• The state can use other words the defense sought to preclude, including vigilante and wannabe cop. The judge said those words would be allowed in closing so she doesn't see any reason not to allow them in opening arguments.

• The state agreed that GZ was already out of the car when the police call taker asked if he was following the suspicious person and said "We don't need you to do that." So there will be no reference to Zimmerman getting out of the car in disregard of what the call taker said.

Zimmerman never mentioned either Martin's race or clothing until asked by the call-taker Sean Noffke. From the Transcript of George Zimmerman's call to the non-emergency line of the Sanford Police Dept.

Noffke: Sanford police department. This line is being recorded, this is Sean.
GZ: Hey, we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood and there’s a real suspicious guy. Uh, it’s Retreat View Circle. Um, the best address I can give you is one-eleven Retreat View Circle. This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs, or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.
Noffke: Okay, and this guy, is he white, black or Hispanic?
GZ: He looks black.
Noffke: Did you see what he was wearing?
GZ: Yeah, mm, a dark hoodie, like a gray hoodie and either jeans or sweat pants and white tennis shoes. (my emphasis.)

The judge also ruled that a former professor of Zimmerman's, Gordon Pleasants, can testify by video because he's out of town for the summer. The state said his testimony will be short. Pleasants is a former career law enforcement officer. While we don't know the subject the state wants to question him about, he has previously been critical of the Zimmerman case. Here is a comment Pleasants left on a site named Florida Voices, asking whether Florida should abolish the death penalty, that references Zimmerman:

Over the past decades we have seen hundreds of convicted persons, including those on death row, being freed based on newly discovered evidence or by misconduct by the police and/or prosecution. Part of the reason for this is the “win at all costs” attitude our judicial system has become. It isn’t always about the truth, as it is supposed to be, but in the politics (as in the Zimmerman case), the reputation and glory of getting a conviction or acquittal, and many times the honest quest to represent the victim and convict the person everyone “knows” is guilty of the crime he or she is accused of committing. (my emphasis.)

O'Mara will depose him, do his research on the professor, and later in the day the professor's trial testimony will be taken by video.

There will be 220 witnesses at trial.

There was an issue as to the admissibility of res gestae statements which the defense says are not covered by the judge's previous order banning self-serving hearsay. The court in its order didn't identify specific statements she deemed to be self-serving hearsay. The statements pertain to those Zimmerman made at the scene to others. Florida's hearsay rule divides "res gestae" into two parts:

90.803 Hearsay exceptions; availability of declarant immaterial.—The provision of s. 90.802 to the contrary notwithstanding, the following are not inadmissible as evidence, even though the declarant is available as a witness:

(1) SPONTANEOUS STATEMENT.—A spontaneous statement describing or explaining an event or condition made while the declarant was perceiving the event or condition, or immediately thereafter, except when such statement is made under circumstances that indicate its lack of trustworthiness.

(2) EXCITED UTTERANCE.—A statement or excited utterance relating to a startling event or condition made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event or condition.

The state believes all of Zimmerman's statements at the scene are self-serving hearsay (except the ones they want to admit) while the defense says some are res gestae.

Given the number of things the court has said will be decided at trial when one of the parties seek to introduce something, it's likely there will be a lot of sidebars with argument during this trial during which jurors and TV viewers will be left twiddling their thumbs.