And let me just say this, this is what a lot of people don’t know. The relationship she had with Trayvon Martin, she was a close personal friend. They had gone to elementary school together, separated over the years with regards they hadn’t seen each other, and then they connected again a couple of years ago. But when I asked her, because I thought she was the girlfriend initially, that’s how it was brought to me, that she was the girlfriend. She says, no, I was not the girlfriend of Trayvon Martin. She said Trayvon Martin had another young lady he was dating.
But Trayvon was one of the few guys, okay, and this is what, I mean, this ripped, tore my heart apart. She said he was one of the few guys that never made fun of me, about the way I dressed, about the way I talked, about my hair, about my complexion, you know, about my weight. And she said, so we communicated, because Rachel was, she was pretty much an introvert and so for her to be a 19-year-old young lady, who speaks three different languages. Now I hate to hear people talking, oh, she’s ignorant and she speaks three different languages, English being her third language. Her education, yeah, is lacking in some …
ROLAND MARTIN : Rod, what are the other two languages?
ATTORNEY ROD VEREEN: She speaks Creole, she speaks Spanish.
SYBIL WILKES : Her dad is Dominican and her mom was Haitian.
ATTORNEY ROD VEREEN: Her father is from the Dominican Republic, her mother is Haitian, and she speaks English. She doesn’t read cursive well, but then again the officer that was testifying the other day on the stand couldn’t read cursive well either. She was sitting there, you know, struggling over a letter. All right? They don’t teach that in school today. All right, so when I hear these folks jumping all over her and castigating her in the court of public opinion, it makes me say to myself, now see this is why people do not want to come out and be witnesses in cases when they see things happen because they’re going to be ridiculed and just castigated in the court of public opinion.
TOM JOYNER: And she liked Trayvon because he didn’t tease her.
SYBIL WILKES: He was nice to her.
TOM JOYNER: He was nice to her.
ATTORNEY ROD VEREEN: Very nice to her. Trayvon was a handsome little boy, all right? He was a cute kid. You know, and so here’s a young lady who’s infatuated the fact that somebody like Trayvon Martin befriended her and then she was just struck at the fact that their friendship was the way it was and they texted each other all the time. They called each other all the time, you know? And this is the way she communicated with them, you know.
And so she was familiar with his vernacular, okay. And so when I heard that, you know, the testimony of Zimmerman on the audio tape and the video tape about the words that were used, one of the things I spoke about last night on Piers Morgan was the fact that, that was not the vernacular of Trayvon Martin, or any kid I’m going to, you know, the word ‘homie’? I mean, c’mon man, we used that ten years ago. Now that may have been something I would have used, okay, but Trayvon Martin? No, that’s not something he’d use.
And if you listen, okay, because as a defense attorney, and as a prosecutor, when you listen to the words that Zimmerman was saying on that audio tape, and on the video tape, he was trying to say every, you know, what we call, word, okay, hit word, that would be something that you would say, okay, this now authorizes him to use deadly force. He says Trayvon Martin says to him, you’re going to die today. No, no, no, no, no, you don’t go from running from somebody to why are you following me until oh, I’m going to kill you, you’re going to die today. Because you’re trying to say all these key words to say this is why I did it. Because he put this fear in my mind that he was going to kill me, or you’re going to die today. Oh, then he put his hands on his nose, I mean, his hands over my mouth and over my nose, again, because if he cuts off my breath I can die. Then it changes to he was pounding my head, okay, on the pavement. No concussions, no hematomans. I mean there’s too much lacking…
SYBIL WILKES : You know what? They need you on the prosecution.
ATTORNEY ROD VEREEN: You know what? I wish I could go to Jacksonville today and they swear me in right now because I would tell Mr. De La Rionda just let me do the closing argument. Okay? Because what’s lacking in this case is that they don’t have anyone to sit here and decipher for that audio tape for them, that video tape for them, and show them, you know, where the problem is with regard to Zimmerman’s statement. But here’s one of the main things I want people to realize.
…Zimmerman said that he mounted Trayvon on his back. And that he stretched his hands out while he still had his gun in his hand when the other gentleman says, hey, I’m about to call the police and call 911. He says, no, don’t do that, help me with this guy. If that’s the case, and we we knew that Trayvon Martin was dead, why is it that when they found the body both of his arms were tucked up under him? Because Zimmerman is lying. Because Zimmerman is lying.
Trayvon Martin Was One of the Few Guys Who Didn’t Tease Rachel Jeantel- ROD VEREEN was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
