Trayvon Martin Trial Day 5: Resident Eyewitness Gives His Account on Confrontation

By: Taren Vaughan

The Trayvon Martin trial entered its fifth day today as many are waiting to see what the final outcome will be. Earlier this week, Trayvon Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel took the stand on two occasions to give her testimony on what happened the night Trayvon was killed. Although she faced some criticism over her first appearance on the witness stand, things went much smoother for the teenager the second time around and many have come to the young woman’s defense over the negative talk. On Day 2 of her testimony, Rachel stood her ground as she was heavily questioned about the fight between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. Rachel says she knew Trayvon didn’t start the fight because if he intended on getting physical with Zimmerman, he would have told her so and gotten off the phone with her. Today, a resident of the community where the confrontation between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman occurred took the stand to give his account on what he saw take place, NBC News reports:

Jonathan Good was watching TV with his wife at the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012, when a faint noise caught his attention, he told a Seminole County court Friday. When he heard more noise, he opened his sliding glass door, took a step outside, and spotted what “seemed like a tussle.”

But as the figures rolled a little closer to Good on the rainy evening, he realized it was two people.

“And then at one point I yelled out, ‘What’s going on?’ and ‘Stop it,’ I believe.”

Good says he only saw the two individuals fighting for what he described as “10 seconds, max” before he ran inside to dial 911 and he goes on to say he didn’t fully recognize either person, but said one was straddling the other:

When one straddled the other, the person on the bottom was “face up,” he said.

“I think at that time is when I thought it was serious,” he said.

“OK. What made you think that?” prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda asked.

“’Cause it looked like there were strikes being thrown, or punches being thrown, but as I clarified, due to the lighting, it could have also been, you know, holding down. But there were arm movement[s] going downward,” Good said.

Jonathan Good said it was too dark to see many details because he was too far away and that he heard screams coming from one person yet he couldn’t say for sure which person they were coming from.

Here are the clips for Day 5 of the trial: