Trayvon Martin: The Latest, Week 8

Friday, April 27, 2012, 12:36 p.m. EDT: Judge delays decision on Zimmerman contributions: George Zimmerman will not immediately have to turn over donations made to his website, CNN reports. Zimmerman collected about $204,000 in donations through the website but did not disclose the contributions during his bond hearing last week. Today Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda asked Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. to increase Zimmerman's $150,000 bond, but the judge said he would delay ruling on the request, in part because he does not know if he has authority to say how the money can be used.

Friday, April 27, 9:36 a.m. EDT: Zimmerman's attorney to disclose $200,000 in Web donations at hearing today: George Zimmerman's attorney said that his client's bail might have been set higher if a judge had known about $200,000 raised by a website that only came to light this week, USA Today reports. Mark O'Mara said on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 that he only learned about the money on Wednesday and will inform a judge at a hearing today.

Wednesday, April 25, 2:28 p.m. EDT: Zimmerman's fundraising website is shut down: The website George Zimmerman set up to help raise money for his legal defense in the Trayvon Martin shooting case has been taken down, CBS News reports. It was created almost two weeks ago by Zimmerman's family to thank his supporters and to receive donations from anyone who wanted to help with his legal defense.

Monday, April 23, 5:32 p.m. EDT: Commission rejects police chief's resignation: The Associated Press is reporting that the city commission in Sanford, Fla. --  the town where Trayvon Martin was killed -- has rejected police Chief Bill Lee's resignation.

Monday, April 23, 4:01 p.m. EDT: Zimmerman's attorney apologizes for apology: George Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, apologized today for the "apology" his client offered to the parents of Trayvon Martin during his bond hearing last Friday, saying that he did not understand the victim's family would find the timing of the remarks (in which Zimmmerman said, "I’m sorry for the loss of your son") inappropriate. "We had reached out to see if we could do it privately," O'Mara said on CBS This Morning. The attorney for Trayvon's family, Benjamin Crump, told the press after Friday's hearing that Zimmerman's apology was poorly timed and insincere. "The apology was somewhat of a surprise because we had told them this was not the appropriate time, but they just disregarded that, and he went and pandered to the court and the media and gave a very insincere apology," he said.

Monday, April 24, 2:28 p.m. EDT: Sanford police chief to resign: Sanford, Fla., police Chief Bill Lee will officially resign today, CBS News reports. Lee temporarily stepped down last month in the wake of criticism over his department's handling of the investigation of Trayvon Martin's death. A source within the Sanford Police Department told CBS that one of the acting chiefs may submit his resignation today as well.

Monday, April 23, 6:39 a.m. EDT: Zimmerman released on bail: George Zimmerman, the man facing second-degree-murder charges in the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, has been released on bail from a Florida jail. CNN reports that he walked out of the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, Fla., around midnight on Sunday, got into the back of a white BMW and did not speak to reporters. The Seminole County Sheriff's Office said that Zimmerman was fitted with an electronic monitoring device, which can keep tabs on his whereabouts in real time. With bond set at $150,000, Zimmerman's family would have needed $15,000 cash for him to make bail.

Read last week's news on the Trayvon Martin case here.

Read all of The Root's news and commentary on the Trayvon Martin case here. 

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