Expert: Evidence Supports Zimmerman; Was Trayvon Martin Case Mishandled?
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: "OUTFRONT" next, a big day in the Zimmerman case. We're going to have a full report. Our analysts and court watchers are standing by. Plus, a forensic expert took the stand today. We're going to tell you what he said about how Martin was positioned when he was shot. That crucial question of who was on top? And then just a short time ago, the NTSB held a news conference on the deadly 777 crash in San Francisco. What they learned about the final seconds before that crash landing. Plus an OUTFRONT investigation, did cultural factors play a role in the horrific accident? And a runaway train that exploded and has killed dozens, did someone release the brakes? Let's go OUTFRONT. And good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, is the Zimmerman case finally case closed? So George Zimmerman's lawyer said today that he's done. He's resting his case tomorrow. I mean, some people thought this trial would go on and on, but it has been anything but that. And there is a good chance that George Zimmerman will never take the stand in his own defense. Now this could be why. A noted pathologist took the stand today and said that according to how he has looked at the evidence it supports Zimmerman's account of the night Trayvon Martin was shot and killed.</s>DR. VINCENT DI MAIO, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: It's my opinion that the muzzle of the gun in this case was two to four inches away from the skin. So the barrel of the gun was against the clothing, the muzzle of the gun was against the clothing, but the clothing itself had to be two to four inches away from the body at the time Mr. Martin was shot. This is consistent with Mr. Zimmerman's account. That he, that Mr. Martin, was over him leaning forward at the time he was shot.</s>BURNETT: Obviously, if you're leaning forward the implication that you're on top because the clothes are hanging away from your body. So does this mean the state can't get a conviction? OUTFRONT tonight, our legal analysts, Mark Nejame, Sunny Hostin and Paul Callan. Great to have all of you with us. I want to start with you, Mark. Dr. Di Maio has some pretty impressive credentials. People say pathologist, aren't there a lot of them? How do we know this guy is legit, the guy? He has 40 years of experience. He served as the chief medical examiner in San Antonio and he was the former editor in chief of the "Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology." So he's got an impressive resume. How significant was his testimony?</s>MARK NEJAME, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: He knocked it out of the park and I think anybody who observed him and listened to him knows that. He literally wrote the book. The book is called "Forensic Pathology." He wrote the book called "Forensic Pathology." His expertise is second to none. When you contrast it, the two MEs the state called, I'm sorry, you have polar extremes in the way that you present and the information that was given. You can completely eliminate George Zimmerman's testimony. Let's just presume he is the most untruthful person in the face of the planet. Let's eliminate all the testimony from all other witnesses. Here you have scientific, really uncontroverted evidence that is going to simply say what happened, and he simply explained it was George Zimmerman on the bottom and Trayvon Martin on the top. You can't doubt that.</s>BURNETT: And he did do that and according to everyone that's been talking about it, seemed very effectively. Sunny, let me ask you though, because the state worked very hard to discredit him, to neutralize him, to find some holes in what he was saying about Trayvon Martin being on top. And I wanted to play you a little bit of the cross-examination where they tried to do that.</s>BERNIE DE LA RIONDA, LEAD PROSECUTOR: So you're saying that Trayvon Martin had to physically be on top, like this?</s>DI MAIO: I'm saying that the physical evidence is consistent with Mr. Martin being over Mr. Zimmerman.</s>RIONDA: And is it not also consistent with Mr. Martin pulling away from Zimmerman on the ground, and would you have the same angle he's pulling away and Zimmerman shooting him at that time?</s>DI MAIO: Yes.</s>BURNETT: So, Sunny, obviously the state trying to set up a scenario that would have been sympathetic to Trayvon Martin's, his side of things, as opposed to George Zimmerman's. Did the state effectively put holes in what the forensic expert was saying?</s>SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, I mean, I think the state was effective. I was in his courtroom for his testimony. He had this jury at hello. He is the world renowned expert in his field and so you can't attack his credibility -- his credentials, but you can poke holes in his version of what he believes to have happened. I believe the state was successful in doing that. But all in all he was a great witness for the defense, and I think that he was -- that's why he was called by the defense because the defense in had this case is all about self-defense. I think the prosecution did a great job coming out of the gate asking him, but you're not testifying about who threw the first punch. You're not testifying about who started all of this and that's what the prosecution's narrative needs to be. It needs to be about George Zimmerman pursuing, following, being the first aggressor and I think they got that out of this witness.</s>BURNETT: Which is obviously crucial to this whole issue of second- degree murder. Paul Callan, do you think the success of Dr. Di Maio that both Sunny and Mark were talking about, led to why Mark O'Mara saying, look, I'm done. I don't need to bring others it to the stand. Do you think that's why he made that decision? More a last-minute decision or do you know coming into today I'm done?</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Usually the defense attorneys have something in reserve if they think they have to extend the case a bit. But frankly, I think a lot of attorneys that I know who are watching the case think that the case has been shredded. The prosecution's case has been shredded by the defense. Now you have this forensic evidence that lines up pretty much perfectly with the Zimmerman story. There were some good cross by prosecutors. There were elements that line up with the prosecutor's story as well. They needed a knockout punch forensically, the prosecutors, to show that Zimmerman's story was an impossibility given the physical evidence and, frankly, they didn't get that knockout punch in the cross-examination of this very impressive forensic pathologist.</s>BURNETT: And I wanted to play one other thing that the forensic pathologist said, Mark, and this was about this issue of Trayvon Martin and where his hands were. Zimmerman has claimed that he placed Trayvon Martin's arms to the side after he had shot him, but Trayvon Martin, of course, was found, police at least say, with his hands under his body. How did that happen? When did that happen? The defense said Martin moved his own hands. There's been some confusion. The prosecution's expert said Martin would have been incapacitated immediately, that he wouldn't have been able to move his hand or do anything after he was shot. Dr. Di Maio came on, the expert, and said something totally different. Here is his version.</s>DI MAIO: If I right now reached across, put my hand through your chest, grabbed your heart and ripped it out, you could stand there and talk to me for 10 to 15 second or walk over to me because the thing that's controlling your movement and ability to speak is the brain, and that has a reserve supply of 10 to 15 seconds. Now that's minimum.</s>BURNETT: Mark, that's pretty graphic and horrible to hear, but also pretty powerful.</s>NEJAME: Extremely powerful and really anybody in this business knows it to be true. I have a homicide case in my office where somebody had a similar injury with a knife and they ran through an alley before they ended up falling and talking and everything else. To accentuate this graphic explanation, he explained how a SWAT shooter with the police department will take a head shot and not a heart shot when they're after somebody. So that the person can't react if they get shot in the head they go down versus being shot in the heart, they could keep on shooting. That's powerful. That's graphic and that's something that can resonate with any juror.</s>BURNETT: All right, thanks very much to all three of you as always and, of course, we'll be talking to you tomorrow night. The big question is, of course, when this is going to be done, when it's going to go to the jury, when we're going to get that verdict that the whole country is waiting for. We'll have more on the trial when we return including the controversy over the 911 tapes. Here is the question. City officials held a private session for the family to hear the tapes. City officials, not law enforcement officials. Why? And later, for the first time three women allegedly held captive for a decade speak out and they do it on camera. You're going to hear what they have to say, and you're going to see for yourself how they're doing and what they're like. And then we're going to go inside the cockpit of that 777 that crashed in San Francisco. So who was actually making the decisions in those final crucial second in could cultural protocol have delayed emergency procedures? It's a tough question to ask, but we're not afraid to ask it and we have an OUTFRONT investigation. And later, is this sports, sex, or just silly?