(CNN) — A Florida judge today approved a motion to disqualify herself from the criminal case involving a neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, according to the court.
The defense team for George Zimmerman requested Monday that Seminole Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler, who was assigned to Zimmerman’s case, be removed after she revealed that her husband works with a CNN legal analyst.
Zimmerman’s defense attorney, Mark O’Mara, had said Monday he was confident the motion would be granted.
Recksiedler said in her decision that while the findings on each basis were “legally insufficient” for disqualification, “the cumulative effect of the events and the totality of the circumstances provides a legally sufficient basis for this court to grant the motion to disqualify,” a statement from the court said.
This week, Recksiedler is on temporary assignment from the Florida Supreme Court and is hearing oral arguments at the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach, Florida, court spokeswoman Michelle Kennedy said in a statement Tuesday.
Wednesday’s order directed the case to be returned to the chief judge for reassignment, who in turn ordered that Judge Kenneth Lester, Jr., be appointed to preside over the Zimmerman case.
Zimmerman, 28, fatally shot Martin in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, a killing he has said was in self-defense. The case has stirred civil rights activists nationwide and drawn intense publicity.
The city of Sanford has scheduled a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at a church to provide members of the public an opportunity to discuss the incident, according to the Sanford mayor’s office. Mayor Jeff Triplett will be among officials attending, the office said.
Recksiedler said last week that she would entertain motions to disqualify her from the trial because her husband is a law partner of Mark NeJame’s.
