Shellie Zimmerman pleads guilty to perjury, discusses husband George Zimmerman

In an interview with ABC, George Zimmerman's wife Shellie acknowledged difficulties in her relationship with her husband, who was acquitted in July in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin after a highly public trial.

Shellie Zimmerman pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of perjury. During her husband's bail hearing, she said that the couple had limited funds, although they had already raised $135,000 in donations online for George Zimmerman's legal expenses. His wife acknowledged misleading the court:

After the plea, Shellie Zimmerman was sentenced to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service, which she told ABC she intends to serve in a Christian ministry.

In the interview with ABC’s Christi O’Connor, Zimmerman said that she was not at home the night last year that her husband shot and killed Martin in what he would later claim was an act of self-defense. “I was staying at my father’s house,” she said. She and her husband “had gotten into an argument the night before, and I left.”

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Zimmerman also described her fear that she and her husband would be retaliated against for his action. “We have been pretty much gypsies for the last year and a half. We lived in a 20-foot trailer in the woods,” she said, “scared every night that someone was going to find us and that it would be horrific.”

Their circumstances added to the tension in their relationship. “I want to have children, and stay married,” Shellie Zimmerman said. When ABC’s O’Connor asked, “With George?” she replied, “That’s something that I’m going to have to think about.”

Shellie Zimmerman also said that she did not agree with her husband's recent decision to visit the manufacturer of the weapon he used to shoot Martin. Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart has also criticized the visit:

When asked by O’Connor whether she thought George Zimmerman could have intentionally killed Martin because Martin was black, Shellie Zimmerman said, “That’s just not his way.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article attributed a statement by Shellie Zimmerman in the final paragraph to the wrong person. This version has been corrected.

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