Dr. Timothy Huntington said there is no reason to suspect there was a dead body in the trunk of Casey Marie Anthony's Pontiac Sunfire when he testified Friday at the Florida State v. Casey Anthony trial.
The 25-year-old is accused of murdering her 2-year-old and storing the little girl's corpse in her trunk, then disposing of it in the woods, but Huntington, an entomologist told the jury that because of numerous factors, including the presence of the blow flies in the trunk and the bag of trash, he doesn't believe there was a body decomposing back there.
The bag of trash contained soda and beer cans with remnants of tobacco spit. "Tobacco spit, that is a body fluid," said Huntington. "There flies are very attracted to that sort of material ... Tobacco spit was the primary attraction."
He also said that the one leg of a fly found on a paper towel collected from the bag creates no significance to this case and that it lacks forensic value. "One leg of a blow fly doesn't mean anything," especially in a bag of trash, he said, then added that one could most likely be found in the courtroom.
There was a small amount of flies, compared the hundreds he has seen in his studies. "There was not a whole bunch of them to indicate something was decomposing."
Huntington explained that he conducted an experiment where he stored a dead pig in the trunk of a car.
Throughout direct examination, assistant state attorney Jeff Ashton continuously objected defense attorney Jose Baez's questioning, mostly for bloistering, and repeatedly objected the witness, interrupting his testimony to say he has no experience to testify about certain areas.
Ashton provided a brutal cross examination with Huntington, as he discredited and some would say, ganged up on him. Prosecution claimed the doctor was not expert enough to testify about specific matters, such as the pig in the trunk is not consistent with a toddler wrapped in a blanket and shoved in a bag.
The single testimony took the entire day, allowing no room for any of other witnesses to testify.
The defense's case continues into its third day on Saturday, with more witnesses taking the stand and people wondering if Casey is next in line to do so. If found guilty, she may have to face a death sentence.
(Photography by Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/POOL)
No comments:
Post a Comment