Policy

Changes in Story Prompt Witness's Grilling in Zimmerman Trial

Rachel Jeantel has been inconsistent and combative on the stand

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The star prosecution witness took the stand in a Florida courtroom for a second day Thursday as George Zimmerman's attorneys tried to demonstrate that her story about hearing the prelude to the defendant's fatal confrontation with Trayvon Martin has changed over the course of the last year.

Defense attorney Don West grilled Rachel Jeantel about a letter she had a friend write for Martin's parents in the weeks after the February, 2012 incident, describing the phone conversation she had with Martin as he walked from a convenience store in Sanford, Fla., back to his father's fiancee's home in a gated community. West pressed her on what he indicated were inconsistencies between the letter and Jeantel's subsequent depositions and testimony—in particular her recent revelation that Martin told her he was being  followed by a "creepy-ass cracker."