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‘Curse’ of the killer: Trayvon trial opens with an F-bomb

ACCUSED: George Zimmerman stands as judge Debra Nelson arrives in Seminole circuit court for his trial, in Sanford, Fla.

ACCUSED: George Zimmerman stands as judge Debra Nelson arrives in Seminole circuit court for his trial, in Sanford, Fla. (AP)

The prosecution electrified the opening of the Trayvon Martin trial with an F-bomb — then the defense fizzled with a bad joke.

“F–king punks. These a–holes. They always get away,” George Zimmerman was quoted as telling cops moments before his fatal confrontation with the 17-year-old high-school student in a gated Florida community.

Zimmerman, on trial for murder in a Sanford, Fla., court, looked straight ahead, betraying no emotion as prosecutor John Guy began his opening statement with Zimmerman’s own words to a police dispatcher.

Martin’s parents were brought to tears as Guy promised to show how Zimmerman, 29, profiled, followed and shot dead the teen in February 2012.

“George Zimmerman did not shoot Trayvon Martin because he had to,” Guy said. “He shot him for the worst of all reasons — because he wanted to.”

In contrast to Guy’s fiery opening, defense attorney Don West left jurors stone-faced as he tried to joke about the difficulty of picking an impartial panel in light of the publicity surrounding the racially tinged case:

“Knock, knock,” West said.

“Who is there?”

“George Zimmerman.”

“George Zimmerman who?”

“Ah, good. You’re on the jury.”

No one in the packed courtroom laughed.

After a lunch break, West apologized.

“No more bad jokes. I promise that,” he told the jurors.

West argued Zimmerman was the victim, sucker-punched by Martin and attacked with “a deadly weapon.”

“Trayvon Martin armed himself with a concrete sidewalk and used it to smash George Zimmerman’s head,” he said. “It’s no different than if he picked up a brick or smashed his head against a wall.”

The trial, expected to last three weeks, pits two different accounts of what happened Feb. 26, 2012, when Zimmerman, a neighborhood-watch captain of Hispanic and white descent, spotted Martin, a black youth whom he did not recognize, walking in the community.

Their confrontation ended with a shot from Zimmerman’s 9mm handgun in Martin’s chest.

Two police calls will be crucial in the case.

The first is a call Zimmerman made to a nonemergency police dispatcher. Zimmerman’s curses were heard on that call.

The second call, to 911, captures screams from the confrontation.