Zimmerman lawyers to ask Florida to pay $300,000 in legal fees

George Zimmerman is preparing to ask the state of Florida to pick up the tab for up to $300,000 of legal expenses he rang up while on trial for the killing of Trayvon Martin, his attorney told the Orlando Sentinel.

Zimmerman's lawyer Mark O'Mara told reporters they believe they should be reimbursed for the expenses because the former neighborhood watch captain was found not guilty in the killing of the 17-year-old.

A six-member jury found Zimmerman, 29, not guilty of murder or manslaughter in the February 2012 shooting of the unarmed black teenager in a Sanford, Fla. neighborhood.

The racially charged trial ended with the July 13 verdict but a wave of demonstrations spread from Florida to California with protesters calling for a repeal of so-called "stand your ground laws".

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Zimmerman's legal team spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his defense including a 3-D animated video based on his account of the altercation, voice analysis of a 911 call and expert witnesses.

The final tally is expected to be between $200,000 and $300,000, said Shawn Vincent, a spokesman for Zimmerman's legal team.

Attorney fees for Zimmerman's defense team – that top $400 an hour – will not be included in the total.

The bill is on top of an estimated $902,000 that public agencies have already spent on the trial. 

O'Mara said Monday that a motion requesting that Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson authorize the payments "is in the works."

If his request is approved, the money would come from the state's Judicial Administrative Commission, which pays the non-lawyer legal expenses of defendants who can't afford it.

O'Mara told the Sentinel he is expecting the commission to challenge many of the items in the bill. 

"That's where the fight is," O'Mara said.