JUDGE SETS $1 MILLION BAIL FOR TRAYVON’S KILLER

A judge set George Zimmerman’s bond at $1 million. Zimmerman had been free on $150,000 bail, but he was sent back to jail last month after his attorney revealed that the defendant had lied his azz off “misinformed” the court about how much money he had.

“The state would more accurately describe it as – lied to,” Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda wrote in a motion to Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester. Lucky for Zimmerman, his legal defense fund’s balance is $211,000, says his lawyer, meaning he has access to the 10% portion most bonding companies charge. Authorities still aren’t sure how soon he would be released.

Prosecutors provided bank records that showed that on April 20, the day of Zimmerman’s original bond hearing, he had $135,000 cash at his disposal, even as his family professed to be broke. Taped jailhouse phone calls between him and his wife showed he had instructed her to transfer money he had raised online out of his bank account into hers.

“Even though the defendant was in jail at the time, he was intimately involved in the deposit and transfer of money into various accounts,” de la Rionda wrote. “Defendant was directing the show and used his wife who willingly participated to complete the transfers. The state would argue the defendant didn’t just play a part. He was in control at all times and used his wife as a conduit to deceive the court.”

At the April 20 hearing, Shellie Zimmerman said under oath that she did not know how much money they had raised and had no assets. She has since been charted with perjury.

Prosecutors also said the taped calls show the couple talking about the whereabouts of Zimmerman’s second passport. Lester revoked Zimmerman’s bond on June 1, and then the defense attorney requested another hearing.

In a three-hour hearing June 29, Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, argued that his client allowed the lie because he was confused and scared. O’Mara presented videos, statements, a paramedic and medical records to show that his client will likely be exonerated of the second-degree murder charge. If Zimmerman never gets convicted of murder, O’Mara argued, it is unfair for him to spend a year in jail pending trial.

He had asked the court to again set bond at $150,000.

“As part of the defense team’s presentation on the Motion to Set Reasonable Bond, evidence was introduced to the court to show the weaknesses in the State’s murder case against Mr. Zimmerman and to support Mr. Zimmerman’s consistently maintained position that he acted in self defense,” O’Mara wrote on his website. “Further, we submitted evidence through the testimony of a forensic expert verifying that all the money in question has been properly accounted for.”

Zimmerman is charged with the Feb. 26 killing of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin.

Trayvon and Zimmerman got into a physical altercation after the former neighborhood watch volunteer tailed the teen to see where he was headed. Zimmerman maintains that Trayvon broke his nose and slammed his head on the concrete, and that he was forced to shoot to save his life.

Prosecutors believe Zimmerman recklessly hunted the boy down because he had wrongly profiled Trayvon as a criminal.

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SCOOP: MIAMIHERALD