Casey Anthony Murder Trial: Day 14

Court came to session when Judge Perry entered the courtroom at 9:00.

Mr. Baez continued with his re-cross of John Dennis Bradley.

Baez reminded the witness of the material he testified to yesterday. He mentioned that there were 8,777 files.

Bradley said he was only given 8,555 files.

When asked to look at a report, Bradley asked if it was his report! Baez brought up that he had said that he had said that there were 84 visits to the site Cyspot. One of the reports indicated that the site had only been accessed twice. Bradly took the report, checked it, and said that he did not create the report!

Baez asked if he could only testify to the URL's he identified. Bradley pointed out that there was a counter in the record he found.

The record only retains the last time the URL was visited. That would also include when the page was refreshed, to which Bradley could not testify.

Then, Baez asked if Casey Anthony turned over her computer... objection, sustained.

Bradley testified that for April, May, June, there was nothing to do with chloroform.

Baez said that Bradley could only speculate that any pages were printed out.

Baez asked if, in the search of the house, the police told him... objection, hearsay, sustained.

Bradley testified that this was only a history file and that was the only information he had.

With that, Baez completed his re-cross.

Linda Burdick then pointed out that he was only given data for March 1 to March 26.

As for being refreshed, Bradley said that there is code written in the page to refresh, but most of the time, the user has to refresh it.

Ms. Burdick asked that if somebody were on the computer and had more than one tab open, the other tabs would remain open until closed. Firefox would open a new tab. Bradley said that was true. She turned the witness over to Baez.

Baez then asked if the site they were talking about was a blog. Objection, sustained.

Anyone could write a blog? Objection, sustained.

Mr. Baez was finished and Mr. Bradley could return to Canada.

The prosecution then recalled Lee Anthony to the stand.

Frank George began questioning Lee about his use of the family computer. Lee said that he made internet searches for Sawgrass, etc. He never deleted any files.

Mr. George then asked Lee if Casey ever gave him a different version of the kidnapping.

Lee, referring to the time in August when Casey was out on bond, testified that Casey told him another version of how Zanny kidnapped Caylee at J. Blanchard Park. During a meeting at the park, Zanny held Casey down and said she was taking Caylee and her sister helped her.

She was held down on a park bench, held down by her wrists. Lee didn't remember the reason why Zanny took Caylee.

Mr. George then refreshed his memory with his July 30, 2009 deposition.

With his mind refreshed, Lee testified that Casey told him that in Zanny's opinion, Casey wasn't a good mother. She was taking Caylee she was teaching her a lesson and not to go to the police.

Casey described Zanny to Lee, pretty much the same as the one's we have heard before. When he couldn't remember, the 2009 deposition was brought out again. Lee gave the full description.

Then, Mr. George asked about Casey's reaction to losing Caylee. Lee had forgotten again and another deposition was brought out to refresh his memory.

Lee said that her reaction was that she couldn't believe what was happening, it was surreal. She did nothing to try to get to Caylee, that she was scared and didn't know what to do.

Casey told Lee that Zenaida had her MySpace password and would send her messages and instruct her what to do. She said she went to the places Zenaida told her in hopes of seeing Caylee.

George brought up Timer55, Casey's MySpace password. Casey at first said that Caylee would be returned in 55 days, in time for her birthday.

Casey told Lee that Zenaida changed the password.

Baez then did cross.

Baez reviewed what Lee had just testified about. He then asked if there was any more details. Lee said that she would tell her to go places Zanny told her and walk around looking for Caylee.

When Baez asked Lee for details, he said that Casey never found Zanny.

The witness was excused.

Their was a brief side bar prior to the next witness being called. The defense had questions about the next "event" and wanted to discuss it.

Judge Perry then dismissed the jury for a 5 minute recess and the judge left the courtroom.

When Judge Perry returned to the courtroom the mystery over the defense fuss still was a mystery. After yet another sidebar and the return of the jury to the courtroom, we learned that the next witness was not a witness at all, but a tape recording!

The state introduced a stipulation about the call Roy Kronk made on December 11, 2008. Then, the call way played for the jury.

I think many trial watchers assumed Roy Kronk would be the next witness. I'm sure the defense wanted him to take the stand to do their dirty work on him in the State of Florida's case in chief. Clever move, state. The defense will have to attempt to insert him into their bizarre defense scheme all by themselves. Then, they will be unable to ask those leading questions that Jose Baez loves so dearly.

The remainder of the morning dealt with photographs of the crime scene.

The next witness was Det. Eduard Turso from the OCSO. He responded to a call and responded to Suburban Drive. He arrived at 9:32 AM. He was questioned by Linda Burdick.

He described the location as a very wooded area. He met with Roy Kronk, who took him into the woods.

Kronk said that he had to relieve himself in the woods and thought he had found a skull. Kronk led him to the skull, which he passed by 5-10' and they had to turn back to locate it. Turso stood over the skull for a moment and the two men left the area right away. Neither he nor Kronk touched the skull at that time.

Kronk was asked to write a statement then. Turso stayed until other officers arrived at the scene.

Jose Baez did the cross. He asked if Mr. Kronk called him three times in August (objection, sustained) Asked again (objection, sustained)

The third time Baez tried to ask, the judge told him to move on.

After a brief conversation with Mr. Mason, Baez asked how far they went into the woods. Turso estimated they went about 20 feet into the woods. He didn't remember the grass on the roadside.

Next to the skull, Baez asked, there was a fallen tree? Turso responded that there was very heavy vegetation and he didn't notice. When asked about other items, Turso couldn't remember because he had concentrated on the skull.

Baez then asked for a side bar.

After the side bar, Baez continued with his cross.

Other than telling Kronk to go to his car and to write his statements, Baez wanted to know if he gave Kronk any other directions. When Turso said that he hadn't, he was excused for now.

At this time, Judge Perry called for the morning recess.

Perry then addressed the audience. The next witness would testify to certain crime scene photographs. If any of the people in the audience felt that they couldn’t handle their emotions, it would be a good time to leave.

When the judge returned to the courtroom, he called the attorneys to the bench. He gave orders for the pool cameras to pixilate the pictures of the skull. No pictures on cell phones from the audience, their cell phones will be confiscated.

The jury was called back into the courtroom.

The next witness was Jennifer Welch. She is a member of the forensics unit with the OCSO. She is a Crime Scene Investigator and held that position on December 11, 2008.

Linda Burdick examined the witness and led her though the testimony from when she was called to the location on Suburban Drive. She arrived at 11:25 AM.

When she arrived, it was raining and there was dense vegetation throughout the area.

None of the law enforcement officers were in the woods. A crime scene area had been cordoned off. There was nobody within the tape.

She took the initial photographs of the scene prior to the removal of any evidence.

The first pictures which were shown documented the densely wooded crime scene. As they went along, we saw the beginnings of a path that led into the woods.

Picture by picture, we were led down the path towards the area where Caylee's remains were discovered.

Once the skull appeared in the pictures, they were not broadcast over the media, but all the cameras were on Casey to catch her reactions.

After seeing the first picture with the skull in it, she turned her head from the screen and brought out the tissues. She didn't look at the pictures, but rubbed under her eyes with the tissues. Occasionally, a tear would escape and run down her cheek.

CSI Welch described the black plastic bags, the white laundry bag, and the plastic Disney bag which were found near the skull.

Casey still held her head down to avoid the pictures of the skull..

Photo FV was entered into evidence. In that picture, CSI Welch described the skull and the front of the skull. In the next picture, she identified a log that was in the vicinity and Welch described the plastic Disney Bag and the other bags.

There was another picture of the log and CSI Welch identified the shorts found near the body.

Picture after picture, Casey looked down and shed tears and wiped them before they would fall, assuming there were tears at all.

In one picture, Welch described clothing remnants, a collar of a shirt with a tag.

Casey was very alone as the pictures were admitted into evidence. Thee were no comforting pats from Cheney Mason or Dorothy Sims for the majority of the time.

CSI Welch could not tell at the scene if any of the bags were contained inside one another.

After any number of pictures, Welch described the first picture to include the duct tape that was on the skull.

A couple of pictures later, there was one of a close up of the evidence which showed the duct tape over the front of the skull.

Casey still looked down and sniffled into her tissue.

The next picture showed what CSI Welch thought was a towel and ended up being a blanket.

The last picture was of Steven Hanson removing the skull.

With direct examination complete, Jose Baez got up to question on cross.

Baez asked CSI Kelley about her position. He pointed our to her that she is trained extensively to do her job, because she never gets a second chance at a crime scene. She agreed.

Baez went on to say that once people came in, the crime scene would get contaminated. The more people that come in, the more contamination. She agreed.

If the body were tampered with, it would be difficult to tell the circumstances around what happened at the scene. She agreed.

Baez also asked if she looks to see if a scene has been staged. He said that happenes because sometimes there are people who try to conceal certain items of evidence. There are staged scenes where people would make it look like something else happened there. Welch agreed.

Baez put up a picture of the skull with the duct tape area. He asked her to draw a circle around it. He asked her if it seemed that the duct tape was somewhat in the air and she could see the width of the duct tape. She agreed to this as well.

Baez indicated that the end of the duct tape is flat on the ground pointed at 1 o'clock. Welch couldn't say if it was on the ground, but agreed it was pointed in that direction.

Baez published another picture and pointed that one could not see the skull, but could see the duct tape and it appeared to be laying flat on the ground. Welch said she couldn't say if it was on the ground.

Baez then published another picture and asked Welch if she could see almost the entire width of the tape and the end of the duct tape. She said that she could. Baez pointed out that it was an uneven edge.

Yet another picture was brought up and Baez again pointed out the same aspects of the duct tape.

The last picture, it showed Hansen collecting the skull and the duct tape. Baez pointed out that he was applying force to pick it up.

Welch said that he had to, in order to pick it up.

Baez pointed out that he was not wearing protective footwear, she pointed out he was wearing boots. (I was trying to imagine Mr. Hanson wearing those protective booties out in the woody area in the pouring rain!) Baez also pointed out that someone had their foot partially on a piece of evidence.

Baez completed his questioning and Linda Burdick had no re-direct. CSI Welch was excused for the time being.

The state then called Steven Hanson, a Chief Investigator with the medical examiner's office. He gave his background and his duties.

One of his duties is to collect human remains. He took pictures of the crime scene of the area.

Jeff Ashton led Mr. Hanson through the pictures he took of the area, from the road to the crime scene.

At this point, Casey started looking at the pictures on the monitor again.

Cheney Mason was voicing no objections, which meant he will be doing the cross examination.

I wonder if he will ask the ME investigator why he didn't wear paper booties at the crime scene in the cold and rain?

At that point it was lunch time and Judge Perry told everyone to be back at 1:30.

We were back in court and Jeff Ashton continuing questioning Mr. Hanson. He said that as he collected the items at the scene, someone had to point out the articles to collect, they were so difficult to see.

Hanson said he was unable to appreciate the duct tape while he was doing the preliminary photos. He was asked to point it out in the photograph.

With the assistance of other investigators, they managed cleared an area around the skull. He was at the scene for 3 or 4 hours retrieving the bags, the skull, the long bone and other items to take to the ME’s office.

The vines were cleared away and the log removed prior to removing the skull. The ground around the skull was not cleared at the time, they wanted to preserve as much of the material around the skull as possible.

The next picture was a close up of the area of the skull, but nothing had been removed from around it.

Another photograph was taken from the rear of the skull as well. The camera was about 2 1/2 feet above the ground. From the rear, he could not determine if there was more than one piece of tape. It was difficult to tell where the tape was due to the hair mat and other obstacles such as leaf debris.
Subsequently, they found that some of the duct tape was under the leaf mold.

Without seeing the pictures, it is difficult to understand all the explanations.

He is responsible to reporting the death scene as it relates to the remains. Their photos focus on the remains. The Medical Examiner had authority over the remains, the Sheriff’s Office had authority over the crime scene. He believed also that there were remains in the bags. In fact, he hoped it contained all the remains so they would not have to look further for them.

In the next photograph, the skull was shown to be embedded in the debris of leaves and vines up until the mid eye socket. The debris went around the skull all the way around at that level. The skull was positioned at an angle, it was not in an upright position.

To remove the scull and the tape together as a group, he removed as large an area around the skull as possible because they were not certain what was in the area as well that would be related to the crime. They then put the skull and the material around it into a paper bag. He went about 6 to 8 inches out on each side of the scull and scooped it all up and put it in the bag. He did as best he could to keep the tape and the hair mat as close as possible to its original position.

He also collected the plastic bag and the laundry bag in the same manner he collected the skull. There were also some long bones in the area and they collected them as well.

The cloth items were also collected. When he arrived at the ME's office, he turned the materials over to Dr. Gary Utz, a medical examiner.

In the days that followed, he collected bones or part of the scene that had been found by the crime scene investigators and returned them to the Medical Examiner’s Office. His last collection trip to the crime scene to collect evidence was December 17.

Dr. John Schultz was the forensic anthropologist at the ME's office who helped identify the bones.

With that testimony, direct examination was completed.

Cheney Mason started out with a little joke. Then he went right to the photographs and first asked about the log which had been located just behind the skull. He asked if the remains were under it. Hanson said that they weren't. He was the one to remove the log to better visualize the remains in place.

Mason said he saw duct tape flat on the ground in one of the pictures. Hanson said that there was a portion that was on the ground. As for the torn end, Hanson said it could have decomposed. He didn't measure the duct tape at the scene or use a scale in the picture.

As for the depth that the skull was embedded, Hanson said it was not embedded in the soil, but in the vegetation. When he tried to find out if it had been previously moved, Ashton objected and was sustained (hearsay).

Then, Hanson was asked who the feet of people around him belonged to. He only identified his own. Mason asked why he scooped the scull up, Hanson gave the same explanation as before. When asked if the duct tape could have moved, Hanson said it could have.

Mason asked if he observed the putting together of the bones in the morgue. Hanson explained that he had been there while it was going on, but was not part of it. He also told Mason that he not photographed the remains in the morgue.

Mason asked if he photographed the whole log before he moved it. He said he didn't, and that he didn’t photograph it as it was moved because hecouldn't move it and photograph at the same time. Mason also asked about a board laying across the log. Hanson said he hadn't seen one.

The witness was excused.

Dr. Gary Utz is the Deputy Medical Examiner for Orange County. Jeff Ashton asked if Utz was aware of a missing child prior to his involvement in the case. He stated that he was.

When the remains were found, Dr. Garavaglia asked him to take the case until she returned from a trip out of town. He had to deal with evidence transfer to other organizations such as the FBI.

He described the items he received and had them photographed.

We will not see these all these photographs, either.

The first photograph was of two plastic bags with yellow handle ties. Lying on top, was a long bone.

There was also a fabric laundry bag mixed in with the garbage bags and leaf litter.

The next photo was the skull when the paper bag was torn away.

In the next, there was a human skull facing upright and there were several pieces of gray colored tape over the area of the face and nose. There was also hair.

The skull was shown from directly above. There were strands of hair flowing over the skull. There was a hair mat at the bottom.

There was then a photograph of the skull from the side. There were hairs that went over the skull and the mat at the rear. At the front, there was the tape.

Yet another photograph showed the rear of the skull with leaves and twigs obscuring the skull and the hair mat. Within the hair mat were what appeared to be plant roots.

The next photograph showed someone tilting the skull so the face would be perpendicular to the camera. You could see the eye sockets and the hair partially covering the eye sockets. Below that, was the tape. The pieces of tape were attached to each other.

The next photo had the head at another angle. The bottom was now upward towards the camera. The jaw bone could be seen. Utz pointed to where the tape was.

Utz explained that the mandible stayed in place when the skull was tilted, a very unusual occurrence. It was still attached because of the hair mat and the root growth.

The tape was no longer adhesive, but there were still small portions of the hair which were attached to the fabric and the mandible itself. (The mandible was attached to the fabric.) A small portion of the hair and the fabric had to be cut to remove the tape to maintain its integrity.

In order to remove the mandible, which still had teeth, he had to tease apart the hair to separate them. In another photograph, one could actually visualize the strands of fabric sticking into the mandible and there was still hair adhering to the tape.

The jury was then shown a photograph of the tape after it was removed. It was sent to the FBI. Next, there was a photograph of the emblem on the tape which could be seen through the dirt.

There were more pictures of items from the remains site. There was the laundry bag, which mostly had debris inside of it. There was also a label that was on the bag.

Next, there was a photograph of the garbage bag. It was tied and closed. When it was found, both plastic bags had multiple tears in them. The shorts were shown after the bags.

At that point in Utz’s testimony, Judge Perry called for the afternoon break. The usual 15 minute break was extended when Casey Anthony was taken out of the courtroom, apparently ill. She returned a few minutes later, not looking all that great.

Judge Perry then made an announcement that Casey was ill and court would be in recess until 9 AM tomorrow.0.