from the case, the attorneys said they still believe Zimmerman’s story of self-defense.
So where is Zimmerman now? According to Sonner and Uhrig, he has left the state of Florida but not the country. He’s also online, having launched a website to raise money for his defense.
