Timothy Wayne Strickland, 38, of 299 Al Gray Rd. in Timberlake has been held in custody without privilege of bond since the drug-related shooting death of Leverne Zimmerman, 29, of 225 Junious Bradsher Rd. in Hurdle Mills on Sept. 6, 2006. Zimmerman reportedly died of a gunshot wound to the chest. He was also shot in his leg.

Strickland has reportedly admitted firing the shots that killed Zimmerman, however, his defense team of Durham attorneys Bob Brown, Jerry Clayton and Freda Black have said they will argue that the shooting was in self defense.

Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith impaneled a jury of nine women and three men, along with two female alternate jurors Tuesday morning following a day of jury selection on Monday.

District Attorney Joel Brewer told jurors in his opening statement that, while Zimmerman was being investigated by the Person County Sheriff’s Department for selling crack cocaine, “He never had an opportunity to be all that he could be.

“He wasn’t tried in court for what he did…” Brewer added. “He never had a conviction for selling a controlled substance.

“But he did die face down in his own yard, his own house,” Brewer continued, adding that the shooting did not take place at Strickland’s home or at a neutral location.

“The reason we are standing here today is because any man in this country has the same value and same right to human life,” Brewer said. “A drug addict doesn’t have the right to gun down his drug dealer.”

Brewer told the jurors that Zimmerman lived at the Junior Bradsher Road residence with his fiancé, Danielle Lester, and their two children, who Brewer said were seven and four-years-old at the time of his death.

Brewer noted to jurors that investigators “found a bag of what appeared to be some sort of controlled substance” at the scene.

“No gun, no weapon was found about or near the body of Leverne Zimmerman or anywhere in that yard,” Brewer added. “…The only weapon that was recovered was in the house.”

According to Brewer, Strickland told investigators shortly after he was detained in 2006 that Zimmerman “came out [of the house] with a gun in one hand and crack [cocaine] in the other.”

Brewer later said that when Strickland was confronted with the information that no gun was found in the vicinity of Zimmerman’s body by investigators he “then told officers that he came out with a rock in one hand.

“I shot out the window to scare him, but not to hit him,” Brewer said reading from Strickland’s written report to deputies.

Defense attorney Brown told jurors as he began his opening statement that it would be proved that there had been a “rush to judgment and a poor investigation” in the case.

He told jurors that Strickland was a cocaine addict on the day of the shooting. He went on to say that “cocaine is a very, very powerful thing.

“It drives you…it doesn’t let up,” Brown said, adding that crack cocaine is “100 times more addictive than cigarettes.”

Brown said that Strickland was scared of Zimmerman because he had threatened him and others. He continued by saying that Strickland fired a rifle, but did not intend to kill Zimmerman.

Brown then urged jurors to “pay particular attention to the physical evidence at the scene” and to consider previous threats made by Zimmerman to Strickland.

He ended by saying that the defense team would prove that the shooting death was “a clear case of self defense.”

Zimmerman's body was reportedly found by Lester at approximately 5:30 a.m. on the morning of the shooting. Investigators, however, believe the shooting took place over three hours earlier.

Former Person County Sheriff Dennis Oakley noted at the time of Strickland’s arrest that investigators had found evidence showing that Strickland had placed a phone call to Zimmerman's residence shortly before 2 a.m.