Man Who Shot at George Zimmerman Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison

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Summary: The man, who shot at acquitted murderer George Zimmerman, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Today, the man who shot at George Zimmerman was sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempted murder. In 2012, Zimmerman made headlines when he killed unarmed black teen, Trayvon Martin. In June of 2013, a Florida jury acquitted Zimmerman, stating he was acting in self-defense.

  

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• Related: President Obama Speaks on Trayvon Martin’s Death 

The irony of this trial has not gone unnoticed. Defendant Matthew Apperson was convicted last month of second-degree murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and aggravated assault. He had testified that he had shot at Zimmerman in self-defense after the two of them engaged in some road rage last year. He used the stand your ground defense that Zimmerman had used at his trial for the murder of Martin, but Apperson’s jury did not accept his argument. One reason for this could be that during the trial, the jury heard that Apperson and Zimmerman had engaged in a previous road confrontation in 2014.

 

Apperson did not shoot Zimmerman in the 2015 fight. His bullet had reportedly only damaged a car window.

Zimmerman testified that Zimmerman did not draw a weapon, and that Apperson appeared to be happy when he believed that he had shot and killed him.

• Related: Department of Justice Will Collect Police Shooting Data 

Apperson said that he had feared for his life when he saw Zimmerman, who by then had developed a reputation of anger and violence. While Zimmerman had said during the trial  that he had shot and killed Martin to protect himself, post-acquittal, Zimmerman had been arrested several times. According to the New York Daily News, he had also bragged about killing Martin and had even auctioned the gun he used to murder the boy.

Zimmerman was a neighborhood watchman when he confronted 17-year-old Martin and shot and killed him in 2012. His acquittal sparked a national conversation about the killings of unarmed black citizens, and the trial has been credited as the reason for the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Apperson’s wife said that his punishment was unfair, and that it was unsafe to have Zimmerman free to wreak havoc.

It is reported that Apperson plans to appeal the decision.

Source: The New York Daily News