In a day where emphasis was placed on emergency calls in the last minutes of the life of Trayvon Martin, the father of the dead teenager was placed on the stand on Monday and testified that he never denied that the voice was that of his son.

Tracy Martin was adamant that he had not discounted the possibility that the voice on the recordings was his 17-year-old son. He also spoke to the pain that he felt upon hearing the recordings.

“When I was listening to my son's last cry for help, I was listening to a life being taken," Martin said. "And I was trying to come to grips with the fact that Trayvon was here no more. It was tough."

The defense had suggested that Tracy Martin initially said that the voice on the recordings was not Trayvon's.

Martin took the stand on the first full day that the defense was presenting its case in the trial of Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of the unarmed Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman's lawyers called several witnesses — many of them friends and colleagues of the defendant — who testified that the voice on the 911 recordings screaming for help was that of Zimmerman.

That followed testimony Friday by Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother, where she insisted that the screams on the recording came from her son. Trayvon's brother, Jahvaris Fulton, also testified that the voice was of his brother.

After Tracy Martin’s testimony, the jurors heard from Bill Lee Jr., the former police chief in Sanford, Florida, who said that he had recommended that the family of Trayvon Martin listen to the recordings individually.

He said that they decided instead to listen to the recordings together. Lee was fired from his position with the police department after he was criticized for the controversial handling of the case.

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(Photo: Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images)