Shellie Zimmerman told “Good Morning America” that she has to “think about” whether or not they can move forward together after a nightmarish 18 months. She pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor perjury charge for lying about the couple’s finances during a bail hearing following her husband’s arrest for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012.
Shellie Zimmemrman was sentenced to a year’s probation and 100 hours of community service. Her husband did not attend the sentencing.
“She was scared,” her attorney, Kelly Sims, said after Wednesday’s hearing. “Her husband was locked up. She didn’t know what was going on. So, she stood by her man, like Tammy Wynette says.”
Shellie Zimmerman quipped, “I always want my husband’s support.”
Asked if she and George Zimmerman are still together, Shellie Zimmerman said, “I’m not going to answer that.”
She added that she “wants to have children and stay married.”
“With George?” the interviewer asked.
“That’s something I’m going to have to think about,” Shellie Zimmerman replied.
Turbulence was evident before the Trayvon Martin murder in a gated community in the northern suburb of Orlando, Fla. Shellie wasn’t at their home the night Zimmerman gunned down the unarmed teen because she’d had a fight with her husband.
“I was staying at my father’s house,” she said. “We had gotten into an argument the night before and I left.”
Shellie Zimmerman says that while she believes her husband’s version of the events leading to the shooting, “I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve gone or laid awake at night just thinking that I wish to God the circumstances had been different.”
She says the couple lived in hiding while awaiting his trial.
“We have pretty much lived like gypsies for the past year and a half. We’ve lived in a 20-foot trailer in the woods, scared every night that someone would go and find us and that it would be horrific,” she said.
Shellie Zimmerman admitted she did not tell the truth during the bail hearing.
“I can rationalize a lot of reasons for why I was misleading, but the truth is that I knew I was lying,” she said.
The wife said she will perform her community service with a Christian ministry.
“I’ve made mistakes and I want to own them right now,” Shellie Zimmerman said.
Shellie Zimmerman said she feels horrible about Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton’s loss. “I can’t even begin to understand the grief a parent experiences when they lose a child,” she said.
