out front tonight breaking news. the lawyers for george zimmerman, the man who shot and killed trayvon martin say they are no longer communicating with their client and in a very bazaar and strange and might i add surprising news conference this afternoon the lawyers say they are dropping george zimmerman. >> i still believe that he was acting in self defense that night. nothing i have said about him or this case has changed in any way. i just can't proceed to represent a client who doesn't stay in contact with me. >> say the last time they spoke to the volunteer neighborhood watchman was this past sunday and he is no longer answering their calls. as of 1:30 eastern today george zimmerman posted a statement that claims his innocence and seeks donations to his defense fund. he is writing i am attempt s to respond to each and everyone of my supporters personally. the support has been overwhelming in volume and strength. he goes on. i thank you all and ask that you permit the time to respond to each one of you personally. once again, thank you. george zimmerman hot and killed 17-year-old trayvon martin on february 26th and claims it was in self defense. martin's family says he racially profiled their son and demands his arrest. i want to bring in martin and calen to talk about this shocking, surprising, bazaar news conference held on behalf of the two attorneys. have you ever in your career paul, heard of this happening? they say they haven't been in contact with their client so done. >> it is bazaar. i have heard of it happening. usually the lawyer says there is a missing witness in the case, mr. green. the lawyer hasn't been paid. i'm betting on this case because he started a website and raising money he has never met with these lawyers i don't think they are being paid and as a result of that they are dropping out of the case waiting for the big gun to come in to represent zimmerman. i think you'll see somebody well known probably step into the case and assume representation at some point in the very, very near future. that's what it is looking like to me. >> when i was in orlando i talked to different attorneys and they said that major lawyers down there have been waiting and salivating at the opportunity. >> they are salivating. >> absolutely. >> in this case he has never physically met with these lawyers. >> i believe when they said today the last time their communication with george zimmerman was sunday that might have been via text message. >> coming to the studio i called his friend. he hasn't talked to george in two weeks. he said i feel like he is wrongly being advised and he is making bad decisions. he said i am comfortable in saying that the authorities know where he is at if they need to get to him and talked about the flight risk. said the family is concerned. joe said he doesn't have the funds to be a flight risk but went on to make it clear that i sent him a text today saying you are making bad decisions and said it is not going to work in your faver. joe said one of the reasons he hasn't been on television is he doesn't want to rehash the same thing and said i can't represent him as a friend if he won't talk to me. he talked to his father a week ago and hasn't talked to george zimmerman in two weeks. >> sent the text. didn't get anything? >> not gotten a response from him. he hasn't talked to him or returned a text in two weeks. >> you are saying that potentially big gun attorneys are about to take over the case. in the meantime we are talking about george zimmerman as a former client of the gentleman. was it unethical for them to come forward and hold this news conference about someone they had been representing potentially speaking in a way that wouldn't perhaps put their client in a nice light? >> i have a real problem with the attorneys doing this and i think they may have an ethical problem. look at the tenor of the price conference. why are they holding a press conference to say we are not representing him? when you come away it sounds like zimmerman is a bit of a flake. he doesn't talk to his own attorneys. don't you want to be presenting the defense that zimmerman is a stable human being who made a proper but difficult decision to defend himself. instead they make him look like a flake. lawyers are supposed to act to the benefit of the client. >> even if it is a former client. >> you say i'm out of the case. that is what linda batten did when she with drew from the casey anthony case. bruce cutter said we had strategic decisions and with drew. a lot of high profile cases. >> how you have a father who is a judge, a mother who was a clerk in the court. you come from a legal family and so you have to be asking the question, where is his family in this? you would think they would be saying george, sit down and shutup. we know the law. listen to us and talking to joe oliver and listening to attorneys sounds like he is freelancing out there. so it is certainly making for a crazy development. >> what do you make of his attorneys at one point saying maybe he is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. he said he is losing weight and perhaps very instable. >> when you think about this you have these attorneys who have never actually met with him. he -- >> still marveling at that. >> he zimmerman said they are not my attorneys but have given me council. that's sort of a mixed message. this is the outline of a defense in a criminal case, particularly a murder case. you don't do this. >> said he has worked with him personally. so you are saying you are hearing these stories. are you getting them all on the phone. if i'm somebody's that close friend and i'm an attorney i'm having a face to face. >> perhaps you can come back and say we called big dog attorneyed and still so many questions. >> if they can find him. >> which is the crazy thing getting back to the father thing. you know what a judge would say to his son? sit down with an attorney right now. you are in the middle of this fire storm. >> we are getting ben crump, the attorney representing trayvon martin's family. i was speaking with them a short time ago. he joins us now. let me begin with the family here who you have been very closely in touch with. were they watching today's news conference? what was their reaction? >> as the lead attorney for the parents of trayvon martin we have all watched the press conference. as i told roland earlier it was just surprising to us. after the press conference his parents turned to me and said they don't know where this guy is at. and that is the issue. they don't know where the killer of trayvon martin is at. he is unaccounted for and they are really concerned about that because they do worry about him being a flight risk. they worry about if he is ever going to be brought to justice for killing their son. >> we hear from sanford police. they say they do know where george zimmerman even though he is apparently not in contact with anybody else. do they buy that or are they fearful that he can flee? >> with this sporadic conduct on behalf of george zimmerman, we think he is a flight risk. we found out today he is not in the state of florida. the lawyers say they don't think he will leave the country. they haven't met him. as we were telling roland martin we are concerned about this because how does this impact the prosecution going forward? if he is charged, is he going to face the charges or is he going to flee? >> am i hearing you correctly that you are hearing that he is not in florida? is that what you just said? >> we heard he is not in the state of florida. >> where are you getting that from? >> we picked that up from the press conference. they know where they are thinking but they are not sure. >> if he is out of the state of florida or if it is a danger that he is going to leave the country this would cause the prosecutor to move quickly. she has to go to court and get an arrest warrant and you want to grab him while he is grabable. this is an important that prosecutor would be looking at if he is available. >> remember he has not been arrested so it is not like he has to be in contact with authorities. he is not under any watch. >> not wearing an ankle bracelet. >> until a warrant is issued by the court he is flee to go where he wants. >> if george zimmerman, wherever he is, if he is watching tonight what message would trayvon martin parents have for him? >> the same message all along, why did he shoot and kill their son. their son was unarmed trying to get home. they always asked that question of george zimmerman. the only thing they asked for the police and the state attorney is arrest him so the wheels of justice can start going forward and a judge and jury will decide this matter. they only want simple justice. nothing more or nothing less. >> thank you. meantime, what a day it has been. rick santorum suspending his presidential campaign. and canter is in damage control mode today. we are outfront on that one last week. also a woman lied to the world about being in the world trade center on 9/11, all false and her lies didn't stop there. 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[whoosh, clang] you need lifelock, the only identity theft protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. what a day it has been. huge political news. rick santorum suspending his campaign for the republican presidential nomination. here it was. >> we made a decision at our kitchen table against all the odds and we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting. >> cnn has learned that final decision was made last night and what it does is it now clears the way for mitt romney pretty much all but certain candidacy. >> he will continue to have a major role in the republican party and i look forward to his work in helping assure victories for republicans across the country in november. >> a couple of big questions, one being who gets santorum's supporters? and will he endorse romney and help him campaign as we look forward to november. gentleman, welcome tonight. timing-wise we know he was in and out of the hospital with his daughter, bella. also you have the primary coming up in his home state. was this move just to save a little face? >> i think there is a lot to it. i think this was an exhausting campaign for him and took him away from his family. on top of that he had a very, very big mountain to climb in terms of winning pennsylvania. i think those things taken together make it a very sensible decision. >> both family and political. >> absolutely. >> we know that santorum called romney before his announcement and also learned that romney has asked for the face to face meeting and santorum said yes to that. once it happens, looking in the tea leaves what will happen afterwards? smelling an endorsement potentially? >> almost definitely at some point. but it was striking that rick santorum found time to mention the sweater vest but not to mention mitt romney by name. this was about saving face and not potentially losing his home state. losing your home state that is devastating but would really hurt him going forward. this way he gets out with grace and says he can represent the conservative wing going forward. in that face to face meeting it is not just a conversation about an endorsement but negotiating for speaking slots at the convention and that sort of thing. santorum comes out of this very surprising campaign. if you told us six months ago he would be the last serious candidate standing people wouldn't believe you. >> sweater vest aside and i know people will miss that, john makes a point he did with grace. his presence on the trail has been a gift for the obama administration the way he has pointed out mitt romney's weaknesses. >> president clinton used to quote ben franklin saying we should thank our foes because they point out our flaws. the biggest flaw that santorum pointed out in romney is the inability to appeal to blue collar people. romney has not been able tool reach out to them. santorum has given plenty for the democrats to use against romney. week of april 15th santorum was killing romney on this issue. >> you are saying that was also a gift for romney? i hear you laughing. how is that a gift for romney? >> romney knows what he has to correct and still seems unable to do it. he is noma dumb man but knows he can't get blue collar votes. rick santorum who lost his own state by 18 points even he was beating him among blue collar republicans. how do you think romney is going to do against independents? >> that was less so in wisconsin than earlier primaries. it seemed as though mitt romney was improving his stance. i think you are going to see a general refocusing on the message. >> let's talk about the message. when you look at the numbers, the washington post poll and president obama does well when it comes to women but when you look at jobs and the economy it is neck and neck. obama at 43%, romney 47%. how is romney, it is a little bit of a lead but not enough. >> absolutely and the other issue is that recently third way released a survey as they referred to as swing independents. these voters favor obama slightly over romney. they are actually much more responsive to an opportunity oriented economic message than a fairness oriented economic message. with the president focusing on the buft rule -- it is not necessarily true that romney is going to press an opportunity oriented message but if you manage to figure that out it suggests that he might learn from santorum by appealing more blue collar voters then he has a real advantage. >> there is someone out there who would like to get the voters and that is former speak of the house, newt gingrich. he said today he is still staying in. he is going to get the santorum voters. sending out an e-mail saying let me get some money and hoping to get a lot of supporters. when you look at the recent nationwide poll half would go to romney? why is newt gingrich staying in this thing? >> well, he is sort of jumping up and down saying i'm still here. i think newt gingrich is playing a bit of poker. he is reading history books and hoping maybe he will get lucky. hoping there is an opportunity to ride this thing to tampa. i think those folks who have been hard core, i think you will see newt gingrich's numbers get a slight bump in the state contests going forward because he is the last man standing along with ron paul. i think effectively the nomination is done today with rick santorum dropping out. and that, mitt romney is going to have time to coalesce the support and refocus the message to the general election. in these past four months he has lost dramatic support among women and independent voters. that is significant. >> we'll see how that poker game and poker face turns out. you should have seen these guys snickering when you made that comment. thank you all so much. appreciate it. outfront next the manager of the florida marlins is suspended for his controversial comments he made. he said how he respects and loves fidell castro. and a rileant argument on new york subway escalates. an unlikely hero steps in. what we achieved here. what we learned here. and what we pioneered here. all goes here. the one. the accord. smarter thinking from honda. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ spenders. the team put up 155 million of the $515 million to build this marlins park. it has a retractable roof and two salt water fish tanks behind home plate and signed reyes to a six year contract. maybe, maybe they should have spent a little bit more money on their domain name. 184,841, that's how many people have visited miami marlins.com. now we are guessing visitors are trying to get to the site located at miami.marlins.calm. a if you visit miami marlins.com this is what you get. speaking of the marlins their manager is in some trouble today for controversial comments he recently made. we are going to play some of those comments and his punishment coming up. also ahead eric canter on defense after donating to a super pac targeting members of his own party. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? 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[ male announcer ] aggressive styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. and a completely redesigned interior. ♪ the 2012 c-class with over 2,000 refinements. it's amazing...inside and out. ♪ the c-class starts at just $34,800. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us. we start the second half of our show with stories we care about where we focus on our own reporting. we found the outfront five. up first george zimmerman's attorneys say they lost contact with the client and thus will no longer be representing the man who killed florida teenager trayvon martin. the attorneys announcing this afternoon that they are dropping zimmerman because they have not heard from him in days and his lawyers say zimmerman called this special prosecutor today to talk about the case. angela corey refused to meet with him without his lawyers. attorneys say zimmerman is no longer in florida but doesn't say where he is. the death of a british businessman in china has officially been ruled a murder. neil hayward was foun dead in a hotel room in november but authorities said he accidently drank himself to death. in the months that followed his relationship with high ranking communist official's wife came to light urged to take a look at how he died. today reports his wife and a family aid have been arrested in connection with haywood's death. number three. three public school employees in maryland are now millionaires. the self declared three amigos have come forward kind of hiding behind the check there to claim their winning mega millions ticket. each will get $35 million after taxes. here is what we do know about them