Gary W. Green / Orlando Sentinel pool via EPA
Volusia and Seminole County associate medical examiner Shiping Bao MD testifies during George Zimmerman's trial in Seminole Circuit Court in Sanford, Fla., on July 5.
By James Novogrod, Tom Winter and Tracy Connor, NBC News
The prosecution in the George Zimmerman trial rested its case Friday after a medical examiner testified for several hours after changing his opinion on how long Trayvon Martin may have lived after being shot in the heart.
The defense asked the judge to grant an acquittal, arguing it was clear Zimmerman acted in self-defense and without the ill will needed to support a second-degree murder charge. The motion was rejected, and Zimmerman?s team began laying out its case.
Prosecutors began the day by calling Martin?s mother to the stand to testify that the person heard screaming in the background of a 911 call is her son.
They ended with the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the 17-year-old ? whose stint on the stand took an unexpected turn when he revealed he changed one of his findings three weeks ago.
Under questioning by the prosecution, Dr. Shiping Bao said Martin may have lived for up to 10 minutes.
The mother and older brother of Trayvon Martin testify in the trial of George Zimmerman who pleaded not guilty in the death of the teenager. NBC's Sarah Dallof reports.
?His heart was still beating. Every time his heart was beating, some of the blood would go from right ventricle to the pulmonary artery to the lung and supply his brain,? Dr. Shiping Bao said on the ninth day of testimony in the trial.
?I believe ? it is my opinion ? that he was still alive, he was still in pain, he was still in suffering,? he added, though the judge upheld an objection to that characterization.
Later, during a hearing outside the presence of the jury, Zimmerman lawyer Don West pointed out that Bao said during a November deposition that he thought Martin would have been alive just one to three minutes.
The doctor said he changed his opinion three weeks ago after his office handled the autopsy for a case ?very similar to Trayvon Martin?s case.?
When the jurors were brought in, there were several sharp exchanges between West and Bao and at one point Judge Debra Nelson chided them.
Bao led the court through his autopsy report, testifying that the bullet was fired at an ?intermediate range,? with the muzzle in ?loose contact? with Martin?s clothing, and traveled a straight path from his chest to his back.
He also told the court there were three abrasions on Martin's left hand and testified that ?this could have occurred two hours before he died, could have happened right after the shooting, on the way down to the ground, could have happened during the physical struggle.?
When the defense began cross-examining him, Bao said he could not remember anything about the autopsy and was relying on his notes, the report and photos. He went on to say that no one could remember something that happened almost two years earlier and began reading from his personal research into memory lapses.
Zimmerman, 29, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the Feb. 26, 2012, death of Martin, 17. He says he fired his gun in self-defense after Martin attacked him.
Earlier, Martin?s mother and brother testified about a 911 call made during the teen?s confrontation with Zimmerman.
?That screaming or yelling ? do you recognize that,? prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda asked Martin?s mother, Sybrina Fulton.
?Travyon Benjamin Martin,? she said.
On cross-examination, defense lawyer Mark O?Mara suggested that Fulton wanted to hear her son?s voice because if Zimmerman was screaming, ?you would have to accept the probability that it was Trayvon Martin that caused his own death.?
?I heard my son screaming,? said Fulton, who said she first heard the recording during a family meeting inside Sanford City Hall in March 2012.
Jacob Langston / AP
George Zimmerman, shown here with defense attorney Don West in court on July 3.
?You certainly would hope that your son Trayvon Martin did nothing that could have led to his own death?? O?Mara pressed her later.
?What I hope for is that this wouldn?t have never happened and that he would still be here,? Fulton replied, adding that she did not believe Martin was responsible for his death.
Her eldest son, Jahvaris Fulton, 22, also testified the ?yelling and screaming? was Martin?s but confirmed under cross-examination that after he heard the tape for the first time he told a local TV reporter he wasn?t ?completely positive.?
?I guess I didn?t want to believe that it was him so that?s why during that interview I said I wasn?t sure. I guess listening to it was clouded by shock and denial and sadness,? he said.
A police report shows that Martin?s father, Tracy Martin, heard it during an interview days after his son's death, before the City Hall meeting.
According to the report, Martin told lead investigator Chris Serino that the voice was not his son's. He did not testify on Friday morning.
The 911 call in question was made by a neighbor who heard the commotion outside her home in the Retreat at Twin Lakes complex in Sanford, Fla.
The judge has already ruled that neither side can present technical experts to say who is screaming, but family and friends can testify about what they believe.
Editor?s note: George Zimmerman has sued NBC Universal for defamation. The company strongly denies the allegation.
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This story was originally published on Fri Jul 5, 2013 10:51 AM EDT
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