ORLANDO, Fla. — The two men who have been George Zimmerman’s most outspoken defenders, attorneys Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner, said Tuesday that they’re off the case. ORLANDO, Fla. — The two men who have been George Zimmerman’s most outspoken
ORLANDO, Fla. — The two men who have been George Zimmerman’s most outspoken defenders, attorneys Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner, said Tuesday that they’re off the case.
“On Sunday, we lost track of George, in that he would not return our calls,” attorney Uhrig said. Said attorney Craig Sonner, “I’ve lost contact with him at this point.”
The lawyers had been publicly representing Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, in the media as calls for his arrest continue to grow.
But they said Tuesday that Zimmerman — who, they say, has left the state — has stopped answering their phone calls, and has made a series of decisions that the two lawyers would not have advised.
The lawyers said Zimmerman called Sean Hannity of Fox News without consulting them. He also called the special prosecutor in the case, something the attorneys said they’d never have told him to do.
“We were a bit astonished,” Uhrig said. He praised Special Prosecutor Angela Corey’s office for declining to speak with Zimmerman without legal counsel.
Asked about Hannity’s interactions with Zimmerman, a Fox News Channel spokeswoman said the issue was scheduled to be “addressed on Hannity’s show tonight.”
Uhrig added that he thinks Zimmerman is going through post-traumatic stress and is “largely alone … he’s at least emotionally alone.” Sonner said that he’d be willing to represent Zimmerman again in the future, if Zimmerman were to get back in contact with him.
Both lawyers were adamant that they still believe Zimmerman is innocent, and defended his actions on the night of the shooting at length when questioned by reporters.
However, they said they can’t represent him without being in communication with him. According to Uhrig, Zimmerman had begun characterizing the lawyers as “legal advisers,” not his attorneys.
“I’m not sure what the distinction is, but in his mind there’s a distinction,” Uhrig said.
Zimmerman has been in hiding since the shooting. His former lawyers said Tuesday that Zimmerman is still in the United States, but not in Florida. Both lawyers were repeatedly prodded on his location.
Said Uhrig: “I will not tell you where George Zimmerman is, because I don’t know.”
Attorney Benjamin Crump, representing Martin’s family, said he was alarmed to hear that.
“The family is deeply concerned that George Zimmerman is unaccounted for,” Crump said. “They worry he may be a flight risk if he does indeed face charges.”
Crump said that the situation could have been avoided had police “just simply arrested him.”
A Neighborhood Watch volunteer, Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, a high school junior, on a rainy evening Feb. 26 in the Retreat at Twin Lakes community in Sanford.
Zimmerman has claimed the teen attacked him, and he fired in self-defense. He has not been arrested or charged with a crime. The shooting has sparked international outcry.
Zimmerman has remained silent since the shooting, however, his father and his former lawyers have increasingly spoken out in his defense.
On Monday, a website created by Zimmerman surfaced. In a message to supporters on the site, Zimmerman promised that the facts of the shooting “will come to light.”
Hal Boedeker of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
