Does George Zimmerman's Fight With His Girlfriend Cast Doubt on His Acquittal?

Yesterday George Zimmerman was
charged with aggravated assault after his girlfriend, Samantha
Scheibe, claimed he aimed a shotgun at her during a fight. Here is
part of the
911 call that Scheibe placed at 12:30 p.m. from her home in
Apopka, Florida:

Scheibe: He’s in my house breaking all my
shit because I asked him to leave. He has a freakin’ gun, breaking
all of my stuff right now. [To Zimmerman:]
 I’m doing this again? You just broke my glass
table, you broke my sunglasses, and you put your gun in my freakin’
face and told me to get the fuck out…This is not your house. No,
get out of here. 

Dispatcher: OK, where’s his weapon at?

Scheibe: He just put it down. [To Zimmerman:]
Get out of my house. Do not push me out of my house. 

Zimmerman: I didn’t push you, Sammy.

Scheibe: Will you please get out of my
house.

Zimmerman: Calm down. 

Scheibe: Are you serious right now? Are you
fucking kidding me? [To dispatcher:] He just pushed me out of my
house and locked me out.

Zimmerman denies brandishing any weapons. He claims Scheibe was
the one who flew off the handle and broke the table. He says she
became irate when he started packing his things to move out after
she informed him that she was pregnant but wanted to raise the baby
on her own. (Scheibe says she is not pregnant.) When police
arrived, about four minutes after Scheibe called 911, they found
Zimmerman calm and unarmed.

This incident is reminiscent of a fight that Zimmerman had with
his estranged wife, Shellie, in September. She initially claimed he
had threatened her and her father with a gun but later
admitted she never actually saw a weapon. The police concluded
there was insufficient evidence to charge Zimmerman.

People who are already convinced that Zimmerman’s shooting of
Trayvon Martin was not justified will see these two incidents as
further evidence that Zimmerman is an aggressor who is good at
playing the victim. And if he really did threaten his ex-wife or
his girlfriend with a gun, that suggests a disposition consistent
with the conclusion that he acted more out of anger than out of
fear when he shot Martin.

Still, the prosecution
did not come close to proving that claim beyond a reasonable
doubt at Zimmerman’s trial. On the whole, the evidence indicated
that Martin started the fight and that he was on top of Zimmerman
when the shot was fired. Furthermore, Zimmerman’s injuries were
consistent with his report that Martin punched him in the face and
knocked his head against the pavement. That does not necessarily
mean Zimmerman reasonably believed shooting Martin was necessary to
prevent death or serious injury. But to win an acquittal, all the
defense had to do was make that scenario seem plausible. If it
seems a little less plausible in light of Zimmerman’s subsequent
domestic squabbles, that does not mean the jury erred. After all,
even an asshole can act in self-defense. We will never know for
sure whether Zimmerman really did, but under our system of justice
he rightly benefited from that doubt. And it should go without
saying that any crime Zimmerman might commit after his acquittal
cannot possibly make the right to stand your ground retroactively

relevant to his defense in the earlier case.