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Defense counsel: 'This is a sad case,' adding the accused is 'no murderer'

SANFORD -- The Zimmerman trial got underway this morning at 9:01 with a pleasant "good morning" from the judge.

The pleasantries ended there in one of the most anticipated high profile trials since O.J. Simpson, with the prosecutor using the accused murder George Zimmerman's profanity-laced statement in a 9-1-1 call before pulling the trigger:  (Expletive punks) -- these (expletives) always get away."

Deputy returned fire in defensive mode, but gunman wasn't struck and instead died from self-inflicted shotgun blast

Headline Surfer locator / After keeping deputies and a SWAT team at bay for several hours in the 2700 block of Ranch Road near Lake Helen, a man who had been fighting with his girlfriend while drinking, turned a shotgun on himself and fired one round. The man, whose name has not yet been released, was pronounced dead at 3:08 a.m. at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City after being rushed into the ER a little more than an hour earlier. He had been drinking and got into a fight with his girlfriend who suffered minor injuries.

LAKE HELEN -- An armed man who threatened his girlfriend Monday night and then kept responding Volusia County Sheriff's deputies at bay for more than four hours has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an agency spokesman said.

DELAND -- The Volusia County Grand Jury returned an Indictment earlier today against against Brian McLane that accuses him of first-degree murder, a capital felony, in relation to the death of his Edgewater roommate on June 3.

The defendant and the victim, 71-year-old Richard Carton, were roommates in a mobile home. The victim was found dead of asphyxiation and/or suffocation.

McLane's indictment paves the way for the office of State Attorney R.J. Larizza to consider whether it will seek the death penalty at trial. LaRizza's office does not comment until a decision has beenmade inhouse whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Community College Week, one of the nation’s leading publications focusing on higher education institutions that offer two-year associate degrees, has named Daytona State College among its list of Top 100 Associate Degree Producers.

Daytona State ranked 35th nationally in awarding the two-year associate degree, among some 5,000 public and private institutions. In addition, the college ranked 9th in the awarding of associate of science degrees in communication technologies, 19th in liberal arts and science degree awards, 45th in associate degree in nursing graduates, and 77th in the awarding of one-year college and vocational credit certificates.

Photos for Headline Surfer / The NSB Sand Art Festival and Seaside Fiesta  are just two of the myriad New Smyrna beachweeks activities that have proven successful as a tourism interest.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Whether it's local sculptor Rich Varano's beautiful sand castle, teens riding the surf or huge crowds jamming Flagler Avenue for a fiesta, the inaugural New Smyrna beachweeks has proven to be a monumental success. All that's needed to complete the tourism-driven event is fireworks and those are coming July 4th, in Edgewater, and for the first time in a longtime, New Smyrna Beach.

Headline Surfer video and photos / Though drug-sniffing dog Buddy has retired due to health issues, he still gets to see his former human partner Bruce Holcomb at home. 

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- New Smyrna Beach k9 cop Buddy took a bite out of crime many times over in his four years of service with canine partner Bruce Holcomb. 

But Buddy had to be retired last month and soon Holcomb will get a new four-legged partner.

Headline Surfer photos by Henry Frederick / The Intracoastal Waterway at Riverside Park and the Brannon Center in scenic New Smyrna Beach is the setting for Fishstock 2013.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Here's a look back at one of the more popular New Smyrna Beachweeks events, Fishstock.

Held May 23-26, it was the first of 10 New Smyrna Beachweeks events that culminates with fireworks shows on July 4 in New Smyrna Beach from the same locale and in Edgewater.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Fifteen minutes after the City of Edgewater lights up the night sky on the Fourth of July with a spectacular fireworks show, the city of New Smyrna Beach will do the same. The fireworks shows in both cities will conclude the Souhtheast Volusia Advertising Authority's inaugual New Smyrna beachweeks.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Having failed during his first term to get Congress to approve his insidious cap and trade bill, which would have “skyrocketed” the cost of electricity and done irreparable damage to the US economy, Barack Obama is trying again, as we always knew he would. This time, knowing that he does not have to face the voters again, he is flouting the Constitution (no surprise there), end running Congress and misusing his executive authority to order the Environmental Protection Agency to falsely extend the authority of the Clean Air Act to draft and impose severe limitations on the amount of carbon dioxide that power plants may emit.