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At a "Stand Your Ground" hearing, the judge is tasked with weighing whether to grant immunity from prosecution under a Florida law that gives people who believe they are in imminent danger of being killed or seriously hurt the benefit of the doubt to protect themselves. A defendant who claims self-defense in Florida has a right to a pretrial hearing on the evidence if immunity is requested.

Mr. Zimmerman, 29, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., said he had shot Mr. Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, in self-defense after Mr. Martin attacked him on Feb. 26, 2012. Prosecutors said Mr. Zimmerman had pursued Mr. Martin inside the gated community where Mr. Martin was staying with his father's girlfriend and forced a confrontation, which led to the shooting.

Mark O'Mara, Mr. Zimmerman's lawyer, did not close the door on an immunity hearing but made it clear that there would be little time to prepare for both a hearing and a trial in June. Mr. O'Mara told Judge Debra S. Nelson in Circuit Court in Sanford on Tuesday that he would not need the time she had reserved in April, when the hearing was expected to take place.

"This will give us time to get ready for one hearing, and that's a jury trial where my client gets acquitted," Mr. O'Mara said at a news conference after his courtroom appearance. "The trial is our focus."

In light of the national attention on Mr. Zimmerman and the coming trial, Mr. O'Mara said, a verdict delivered by a jury would be more meaningful than a decision made by a judge in a pretrial hearing.

"George wants to have a jury of his peers decide the case," Mr. O'Mara added.

The hearing on Tuesday also chipped away at the credibility of a main witness in the case, called Witness 8, giving a boost to the defense. Witness 8 is a teenage girl who was on the phone with Mr. Martin shortly before Mr. Zimmerman shot him. The witness has said Mr. Martin told her that he was being followed by a man and was frightened.

Afterward, Witness 8 said she had been unable to attend Mr. Martin's funeral because she had been ill and had gone to the hospital. The defense asked to subpoena her medical records. On Tuesday, just before the hearing, prosecutors told defense lawyers that there were none.

"In fact, she lied," Don West, one of Mr. Zimmerman's lawyers, said in court, asserting that she had not gone to the hospital.

The testimony of Witness 8 is important because she described Mr. Zimmerman as the aggressor and said Mr. Martin had been trying to get away from him before he was killed.

"I think Witness 8 is a very significant, if not the most significant, witness," Mr. O'Mara said.