Awkward: Judge Walks Out on Zimmerman Defense Lawyer During Heated Late-Night Session

As the George Zimmerman trial nears its conclusion, it's obvious that all those involved are getting tired. And that means tempers are on edge. Take, for example, what happened late Tuesday night during a contentious late-night session: Chief Judge Debra Nelson walked out on attorney Don West while he was still trying to make his case.

The session lasted until just minutes before 10pm ET, and West and the defense team were trying to make the case that text messages and a Facebook post by Trayvon Martin should be let into evidence. The team was also accusing the prosecution of withholding that evidence, "playing games," and throwing off the defense by forcing them to spend extra time to try and get the evidence from the prosecution.

"It's simply unfair for Mr. Zimmerman to not be able to put on his defense because of the state's tactics," and agitated West said.

But after wrapping up his presentation, the prosecution asked West to apologize for that insinuation. Nelson decided she wasn't having any of that and decided to postpone her ruling for Wednesday. That took the air out of West, who continued trying to make his case that the team was tired and needed a quicker ruling.

That sparked a heated back-and-forth between the defense and Nelson.

"I'm not physically able to keep up this pace much longer," West eventually pleaded. "It's 10 o'clock at night. We started this morning. We've had full days every day. Weekends. Depositions at night."

But it didn't sway Nelson, who turned her back to West and continued walking out.

Watch it all unfold below:

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Related Contributions:

• George Zimmerman and the Court of Public Opinion

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