Donations to Legal Defense Fund Help Defendant in Trayvon Martin Murder Case Make $1M Bail
Undisclosed donations to a legal defense fund got George Zimmerman and his wife into trouble and put the 28-year-old defendant in a controversial, high-profile Florida murder case back in jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
But donations also helped Zimmerman, who is accused of killing an unarmed teenager, make the increased bond and win his release Friday in the Seminole County case, according to the Associated Press and the Orlando Sentinel.
Zimmerman, whose father is white and mother is Hispanic, is charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black youth. Zimmerman says he acted in self-defense while patrolling a gated Sanford, Fla., community as a self-appointed neighborhood watch commander.
His legal team says Zimmerman, who has gotten over $200,000 in legal defense donations, had to pay a bond company $100,000 and put up $1 million in collateral to secure his bail, the AP reports.
