ORLANDO, Fla., (Reuters) – The estranged wife of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who was acquitted of murder for the shooting of an unarmed teenager, said in an NBC TV interview on Thursday that she now doubted his innocence after standing by him during his trial.
In a case that drew widespread attention, Zimmerman was found not guilty in July after arguing that he acted in self defense when he killed Trayvon Martin in February 2012 in a Sanford, Florida, gated housing complex.
George and Shellie Zimmerman, who separated soon after the trial, were in the news earlier this month over a domestic dispute that is still being investigated by police.
Shellie Zimmerman was asked Thursday on the NBC Today show if, after her Sept. 9 dispute with her husband, she now doubted that he acted in self defense on the night that Martin was shot.
“I think anyone would doubt that innocence because I don’t know the person that I’ve been married to,” Shellie Zimmerman said in the interview.
But she added that she still believed the evidence in the case and denied that George Zimmerman racially profiled Martin before shooting him.
Shellie Zimmerman was moving her belongings out of the couple’s Lake Mary, Florida home when she called police and reported that her husband threatened her and her father with a gun. Both Shellie and George, who claimed his wife hit him with her iPad during the confrontation, agreed to not press charges against each other.
Shellie is on probation after pleading guilty to lying in court about the state of the couple’s finances during one of her husband’s bail hearings.
In her NBC Today interview, Shellie said police made clear to her that if she pressed charges, her husband would also press charges and, because she is on probation, she would be jailed.
