By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel –
ORLANDO, Fla. — Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson, a 13-year veteran of the bench in Sanford, Fla., was officially assigned Thursday the George Zimmerman second-degree murder case, one of the most watched in the country.
The 58-year-old Nelson has a reputation as a hard-working, ambitious judge who hands down tough sentences.
Not long ago she sentenced a robbery suspect to 27 years in prison after he’d rejected a 20-year plea deal offered by a prosecutor.
“You don’t mess around with her,” said Lake Mary, Fla., attorney Isadore Hyde Jr.
She is not shy about handing out very long prison terms, he said. “I think her sense of justice, civility is such that she’s going to make sure that this place, Seminole County, is not Mogadishu,” he said.
Nelson was appointed to the bench in 1999 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush. In private practice, her specialty was civil litigation, but she’s spent several years handling felony trials.
None has been as prominent as the case assigned her Thursday, Florida v. George Zimmerman.
On Wednesday, the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Daytona Beach ordered Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. to step aside, saying comments he included in a $1 million bond order were enough to make a reasonable person believe he’d be unfair to Zimmerman.
Lester wrote that Zimmerman was a manipulator who was trying to outsmart the criminal justice system by claiming to be poor while hiding $130,000 and an extra passport.
Nelson now inherits one of the most prominent civil rights criminal cases in the country.
Zimmerman, 28, of Sanford, is accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, on a Sanford sidewalk Feb. 26.
The defendant says he acted in self-defense, that the Miami Gardens teenager attacked him, climbed on top of him and began pounding his head on the concrete.
Prosecutors allege that Zimmerman is guilty of profiling, of spotting Trayvon as he walked through the neighborhood, assuming the teenager was about to commit a crime, pursuing and murdering him.
Nelson will now be the judge who must decide whether Zimmerman is entitled to immunity under Florida’s much-debated “stand your ground” law, which allows anyone with a reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily injury to use deadly force against an attacker.
Defense attorney Mark O’Mara has said he would likely schedule that hearing next year.
“It will take a tremendous amount of judicial courage at this point to throw the case out following an immunity hearing,” said Winter Park criminal defense attorney David Faulkner. “My guess is that any judge, Judge Nelson or otherwise, is going to let a jury decide this issue for the benefit of the public.”
Bill Sheaffer, legal analyst for WFTV-TV, described Nelson as “very hard working and smart” but also pro-state.
“She’s conservative,” he said. “I’m not so sure the defense has done themselves much good by Lester stepping aside and Nelson stepping in.”
