• Maine 'hermit' gets marriage proposal, bail offer

    Investigators blame decades of thefts on a man found living alone in Maine woods. WCSH's Chris Rose reports.

    By The Associated Press

    The man who spent nearly three decades in the woods of Maine before his high-profile arrest earlier this month has attracted a marriage proposal and a stranger's offer to bail him out, prompting authorities to dramatically increase his bail Sunday amid fears he could be targeted for exploitation.

    Christopher Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit to locals, spent 27 years in the woods with virtually no contact with other people. But in the short time since his arrest he's had a lot of people trying to get close to him, officials said.


    Someone called the jail where he's being held with a marriage proposal while a man Knight didn't know showed up Saturday night offering to pay his $5,000 bail, The Kennebec Journal reported.

    Worried Knight could be the target of someone looking to capitalize on his notoriety, authorities charged him with two additional counts of burglary and theft and increased his bail to $250,000.

    "My job is to ensure he does appear in court," Maine State Trooper Diane Perkins-Vance told the newspaper. "But there's a lot of people out there trying to exploit him."

    District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said the big bail increase is unusual, but then this is an unusual case.

    "The first concern is he might be a flight risk," she said. "The second concern is the group of people who are interested in posting bail for Mr. Knight who are not from our state and not members of his family.

    "I will remain concerned for Mr. Knight until he has an attorney helping him to navigate what is a new world to him," she said.

    Police said Knight, 47, may have been responsible for as many as 1,000 burglaries over the years, raiding cottages and campsites for food, cooking gear, sleeping bags, tents and other goods to help him survive.

    Knight was arrested after authorities said he tripped a surveillance sensor set up by a game warden while stealing food from a camp for people with special needs. Authorities later found the campsite where they said Knight lived: a tent covered by tarps suspended between trees, a bed, propane cooking stoves and a battery-powered radio.

    Officials said Knight is in the general jail population and doing well despite his years of isolation.

    "He's smiling, pleasant," Perkins-Vance said. "He's a very humble man."

    Related:

    Maine 'hermit' not keen on visitors

    Maine man busted after 27 years in woods

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Medical report day after Trayvon Martin death says Zimmerman nose 'likely broken'

    The Florida block watch captain who shot and killed Travyon Martin awaits a judge's ruling on his new bond application. NBC's Jeff Rossen speaks with Mark O'Mara, George Zimmerman's attorney.

    By NBC's Jamie Novogrod

    SANFORD, Fla. -- The day after the encounter that left 17-year-old Trayvon Martin dead, George Zimmerman visited a doctor’s office in nearby Altamonte Springs, where he was told his nose was “likely broken,” but the wounds at the back of his head did not require stitches.


    Those details – along with other notes on Zimmerman’s injuries and his health in general – are revealed in a medical report prepared by a physician’s assistant after a Feb. 27 visit.

    The document was among a rash of evidence filed in Seminole County Court on Friday and released to the public Tuesday by Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara.

    The document, which NBC News first reported on May 16, offers some insight to Zimmerman’s injuries – and, perhaps, his state of mind in the aftermath of his encounter with Martin.

    NBC News

    George Zimmerman appears in court in Sanford, Florida, on Friday.

    Zimmerman had no slurred speech or dizziness as a result of his injuries, the report notes, but adds that Zimmerman admitted to “occasional nausea when thinking about the violence last night.”

    According to the report, it was recommended Zimmerman be evaluated by an ear, nose, and throat specialist, but he refused.  The report also says that Zimmerman had been told he needed medical clearance to return to work.

    Zimmerman, 28, shot Trayvon Martin dead during an altercation on Feb. 26th inside the gated community where Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch coordinator.

    Zimmerman, who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges, told  Sanford police he acted in self-defense after Martin punched him and repeatedly banged his head against the pavement.

    In court Friday, defense attorney Mark O’Mara pointed to Zimmerman’s wounds as evidence supporting a self-defense claim.

    The report released Tuesday makes note of two lacerations at the back of Zimmerman’s head – one 2 centimeters, and the other a half-centimeter – but adds that they don’t require stitches.

    Click here for more msnbc.com coverage of the Trayvon Martin case

    The report also says Zimmerman’s nose was “likely broken,” and that he complained of pain to his lower pelvis. 

    Zimmerman was given a prescription for the painkiller Lodine, according to the report.  It also shows that Zimmerman complained of “stress,” and had been prescribed an anti-anxiety drug, Temazepam, in January, and a drug for hyperactivity, Adderall, earlier in February.

    Also Tuesday, O’Mara released freeze frames of Trayvon Martin from a video captured by security cameras at 7-Eleven the night he was shot. 

    As is widely known, Martin visited the store to buy Skittles and an Arizona brand drink before walking to this father’s girlfriend’s house inside the Sanford gated community.

    Reached by telephone Tuesday, O’Mara said he intended to ensure the public understood how Trayvon looked on the night of his death.

    "These are the most recent pictures of the Trayvon Martin that intersected with George Zimmerman that night," O'Mara told NBC News.

    O’Mara added that the pictures show that Trayvon was taller than the store clerk, who O’Mara said is closer to Zimmerman's height.

    Seminole County circuit Judge Kenneth Lester is expected rule Thursday on Zimmerman’s bond after a review of the evidence submitted by O’Mara.

    Lester last month revoked Zimmerman's $150,000 bond after prosecutors said Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, had misled them about his finances at an April bond hearing.

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  • George Zimmerman bail hearing ends, ruling pending

    Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester is apparently weighing whether to grant bail to George Zimmerman after Friday's hearing. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

    By NBC's Jamie Novogrod and msnbc.com's Kari Huus

    A bail hearing in Sanford, Fla. for George Zimmerman concluded Friday after a heated exchange in which prosecutors argued for denying bond and the defense called on the judge to reinstate the defendant's $150,000 bail, which was revoked in early June.

    Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester was weighing the arguments and will issue his ruling by written order, a public information officer for the Seminole County court said. The spokesman did not offer the timing of that order.


    Zimmerman, charged with second-degree murder in the February shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, is seeking release on bail for the second time. His initial bail of $150,000 was revoked and he was rearrested on June 3, after prosecutors argued that Zimmerman, with the aid of his wife's testimony, had misled the court about their financial picture in the first bail hearing on April 20.

    Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, and asserted that he acted in self-defense.

    Earlier in the three-hour proceedings, Zimmerman's father, Robert John Zimmerman, took the stand briefly.

    After the elder Zimmerman was sworn in, defense attorney Mark O'Mara played a witness 911 tape that captured the sounds of screaming and a shot being fired during the fatal encounter between Trayvon and Zimmerman.

    Under questioning by O'Mara, the elder Zimmerman said he told state investigators that the voice of the man screaming "was absolutely George's."

    Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda then questioned Robert Zimmerman, asking how his son could make those screaming noises if, as George Zimmerman told police, Martin was covering his nose and mouth.

    Robert Zimmerman responded: "From the look of my son's injuries, Trayvon Martin's hands were not just on his nose and mouth."

    The court heard testimony from firefighter Kevin O'Rourke, of the Sanford Fire Department, who was called to the scene after the shooting. O'Rourke, who said he attended to Zimmerman, answered questions about the severity of the shooter's injuries.

    "I observed that he had blood on his face and the back of his head," O'Rourke said.

    He said that Zimmerman's nose was "obviously deformed," agreeing with defense attorney Don West that the injury was consistent with a broken nose. But under questioning by prosecutor de la Rionda, O'Rourke said he didn't diagnose Zimmerman with a broken nose.

    The court was also shown the last minutes of a video taken by Sanford police on Feb. 27 in which Zimmerman discusses wounds to his nose and head.

    Zimmerman appeared at the hearing wearing a grey suit, after O'Mara had successfully argued that showing up in prison garb and shackles could damage his client's chances of getting a fair trial.

    Martin's older brother Jahvaris Martin attended the hearing, along with Trayvon's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton. The family was escorted -- and sat with -- family attorney Benjamin Crump.

    Following the money
    At the start of the hearing, the first witness to testify, at the request of Zimmerman's defense attorney Mark O'Mara, was an accounting expert Adam MaGill, who detailed a series of money transfers conducted by the defendant's wife, using money contributed for his legal defense.

    MaGill, who was called by the defense, said he was asked by O'Mara to look at records of money transfers from Zimmerman's PayPal account to the official legal defense fund later established by O'Mara.

    The judge determined that Zimmerman and his wife Shellie misled the court about their finances his first bail hearing.

    Shellie Zimmerman testified at that April 20 proceeding that she did not know how much money was in a PayPal account set up for contributions to her husband's legal defense.

    In recorded telephone conversations from jail prior to that date, Zimmerman and his wife appear to discuss — in thinly disguised code — the amount of money in the account, and he instructs her to make a series of transfers to other accounts, the prosecution charges. (Read original report.)

    Special Prosecutor Angela Corey used the recordings to persuade the judge to revoke the original bond for George Zimmerman. Shellie Zimmerman was arrested on June 12, charged with perjury and released on $1,000 bond.

    She was not present at Friday's bond hearing for her husband.

    O’Mara told NBC on Thursday that if Zimmerman is released on bond, he would go back into hiding for his own safety. The shooting death of Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in February has stirred an emotional national debate about race, gun rights and "stand your ground" laws like the one in Florida that use a broad definition of self-defense.

    NBC's Lisa Lampkin contributed to this report.

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