• The witness statements include one eyewitness who said he saw a man in a red shirt getting hit by someone else. When he returned for a second look, he said the man who had been hitting the other was dead.

The evidence included statements from nearly two dozen witnesses, such as leaders of the homeowners association and other residents at the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhouse development.

“I feel in my heart … I honestly do believe … that he intended for this kid to die,” one witness said.

One statement came from a Middle Eastern man who said Zimmerman taunted him at work by acting out ventriloquist Jeff Dunham’s “Achmed the Dead Terrorist” character, played by his dummy puppet.

Fired from job

He said Zimmerman was fired in 2008 for filing too many complaints about managers and co-workers. Another woman called police to say Zimmerman was confrontational and “does not like black people.”

Kept from the media were cellphone records for Zimmerman, Trayvon, and a girl Trayvon was chatting with in the moments before his death. Zimmerman’s full medical records from the doctor who examined him the next day were not made public.

Zimmerman’s three statements to police and the video-taped reenactment he did for detectives the day after he killed Trayvon were also withheld, because Florida law says confessions are not public record.

“The most important piece of evidence is the detective saying that if George Zimmerman would have just stayed in his car, none of this would have happened,” said Trayvon’s family attorney, Benjamin Crump.

“If Zimmerman had just stood down, then he wouldn’t have to plead protection under the Stand Your Ground law.”

In an interview this week with The Miami Herald, Zimmerman’s father accused the special prosecutor of filing a false probable cause affidavit. He accused her of deliberately ignoring evidence that would corroborate the self-defense claim.

“They went with the information they had reasonable belief was untrue, and they swore it was true,” Robert Zimmerman said. “Someone should go to jail over that affidavit. They will be studying it in criminal justice classes for years to come.”

Robert Zimmerman is a retired magistrate from Virginia, and part of his job was to review affidavits and determine whether an arrest was merited.

He said he feared that jurors could find Zimmerman guilty of manslaughter to appease the public. He was torn about whether it would be best to have a trial — where all the evidence would be aired out — or have the case dismissed by a judge.

Florida’s Stand Your Ground law gives Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester the right to throw out the case if he determines that Zimmerman was in reasonable fear for his life. The law also offers immunity from civil action.

The deadly encounter took place Feb. 26, a rainy Sunday night when both the Oscars and the NBA-All Stars game were on TV.

Trayvon was riding out a 10-day suspension at the townhouse development where his father’s girlfriend lives. With the adults out for the evening, Trayvon walked to a nearby 7-Eleven for snacks.

When Zimmerman, a crime watch volunteer, spotted Trayvon as he walked through the development, he called police. The complex had endured several break-ins, which witnesses had attributed to young black men who sneaked into the gated community on foot through a patch of trees in the back.

Sanford police noted that Zimmerman had called police before at least four times in recent months, always about the presence of a black male stranger.

Previously released recorded calls to police show Zimmerman got out of his car that night and started following Trayvon. He was out of breath and muttering profanities about how the criminals always got away.

Zimmerman claimed he was on his way back to his truck when Trayvon attacked him.

Store footage

Videos made public as part of the evidence include shots of Trayvon at the convenience store, and footage of the housing development’s clubhouse.

The Sanford Police Department’s decision to let Zimmerman go and refer to case to the state attorney’s office for further review sparked a nationwide outcry. In recent weeks public sentiment has become more divided, as the case grows increasingly contentious and opinions split along racial lines.

Zimmerman had been working in the mortgage industry and studying criminal justice at Seminole State College before the school expelled him after the shooting.

He is now free on bond, hiding at an undisclosed location.

Herald staff writers Andres Viglucci and David Smiley contributed to this story.