Twitter Account Gets Scrubbed In Zimmerman Case

Deletion spree sanitizes postings of teenage prosecution witness

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  http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/zimmerman-witness-gets-twitter-scrub-748092

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Jeantel Twitter Scrub

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  Jeantel Twitter Scrub

JUNE 26--In a late-night scrubbing spree, dozens of embarrassing and incriminating posts were deleted Tuesday evening from the Twitter account of a Florida woman who has been described as a star government witness in the George Zimmerman murder case, The Smoking Gun has learned.
The sanitizing of Rachel Jeantel’s Twitter account came as the 19-year-old Miami resident prepared to take the stand and testify about a phone call she had with Trayvon Martin immediately before the unarmed 17-year-old was shot to death by Zimmerman in February 2012.
In relating that conversation, Jeantel has told investigators that a “scared” Martin said he was being followed by an unknown white man who demanded to know what the teen was doing inside the Retreat at Twin Lakes, a gated community in Sanford, Florida. Jeantel contends that she heard Martin ask the man, “Why you following me for?” before she heard someone “bump” the teenager. “Next thing I hear…the phone is shut off,” Jeantel told investigators in an April 2012 interview.
Jeantel’s testimony may allow prosecutors to further portray Zimmerman, a 29-year-old neighborhood watch commander, as Martin’s pursuer, an armed aggressor who profiled the black teen before murdering him with a single gunshot to the chest.
As TSG reported yesterday, Jeantel, pictured above, maintains a Twitter account (@MsRachel_94) to which she has made more than 200 posts over the past five months. Many of the teenager’s tweets referred to drinking, smoking, and getting high. She also made references to Martin’s death, referred to acquaintances as “bitch” and “nigga,” and wrote about having “jackass lawyers on my ass.”
Yesterday afternoon, after TSG sought to contact several of Jeantel’s Twitter followers and Facebook friends, 14 tweets--and 13 linked Twitpic photos--were deleted from her Twitter account (which carries the personal motto “My Character And Action Describe Who I Am”). The removed tweets included references to drinking and a link to a sexually suggestive set of photos. Another killed tweet, from June 23, read “Court nails” and linked to a photo of fingernails (presumably Jeantel’s) with fresh orange polish. Additionally, several Twitpic images of assorted liquor bottles were deleted.
The scrubbing of Jeantel’s Twitter account, however, did not end there.
After 10 PM (Eastern) last night, 43 other tweets were deleted. The postings disappeared about two hours after TSG published a story about Jeantel’s social media musings. A TSG comparison of Jeantel’s sanitized Twitter account with the version from early Tuesday afternoon showed that the number of published tweets plummeted from 202 to 146.
A compilation of the 43 deleted Jeantel tweets can be found on pages beginning here. The 14 tweets deleted yesterday afternoon can be found here.
The material deleted last evening included nearly all remaining references to the underage Jeantel’s partying, including tweets like “When u drinking & smoking u need good music in ur ears hahaha I feel so good on Sunday” and “I need a drink to sleep dis off fuck dis shit boi.”
A quartet of consecutive February 24 tweets was also killed. “Party time let get high,” read the first tweet, which included beer glass emoticons. The messages “Omg everybody high” and “Lol we going to hell for smoke on Sunday I need some more drink” then followed. Jeantel’s final tweet that day was “I hope I dnt hit no one tonight lord plz watch my driving.” Her first February 25 tweet, also deleted, read, “Just got home thank u lord good night.”
Several tweets from February 26--the one-year anniversary of Martin’s death--were also deleted, including one that read, “Omg people calling n praying n shit lol I need a drink smoke and a pray my head killing me right now cannot wait when this day end.” A February 26 message reading “#rip Tray” remains on Jeantel’s Twitter page.
On March 5, it was disclosed that Jeantel was not truthful to investigators last year when she claimed that the reason she did not attend Martin’s funeral was due to a hospitalization. In apparent response to news reports about that lie, Jeantel tweeted, “Jus got home n hear wat was going and I’m angry.” In a follow-up post, she wrote, “remember who cause the funeral to happen keep it 100% Mr.ass hoe damn they p*ssed me off.” Those two tweets were erased last night.
A pair of Jeantel’s deleted April tweets appear to refer to Robert Zimmerman, Jr., George’s older brother and the outspoken Zimmerman family spokesman who recently had to apologize for a pair of his own controversial Twitter posts. In one tweet, Zimmerman juxtaposed a photo of Martin with an image of a Georgia teen recently charged with murdering a 13-month-old boy. The picture of Martin shows him holding up two middle fingers, while the photo of the other teen appears to show him flashing gang signs. “A picture speaks a thousand words. Any questions?" tweeted Zimmerman, who is seen above on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live.".
In an April 4 tweet, Jeantel recounted a tweet she had received from “J” asking her “did you see the bro talking shit bout u.” Her tweet concluded, “oh really I have jackass lawyers on my ass kno “JR” want to up in ok.”
The following day Jeantel tweeted, “JUST FOR ‘JR’,” and included a link to a Twitpic showing someone giving the camera the finger. The image was deleted last night.
A third post seeming to refer to Robert Zimmerman, Jr. appeared on Jeantel’s Twitter page on May 28. That day, Robert appeared at the Sanford courthouse for a hearing in his brother’s case and later conducted a press conference during which he declared his brother’s innocence and called for the withdrawal of second-degree murder charges against his sibling.
“Omg can somebody Robert jr shut the fuck up with his life story,” Jeantel wrote in her May 28 tweet. While that message was not among the 43 tweets removed last night from Jeantel’s Twitter account, it was deleted early this morning. A follow-up tweet, scrubbed last night, reported, “This shit right here goin make me smoke I need a drink a Lott.” (5 pages)