Zimmerman Neighbor: I Heard Cry

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One of the prosecution's most important witnesses in the Trayvon Martin murder case will face a second round of pointed defense questioning Thursday about what she heard while on the phone with the teen right before he was killed.

Rachel Jeantel testified Wednesday that her friend's last words were "Get off! Get off!" before the phone went silent.

Several times during her testimony Wednesday afternoon, prosecutors, the court secretary and defense attorneys for George Zimmerman, who fatally shot the teen, asked the soft-spoken Jeantel to speak louder and repeat answers. The 19-year-old high schooler, dressed all in black, edged closer and closer to the microphone to try to make herself understood.

Jeantel's testimony is considered important to the state's case because she was the last person to talk to Martin before his encounter with Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012. She bolsters prosecutors' contention that Zimmerman, charged with second-degree murder, was a vigilante and the aggressor in his confrontation with the unarmed Martin that night and did not act in self-defense as he is contending in his defense.

When questioned by prosecutors, primarily assistant state attorney Bernie de la Rionda, Jeantel gave many one-word answers, except when specifically describing what the 17-year-old Martin had told her on the phone. As the cross examination turned to defense attorney Don West, Jeantel became visibly more flustered, sometimes crying and giving curt answers, even becoming argumentative.

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Jeantel recounted to jurors how Martin told her he was being followed by a man, presumably Zimmerman, as he walked through the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome complex on his way back from a convenience store to the home of his father's fiancee.

She testified that Martin described the man following him as "a creepy-ass cracker" and he thought he had evaded him. But she said a short time later Martin said the man was still behind him and she told him to run.

Martin said Zimmerman was behind him and she heard Martin ask: "What are you following me for?"

She then heard what sounded like Martin's phone earpiece drop into what sounded like wet grass and she heard him say, "Get off! Get off!" The phone then went dead, she said.

Later, she bristled and teared up when West asked her why she didn't attend Martin's funeral and about lying about her age. She initially told Martin's parents she was a minor when she was 18. She said she didn't want to get involved in the case.

The exchanges also turned testy, including one moment when she urged West to move on to his next question: "You can go. You can go." And she gave him what seemed like a dirty look as he walked away after he had approached her on the stand to challenge her on differences between an initial interview she gave to Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump, and a later deposition with the defense. Jeantel explained it by saying she "rushed" the interview with Crump because she didn't feel comfortable doing it.

And when the judge asked if both sides wanted to break for the day, prosecutors said they'd like to continue, believing the testimony could take another two hours, to which Jeantel reacted with surprise, repeating, "Two hours?" Instead, the judge decided to continue the cross examination Thursday, carefully instructing Jeantel to return at 9 a.m. and not discuss her testimony with anyone.