Life after the trial
Domestic violence arrests
In 2013, Zimmerman's estranged wife called 911 to report that Zimmerman had assaulted her father and was threatening her with a gun. Zimmerman was not charged over the incident.
[41] In November of that same year, Zimmerman was charged with felony aggravated assault after he allegedly pointed a shotgun at his girlfriend during a domestic violence incident. The case was later dropped.
[42] In January 2015, Zimmerman was again charged with domestic assault after allegedly throwing a wine bottle at a different girlfriend. Again the charges were later dropped.
[43][44]
Shooting by Matthew Apperson
On September 9, 2014, Zimmerman was named by police in a road rage incident in which another driver, later named by police as Matthew Apperson, claimed that Zimmerman followed and threatened him.
[45][46] Zimmerman later claimed in testimony that Apperson approached him over a rear tire leaking air, which Zimmerman was already aware of. He had explained this to Apperson before Apperson asked if Zimmerman knew he was "wrong for killing that little black boy". Zimmerman lost Apperson after the two stopped at a gas station and Zimmerman drove off.
[47]
On May 11, 2015, Apperson shot at Zimmerman while the two were driving in separate cars on a street in Lake Mary. Zimmerman was grazed by glass and metal shards when the bullet broke through his passenger-side window and was stopped by the metal window frame, causing minor facial injuries from flying glass and debris. Zimmerman flagged down a police officer and was taken to the hospital.
[48][49][50] Apperson maintained that Zimmerman was the aggressor and that Apperson acted in
self-defense.
[51][52] Zimmerman also had a gun with him at the time of the incident, but Zimmerman's attorney said that "George absolutely denies having shown it, waved, displayed, pointed it." A Lake Mary police spokesperson stated that "the investigation has proven that George Zimmerman was not the shooter."
[51]
On May 15, 2015, Apperson was jailed in Sanford, Florida with a bond of $35,000.
[53] While free on bond, Apperson was accused, convicted and jailed for disorderly conduct, which revoked his bond.
[54] Lake Mary PD "learned that Apperson has exhibited unusual behaviors in which he had recently been admitted to a mental institution. It appears that Apperson has a fixation on Zimmerman and has displayed some signs of paranoia, anxiety, and bipolar disorder."
[55]
On September 22, 2015, a judge ruled Apperson would stand trial for second-degree attempted murder along with one count of aggravated assault and one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle.
[47][54][56] Apperson was convicted of attempted murder and aggravated assault with a firearm on September 16, 2016.
[57] On October 17, 2016, Apperson was sentenced to 20 years in prison on the charge of attempted 2nd-degree murder. He was also given a 15-year concurrent sentence for aggravated assault stemming from the same incident.
[58][59]
Paintings

Painting of an American flag by Zimmerman
In December 2013, Zimmerman began selling paintings he had made. His first painting, of an American flag, sold for $100,099.99 on eBay in late December.
[60]
On the auction page for the painting, Zimmerman wrote:
Everyone has been asking what I have been doing with myself. I found a creative way to express myself, my emotions, and the symbols that represent my experiences. My art work allows me to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet, and allows me to remain indoors :-) I hope you enjoy owning this piece as much as I enjoyed creating it. Your friend, George Zimmerman.
[60]
It was later reported that the American flag painting was copied without attribution from a stock image taken from
Shutterstock.
[61]
In January 2014, the
Associated Press and a Jacksonville, Florida photographer Rick Wilson demanded that Zimmerman halt the sale of one of his paintings because the news agency asserted it directly copied a photo owned by the AP. The photo and painting identically show Jacksonville-based prosecutor Angela Corey (whose office prosecuted Zimmerman for the shooting death of Martin) holding her thumb and fingers together. Zimmerman apparently made up the quote that he added to the painting: "I have this much respect for the American judicial system." The controversy was similar to that arising from the use of an AP photo by
Shepard Fairey in his composition of the
Barack Obama "Hope" poster.
[62] Led by attorney
John Michael Phillips, the cease and desist halted the sale of this and other paintings by Zimmerman.
In August 2015, Zimmerman began selling a limited number of prints of a painting of the
Confederate battle flag in conjunction with gun seller Andy Hallinan of Florida Gun Supply, in
Inverness, Florida. Hallinan is known for saying that Muslims were not welcome at his store, and that it was "Muslim free". Michael Walsh of
Yahoo! News observed, "Zimmerman's latest painting brings together three highly controversial topics with which the nation is dealing: the deaths of young black men, the Confederate battle flag and discrimination against American Muslims."
[63]
Andrew Russeth of the
New York Observer appraised Zimmerman's work as likened to
paint by number.
[60] Jason Edward, a contributing editor at
Art+Auction, referred to the paintings as "very primitive, the sort of thing an art critic wouldn't look at twice."
[60] Christian Viveros-Fauné, an art critic for the
Village Voice, has referred to Zimmerman's artistic endeavors as constituting "
murderabilia".
[60]
Twitter scandals
In late August 2015, controversy centering on Zimmerman arose when his
Twitter profile picture of a
Confederate flag "backed by an American flag" (in his words) became better-known. Frequently criticized posts of his from August included one in which Zimmerman called Obama an "ignorant baboon";
[64]one in which he posted an image of Vester Lee Flanagan, an African-American former news reporter who
shot and killed two ex-coworkers during a live broadcast, and wrote, "If Obama had a son..."; and another in which Zimmerman typed, in response to people who wanted him killed, that the United States understands "how it ended for the last moron that hit me" (in reference to
Trayvon Martin).
[65]
In September 2015, Zimmerman retweeted a photo of Martin's slain body posted by another Twitter user, who had the caption: "Z-Man is a one man army". Several days later, Zimmerman posted a letter saying that the photo in the original tweet was marked as "sensitive" and was blocked, so he retweeted it because of the text message without seeing the photo.
[66][67]
In December 2015, Zimmerman tweeted two photos of a topless woman he claimed was his ex-girlfriend, and accused her of cheating and of the theft of his firearm and money. He included her phone number and e-mail address on his tweet. Less than two hours later, Zimmerman's
Twitter account was suspended by its administration, according to their policy against posting another person's private and confidential information, including e-mail addresses, phone numbers and familiar photos.
[68][69] Zimmerman's tweet included a statement against Muslims.
[70]
Gun sale
On May 11, 2016, Zimmerman posted what was planned to be the auction of the firearm he used to shoot Martin. The post, in which Zimmerman wrote that the gun was "an American Firearm icon", attracted controversy. Zimmerman subsequently explained that the Justice Department had recently returned the weapon to him. He said that he had the right as owner to sell it.
[71] Zimmerman said the proceeds of the weapon would go to combating the violence against police officers by members of the
Black Lives Matter movement as well as "ensure the demise of
Angela Corey's persecution career and
Hillary Clinton's anti-firearm rhetoric".
[72] After selling the weapon, Zimmerman said that he had chosen to sell it directly as a result of Clinton "stumping around for a false campaign for the Trayvon Martin Foundation" and accused her of lying about the events of the shooting.
[73][74]
Though the auction was set to take place May 12, the weapon listing was removed before the auction was scheduled to begin.
[71] The original auction site, gunbroker.com, released a statement stating that they wanted no part in the listing or any of the publicity related to it. Zimmerman reposted the firearm on another site, United Gun Group. Within minutes, the site went down due to the intense traffic prompted by the listing.
[75] As bidding proceeded, purported bidders began using fake names such as "
Donald Trump" and "
Tamir Rice" to place large bids on the weapon, which were interpreted as a joke.
[76] Martin Shkreli expressed genuine interest so that he could either destroy the firearm or place it in a museum.
[77] Moderators on the bidding sites caught additional scam actions.
[78] On May 20, Zimmerman said he had accepted a bid of $250,000 for the weapon.
[79][80]