Aside from his lawyers' fees, state law requires Florida to cover George Zimmerman's legal costs because he was acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
That includes the cost of expert witnesses, travel, depositions, photocopies, even that animated 3-D video that defense attorneys showed jurors during closing argument that depicts Trayvon punching Zimmerman.
Defense attorney Mark O'Mara said Monday that he would soon prepare a motion, asking Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson to authorize the payments.
That motion, he said, "is in the works."
Mark O'Mara said his office was still collecting the numbers, but the request could reach up to $300,000.
That would be on top of the estimated $902,000 that public agencies already have spent on Zimmerman's five-week second-degree murder trial that ended July 13.
The 29-year-old Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter by a six-member Seminole County jury for shooting Trayvon [Martin], an unarmed black high-school junior from Miami Gardens, in Sanford Feb. 26, 2012. Moments before the fight and shooting, Zimmerman had called police, describing the teenager as suspicious.
His acquittal prompted demonstrations across the country, including violence in Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif.
Read more at the Orlando Sentinel.
