After allegedly throwing a bottle of wine at his girlfriend Monday, George Zimmerman spent 14 hours in jail this weekend and now faces aggravated assault charges and must surrender all his firearms, officials said.
Zimmerman, 31, was arrested Friday night in Lake Mary where he had been living in a home owned by his parents. His attorney Don West said the fight involved Zimmerman’s girlfriend, who police have not identified.
Lake Mary Police spokeswoman Officer Bianca Gillett said the fight occurred Monday at Zimmerman’s Lake Mary residence. Though nobody involved called 911, police found out about the fight when an officer pulled Zimmerman’s girlfriend over for a routine traffic stop around 11:50 p.m. Monday, Gillett said.
“The driver stated she was just involved in a domestic altercation with George Zimmerman,” Gillett said in a statement.
Zimmerman, the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer, was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the Feb. 26, 2012 shooting death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford.
Wearing blue scrubs, Zimmerman stood before Judge John Galluzzo Saturday morning and nodded as Galluzzo set a $5,000 bond. Zimmerman, who is unemployed, bonded out of jail at 12:25 p.m.
Though this incident didn’t involve a firearm, Galluzzo told Zimmerman that he had until Tuesday to surrender any firearms in his possession to a family member or a third party.
The judge also ordered Zimmerman to stay out of Volusia County and to have no contact with his girlfriend.
Zimmerman’s next court date is Feb. 17.
“If charges are filed, Mr. Zimmerman stands ready to defend against them,” said West, part of the legal team that represented Zimmerman in his murder trial. “There will be an arraignment, at which point I’ll appear, enter a plea of not guilty, and we’ll proceed as we always do.”
Zimmerman was booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility about 9:45 p.m. Friday, Seminole County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Kim Cannaday said.
There was no answer early Saturday afternoon at the Lake Mary home where deputies said Zimmerman was arrested.
A neighbor, Jeff Petersen, said he saw police cars in the neighborhood Friday night, but had not heard much else about the arrest.
Petersen, who hadn’t seen Zimmerman in a while, described him as a “reclusive, because there are always reporters around.”
After his acquittal, Zimmerman’s wife Shellie filed for a divorce, which has not been finalized. Jail records released Saturday list Zimmerman’s marital status as separated.
The two got into a fight in September 2013 as Shellie was taking her belongings out of a home they shared in Lake Mary. She told police Zimmerman threatened her with a gun – though officers did not find any firearms on him. Zimmerman said his estranged wife hit him with the iPad she used to film their disagreement. Zimmerman broke the iPad, and police could not retrieve enough evidence from it. No charges were filed.
Two months later, Zimmerman was arrested when his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, told police he pointed a gun at her after she asked him to move out. She later recanted, and a prosecutor dropped the charges.
At a Central Florida gun show on Sept. 20, Zimmerman told the Orlando Sentinel that he was homeless, jobless and deeply in debt, due to legal bills.
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