By Amanda Sloane
(HLN) — George Zimmerman’s estranged wife said Thursday that while she respects the jury’s not guilty verdict in his second-degree murder trial, she now has doubts about his innocence.
“I believe the evidence, but this revelation in my life has really helped me to take the blinders off and start to see things differently,” Shellie Zimmerman told NBC’s Matt Lauer on the “Today” show. Zimmerman was referring to the couple’s struggles since the verdict, including an ugly spat earlier this month that resulted in police being called — and headlines being made.
“I think anyone would doubt that innocence because I don’t know the person that I have been married to,” she said.
George Zimmerman was acquitted on July 13 in the death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman told police he shot the teen in self-defense.
Despite her doubts about her husband’s innocence, Shellie Zimmerman said she believes he did not profile the teen, who is black.
“So had Trayvon Martin been white, you think the night would have ended in the same tragic fashion?” Matt Lauer asked.
“Yes, I do,” she said.
Shellie Zimmerman called 911 just days after filing for divorce, claiming her estranged husband punched her father in the nose, took her iPad out of her hands, smashed it and cut it with a pocket knife.
She also said the former neighborhood watch volunteer threatened her and her father with a weapon. She stands by that story, despite police saying they never saw or confiscated a gun at the scene.
“I did not see a gun, but I saw — I know my husband. I saw him in a stance and a look in his eyes that I have never seen before,” she said. “His shirt was halfway unbuttoned and he was putting his hand in his shirt and saying, ‘Please step closer, please step closer,’ so I think that logically I assumed he had a gun on him.”
Shellie Zimmerman has not pressed charges but police are still investigating the case. They say it could take months to recover video evidence from the damaged iPad.
While she stood by her man through his trial and the months of living “like gypsies” in the woods leading up to it, she said everything changed after the verdict.
“He just kind of treated me like I was disposable … after standing by him,” Shellie Zimmerman said. “He kind of left and I guess kind of went on a victory tour without me, and I thought that I was living a life with him and that we were going to kind of rebuild after all of this, (but) he had other plans for me.”
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