George Zimmerman stands alone at the defense table moments after the jury left the courtroom to deliberate during his trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Florida July 12, 2013. 
 
 NEW YORK After his acquittal on murder charges for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman may go to law school to help people wrongly accused of crimes like himself, close friends told Reuters on Sunday. 
 
 The 29-year old was found not guilty late Saturday for shooting the unarmed black teenager in a case that sparked a national debate on race and gun laws. One of his first calls was to defense witness John Donnelly and his wife Leanne Benjamin. 
 
 They got to know Zimmerman in 2004 when he and a black friend opened up an insurance office in a Florida building where Benjamin worked. They grew close and the couple spent time with him during the trial. 
 
 Over dinner with Zimmerman recently, Benjamin said he told them he would like to go to law school. 
 
 "I'd like to help other people like me," she quoted him as telling them. 
 
 Zimmerman, an insurance investigator, attended community college and was a credit shy of an associate's degree in criminal justice but was kicked out of school because he posed a danger to the campus, according to family sources. 
 
 "Everybody said he was a cop-wannabe but he's interested in law," Benjamin said. "He sees it as a potential path forward to help other people like himself." 
 
 Zimmerman's defense attorney Mark O'Mara agreed. 
 
 "He wanted to be a cop for awhile, but he's talked about going to law school," O'Mara told Reuters on Sunday. 
 
 "He has a real interest in the law and ... prosecuting appropriately - not like what he got - is something he's very interested in. I will not be surprised if he ends up in criminal law," O'Mara said. "His dad was a judge, and he wants to be a prosecutor or a lawyer." 
 
 Experience shows that re-building life after a major trial may prove difficult, even for those acquitted of headline-making crimes. 
 
 Casey Anthony, the young Orlando mother acquitted in 2011 of killing her 3-year-old daughter Caylee, remains hidden and unemployed while her lawyers fight civil lawsuits seeking monetary damages from her. 
 
 Former NFL star O.J. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of killing his wife and an acquaintance, but his life fell apart. He lost a $33 million wrongful death civil suit in 1997, moved to Florida where he was arrested and eventually sent to prison in 2008 for up to 33 years for robbery and kidnapping. 
 
 THREATS TO HIS LIFE 
 
 Even O'Mara and Zimmerman's brother, Robert, admitted his life would never be the same after the trial, which has forced him to go out in disguise and wear bullet proof vests because of threats to his life. 
 
 Donnelly told Reuters that Zimmerman was hurt very deeply by prosecutors' portrayals of him as a racist vigilante who targeted and pursued Martin simply because he was black. 
 
 "The person they are talking about is somebody completely different," Donnelly quoted Zimmerman as telling him recently. "Sometimes I have to go look at a mirror. They are talking about a totally different human being. They are talking about a racist. I'm not a racist." 
 
 He said Zimmerman was anything but. 
 
 "He's been mentoring young black kids for years, he launched a campaign to help a homeless black man who was beaten up by a white kid, and he still just can't believe all the things that have been said about him in the media." 
 
 Other friends of Zimmerman who spoke exclusively to Reuters remain angry at what he has endured since the shooting. 
 
 "I knew the man was innocent the whole time,'' said Jorge Rodriguez. "He called me yesterday to thank me ... for believing in him. He was just so relieved." 
 
 Rodriguez is deeply frustrated by civil rights activists like Al Sharpton, who he feels pressured prosecutors into charging Zimmerman with a crime he didn't commit. 
 
 "Everybody asked for justice, and they got it," Rodriguez said. "Everybody asked for George to be arrested, and they got it. Everybody asked for George to be tried, and they got it. Everybody asked for a fair trial, and they got it." 
 
 He dismissed criticism of the prosecution, the six female jurors and calls by civil rights groups for a federal civil rights investigation. The Martin family is also considering a wrongful death civil suit. 
 
 "Now can't we leave George Zimmerman alone?", Rodriguez said. "It was nothing about racism. It was about the community being robbed and broken into, and one man stood up. The state should be giving this man an award, and instead they took him to trial." 
 
 (Additional reporting by Barbara Liston in Sanford; Editing by Dina Kyriakidou, Bernard Orr) ||||| Pool / Reuters George Zimmerman arrives with his lead counsel, Mark O'Mara, left, for a hearing in Seminole Circuit Court in Sanford, Fla. 
 
 George Zimmerman won’t seek criminal immunity next month under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law in the shooting death of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin and instead will likely let a jury decide his fate. 
 
 Meanwhile, his defense team has revealed the ordeal has led Zimmerman to pack on more than 100 pounds. 
 
 In court on Tuesday, defense attorney Mark O’Mara waived his right to use court time set aside for an immunity hearing, NBC station WESH reported. In that hearing a judge could have quickly cleared Zimmerman of any criminal liability under Florida law that allows lethal force for personal protection. 
 
 Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer of white and Hispanic descent, has maintained he shot Martin on Feb. 26, 2012 in self-defense after Martin attacked him. He has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge. 
 
 O’Mara said outside Seminole County Courthouse on Tuesday that Zimmerman believes it would be a better outcome to be found not guilty of murdering Martin, rather than being granted immunity, WESH reported. 
 
 “George wants a jury of his peers to decide the case,” O’Mara said. “It’s going to be, I think, a more accepted result for everyone who has to result that he gets an acquittal at trial even more so than immunity hearing by a judge.” 
 
 Zimmerman has not been seen in public since he was released on bail last July. 
 
 “George is doing as well as can be expected,” Sean Vincent, spokesman for Zimmerman’s defense team, told NBC News. “He is in hiding and has gained 105 pounds,” putting him in the “ballpark” of 300 pounds. “Everyone deals with stress differently,” Vincent said. 
 
 Vincent said that releasing the court dates doesn’t waive any rights Zimmerman has to have an immunity hearing, and indeed the defense may raise “Stand Your Ground” claims at trial. In addition, Zimmerman could seek immunity from civil claims at a later date. 
 
 “By entertaining the option of not having an immunity hearing before trial, George preserves the option of having a civil immunity hearing should he need it in the future,” Vincent said. 
 
 Bernie de la Rionda, lead prosecutor, said he was "bewildered" by O'Mara's move but didn't elaborate. 
 
 The Zimmerman case ignited an emotional debate over race and gun rights in the weeks after Martin's death. Local police initially did not charge Zimmerman with any crime, which ignited protests. He was later charged by special state prosecutor Angela Corey following an investigation. 
 
 Last week, a number of demonstration and memorials took place to mark the anniversary of Martin’s death. 
 
 Also on Tuesday, the prosecution revealed that one of their witnesses, identified as Martin's girlfriend, or Witness 8, did not tell the truth when she said she was in the hospital on the day of Martin's funeral because of trauma. 
 
 The defense wanted medical records from the hospital — but the state admitted no such records existed because the woman was never at the hospital that day. 
 
 She is a key witness because she said was on the phone with Martin on the night of his death and provided key details about what took place. 
 
 A trial is scheduled to begin on June 10. 
 
 Lisa Lampkin contributed to this story 
 
 
 
 Editor's note: George Zimmerman has sued NBCUniversal for defamation, and the company has strongly denied his allegations.
– Now that George Zimmerman has been acquitted, he can have back the pistol he used to kill Trayvon Martin—and he needs it "even more" than before, his lawyer tells ABC. Defense attorney Mark O'Mara says his client has no regrets about carrying a gun the night he killed the unarmed teenager, and he plans to go armed again because "there's even more reason now, isn't there? There are a lot of people out there who really hate him, even though they shouldn't." Zimmerman might not be able to get a concealed carry permit, but he will be able to keep his gun unless he is convicted of a federal felony, a University of Florida law professor tells NBC. Zimmerman faces a potential federal prosecution as well as possible civil lawsuits, though O'Mara says he would "welcome" the latter. The lawyer says Zimmerman might now move out of Florida—though he will probably struggle to find work anywhere in the country. "I don't think he can work. I don't think anyone can hire him," he says of Zimmerman, who had worked as an insurance investigator. "George is a pariah." Reuters adds that O'Mara, along with some of Zimmerman's friends, say Zimmerman is now interested in attending law school in order to "help other people like me."