"Those were the words in that grown man's mouth as he followed in the dark a 17-year-old boy who he didn't know," John Guy, for the prosecution averred to the jury. "Those were the words in that defendant's head moments before he pressed that pistol into Trayvon Martin's chest and pulled that trigger." However, the defence vigorously contested that characterisation of Mr Zimmerman, who is of Hispanic ethnic origin and who, they contended, had been a pillar of support in a community that had been plagued by recent burglaries and break-ins.