Ex-convict given number used by Zimmerman

Orlando: A Florida man said on Friday he feared for his life after receiving a series of threatening calls on a new mobile phone he received with a number previously used by the killer of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.

Lawyer Robert Trimble said he was seeking unspecified damages for his client, former convict Junior Alexander Guy, from mobile-phone provider T-Mobile for the flood of enraged calls and death threats he received over the phone.

Trimble said Guy purchased the phone - the first he had ever owned - after being released from serving more than 19 years in prison for drug trafficking.

They said the phone was activated by T-Mobile with the same number assigned until recently to George Zimmerman, a neighbourhood-watch volunteer charged with murdering Trayvon Martin in the Florida town of Sanford in February, a case that fetched widespread media attention.

The number had been widely disseminated online in police 911 transcripts of a call Zimmerman made to report a suspicious teenager in his gated neighbourhood on February 26. Zimmerman has been the target of numerous death threats.

Guy said he feared for his life and Trimble said he was right to do so.

“His life absolutely was in danger,” the lawyer said.

Guy, who lives in Orlando near Sanford, said he was unaware of the murder case that had grabbed the national media spotlight until he started getting bombarded with calls for Zimmerman.

“Could I be that bad lucky?” he later asked himself.

Guy added that at one point he moved in with his elderly mother because of the calls on the mobile phone, which has since been deactivated.

T-Mobile spokesman Glen Zaccara said the firm followed all appropriate rules and procedures for how to deal with previously used phone numbers, including keeping the number out of circulation for 60 days.

Zimmerman’s old number has since been taken permanently out of circulation, he said.

Guy was provided a credit for charges to his account and T-Mobile waived his early termination fee, T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, said in a statement.