Timothy Wayne Strickland, 38, of 299 Al Gray Rd., Timberlake was convicted Friday of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Leverne Zimmerman, 29, of 225 Junious Bradsher Rd., Hurdle Mills. Zimmerman suffered a fatal gunshot wound outside of his residence.

District Attorney Joel H. Brewer maintained throughout the trial that Strickland shot Zimmerman with malice, premeditation and deliberation and also by lying in wait.

Strickland’s defense team of Durham attorneys Bob Brown, Jerry Clayton and Freda Black steadfastly maintained that their client shot Zimmerman in self-defense. Closing arguments from Brown and Brewer each lasted approximately 90 minutes Thursday.

Just before addressing the jury of nine women and three men, which had not returned to the courtroom from a morning break, Brewer took a moment to, seemingly, offer a silent prayer as he bowed his head and closed his eyes at the defense table for nearly a minute.

When Brewer began his closing argument, he spoke softly to jurors. He said that the case was about, “what makes sense…what doesn’t make sense…what is real” and what had been created by the defense.

“You won’t have the answer to every question,” Brewer said to the jurors. “What I hope you will have is an abiding sense that you have done justice.”

Set the stage

Brewer then set the stage for what the state believed transpired on the evening of Sept. 5, 2006, just hours before Zimmerman was shot.

He said that Strickland had returned home that evening and his wife, Jennifer Strickland, had found “this Alltel contract,” for cell phones Strickland was reportedly going to sign for and allow Zimmerman to have.

“She was hot,” Brewer said of Jennifer Strickland, adding later that, “Crack cocaine was draining this family dry, and she’d had enough of it.

“That sets the stage for everything else that follows,” Brewer added.

Brewer also referenced a phone call from Strickland to Person County Sheriff’s Department investigator Jason Wilborn, which was played for jurors during the trial.

“You heard the tape,” Brewer said. In that conversation, Strickland reportedly told Wilborn, “I’ll take care of my business, you take care of yours,” or “I took care of my business, you take care of yours,” Brewer said, admitting that the wording was not quite clear, but that the jurors could draw their own conclusions from the tape.

Never claimed self-defense

Later Brewer reminded jurors that during Strickland’s initial interview with sheriff’s investigators, which was videotaped and played during the trial, he “never once” mentioned self-defense in referencing the shooting.

“How artful a term is self-defense,” Brewer said.

Brewer also attempted to pick apart Strickland’s statements and testimony during the trial pertaining to the actual shooting. Initially, Strickland told investigators he “popped [the rifle] out in the cornfield…I did not shoot him,” Brewer said referring to Strickland’s comments on the video.

Brewer pointed out that Strickland said in a written statement that he “shot out the window [of his truck] to scare him.” In testimony during the trial, Brewer quoted Strickland as saying he “did fire at the victim in fear.”

A photo of Zimmerman’s lifeless body with the bullet wound to his chest was shown to jurors.

Brewer, who was seated in the witness chair at the time, simulated firing the gun initially and a second time. Zimmerman also received a gunshot wound to the leg and Strickland testified during the trial that after he fired the first shot he saw Zimmerman turn away.

The first shot, Brewer said later, was “dead square in the chest…a perfect shot to the heart.” That, Brewer said, is easy to do if you know how to use a rifle and “if you have a bench rest such as a door of a car.”

“The defendant’s story is like shotgun shells,” Brewer said. “It’s all over the place.”

Handgun argument

The defense attorneys had argued that a handgun deputies found in Zimmerman’s house was likely brandished in a threatening way by Zimmerman prior to the shooting. They asserted that the gun had likely been removed by Zimmerman’s fiancé, Danielle Lester, when she discovered his body early in the morning of Sept. 6.

Brewer pointed out, however, that there was not a trace of grass, dirt or residue on the gun when the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation analyzed it.

“So, [Lester] not only picked it up off the ground, [she] wiped it down?” Brewer asked. Earlier he referenced a report that noted no gunshot residue was present on Zimmerman’s hand.

Following the shooting on Junious Bradsher Road, Strickland wrecked his Chevrolet pickup truck into an unoccupied residence on Waterfront Road, approximately halfway between his home and Zimmerman’s residence.

Brewer pointed out that Strickland testified he used his wife’s cell phone to call his mother five times. He didn’t, however, phone his wife at home. And, according to the defense argument, Strickland feared for his life and that of his family when he fled the scene.

Before leaving his truck and two guns at the Waterfront Road residence, Strickland testified, he threw his wife’s cell phone to the ground.

“If [his] wife’s issue was over cell phones, why throw away her only cell phone?” Brewer asked. “He throws it down,” Brewer yelled, tossing the cell phone to the floor of the courtroom. “No cell phones…Nada! … You can’t hear me now, you can’t hear me now, you can’t hear me now,” Brewer added. “I don’t have your cell phone.”

Earlier, Brewer pointed out that phone records showed that Strickland had not attempted to phone 911 or his wife following the shooting.

“He is so afraid of [Zimmerman, but] he never calls his wife to warn her,” Brewer said.

Ballistics match

Brewer also noted in his closing argument that ballistics tests matched the .22-caliber rifle recovered from Strickland’s truck to the bullet recovered from Zimmerman’s body. The tests also matched recovered shell casings, one found in the truck and one at the scene of the shooting.

Perhaps one of the most crucial points of Brewer’s closing argument was the fact that Strickland, who defense lawyers said was terrified of Zimmerman due to earlier threats, carried Zimmerman two loaded shotguns to trade for the two cell phones he was trying to get back.

Brewer argued, “The first thing you learn when you put a gun in a vehicle” is to make sure it is not loaded, “unless you’re bent on mischief.”

“It’s just so many things here so ridiculous for him to try and sell you,” Brewer said later before adding that it was unbelievable for jurors to think that Strickland “carried [Zimmerman] loaded guns” if he was so afraid of him.

Apparently responding to the defense argument that the state had rushed to judgment in the case, Brewer said it would have been easy for him if he were “bent upon something” to simply give Strickland his loaded guns back.

“Here, Mr. Strickland, good hunting,” Brewer said, holding up the two rifles. “Go get you some more drug dealers…Death penalty for drug dealers.

‘Not an insect’

“Leverne Zimmerman was not an insect,” Brewer added, referencing the way the defense team portrayed him during the trial. “He sold drugs. He wasn’t the best and probably not the worst. He could have been a good guy.”

On Sept. 6, 2006, Zimmerman was at his home, “where he had a right to be,” Brewer said later. “Was it necessary to kill him?”

As Brewer neared the close of his Thursday statement, he sat in the witness chair again and acted out a scene as if he were Strickland in his truck.

“This gun is loaded…I’m sick of all this stuff,” Brewer said. “I’m sick of you threatening me. I’m sick of it all.

“Bam!” Brewer continued by simulating a gunshot. “That’s all the time needed for premeditation and deliberation.

“…[Zimmerman is] standing in his own yard and he’s dead,” Brewer added. “He was ambushed. Yes, it was a murder case from the beginning, and, yes, you’re satisfied with that.”

While pacing the floor and preparing to remove the coat of his dark-colored suit, Brewer told jurors that, throughout the trial, “the cloak of innocence” had come off of Strickland and “those scales [of justice] pound down…beyond all doubt.”

Zimmerman was a “street level” drug dealer, Brewer said, adding, however, that he didn’t deserve death.

“It’s not right,” Brewer said looking straight at the 12 jurors. “It’s not the law…Follow the law and you will be swords of justice.”

Rush to judgment

Defense attorney Brown argued in his closing statement that there had been a rush to judgment by the state. He also re-iterated the defense’s stance that Strickland had acted in self-defense.

He began his final argument with a telephone, portraying sheriff’s deputy Ryan Weaver, the lead investigator in the case, having a conversation with D.A. Brewer five days after Zimmerman’s death and the day the case against Strickland was to be presented to the grand jury.

“We haven’t finished our investigation yet,” Brown, impersonating Weaver, said. “It’s only been five days…somebody’s life is on the line…my responsibility is to look for the truth.

“We can’t be sloppy in the way we handle things,” Brown said later in his portrayal of the conversation. “…If you tell me today is the day to go to the grand jury, I will go.”

After concluding his phone conversation portrayal, Brown told jurors, “This is a case where the investigation was not completed.”

The theory of the state’s case, Brown asserted, was that Strickland went to Zimmerman’s house “with the sole intent to kill this man.”

The state, Brown said, wanted jurors to believe that Strickland “killed a man because his wife fussed at him. Does the evidence back it up?”

Brown continued, “…The state says he intentionally went over there to kill with malice and premeditation. People who commit first degree murder leave the county,” he said, many leave the state and “some even leave the country.

“Sometimes they hide the body...hide the fact they committed the crime,” Brown added, noting that the rifle used in the shooting was found in Strickland’s truck.

“…It didn’t happen the way [the state] said it.”

Brown reminded jurors of witnesses who had testified that they had been threatened by Zimmerman in the past or had seen him threaten others.

That, he said, was “relevant to show Tim had a reason to fear Mr. Zimmerman,” Brown noted. “[The state] could have called anybody [Zimmerman] dealt with, [but] not one was called to rebut [the testimony or] say he was a nice guy.”

In fact, Brown told jurors, Zimmerman was far from being a nice guy.

“The truth of the matter is he was very mean…he was a racist,” Brown said. “He was mean. He was vicious. He was deadly.”

Strickland testified during the trial and the defense maintained that Zimmerman pulled a gun on Strickland in his yard prior to the fatal shooting.

“Once he pulled that gun out, that’s when he forfeited his life,” Brown said. “…The law says you have a right to self-defense … you have a right to defend yourself.”

As he closed his statement to jurors, Brown made one final plea for a verdict of not guilty.

“The right thing, the honest thing, the American thing is to find Timothy Strickland not guilty because that’s what he is,” Brown argued.