In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, George Zimmerman’s attorneys — Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner — said they have lost contact with their client since Sunday afternoon and have withdrawn from the case.
Sonner said that last contact was via text message.
Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed Trayvon Martin Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., contacted state attorney Angela Corey and Fox News host Sean Hannity on his own without their guidance, Uhrig said. According to Uhrig, Zimmerman said, “I don’t have any attorneys, they’re just my legal advisers.”
The conversation with Hannity happened today, Uhrig said, and was off the record. (RELATED: Full coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting)
Uhrig said he was puzzled by how Zimmerman thinks there’s a difference between an “attorney” and a “legal adviser.”
“I’m not sure what the distinction is, but in his mind there’s a distinction,” Uhrig said.
Sonner said he has not met with Zimmerman “face to face” and that he does not plan to reveal Zimmerman’s location. Sonner also said he “stands by” everything he’s said about the case to this point, including how he thinks Zimmerman was acting in “self-defense” and that this case was not a “racial issue.”
“It’s not so much that we are resigning,” Sonner said. “It’s that we cannot continue to represent him until he comes forward.”
“He has gone on his own,” he added. “I don’t know what he’s doing or who he’s talking to. I cannot represent a client who doesn’t stay in contact with me.”
“I know his phone works, but he’s not returning my text messages or my calls,” Sonner said.
Sonner said that Zimmerman is still in the United States and that he doesn’t expect him to “flee the country.”
Uhrig added that Zimmerman is still living in fear. “George can’t go out and buy a Diet Coke,” he said. “There’s a bounty on his head.”
Uhrig and Sonner said that Zimmerman set up a new website on his own — therealGeorgeZimmerman.com — even though they were planning to launch a website for him on their own. The attorneys had planned to direct national media to their site and said they were shocked by the website Zimmerman launched.
“Him setting up his own web site is fine,” Sonner said. “I wish he would have told me.”