Prosecution star witness Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old to whom Trayvon Martin was reportedly speaking while he was being followed by George Zimmerman, admitted again on the stand on Thursday that she had changed her testimony about Zimmerman’s words. Originally, she told police that after Martin asked Zimmerman why he was following him, Zimmerman answered, “What are you talking about?” Later, she changed that to, “What are you doing around here?”
As Kathi Belich of WFTV reports, “The first answer could indicate #Zimmermanon9 was not following Martin. The second answer could indicate he was following.”
Jeantel then testified that she had a friend write a letter to Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, stating that Zimmerman had said, “What are you doing around here?” According to Jeantel, the letter was signed “Diamond Eugene.” While Jeantel said in testimony that she heard Martin say “get off me,” the letter made no mention of that.
Jeantel also said that she remembered Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump asking her whether the case was racial, and answering yes. Only one problem: that wasn’t in the recording Crump provided the defense.
Jeantel said she didn’t believe “cracker” was a racial term, after testifying yesterday that Martin said that a “creepy ass cracker” was following him.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).