Friday, June 17, 2011

Lord Of The Flies? Casey Anthony Defense Continues

Bug Doctor Testifies At Casey Anthony Trial About Flies And Pigs

Reminiscent of the classic 1963 movie Lord of the Flies fight scenes, a fist fight broke out in the early morning line of spectators waiting to get into court. Later, a handful of spectators were removed from the courtroom for sleeping during testimony.

The state and Jose Baez got into a heated verbal fight over today's witness testimony, the state receiving the judge's displeasure over the "editorial comments" made between the attorneys.

Ironically, this morning's court testimony was from a fly expert.

Forensic entomologist Dr. Timothy Huntington was defense attorney Jose Baez' witness Friday morning for the Casey Anthony murder trial, and seemingly caught the prosecution by surprise, as the questioning by Baez was underway..

The court went to sidebar many times and excused the jury from the courtroom to hear arguments between the prosecution and Jose Baez over what would be permitted to be heard from Huntington today.

The Nebraskan professor-forensic insect specialist testified about measuring the life of flies. Lengthy explanations were made to the 12-member jury about the stages of insects growth from pupae, maggots, and metamorphosis to adult size.

Huntington testified he had "years and years of experience watching animal and humans decompose."

Huntington described how he grew flies in six Nebraska car trunks containing pig carcasses.  He told the jury about how flies were able to get into the closed trunk to feed on the pigs. 

Huntington displayed photos and diagrams to explain the life of blowflies to the jury.  

Blowflies show up as soon as minutes after the death of an animal to feed on it, being very sensitive to the odor or decay, said Huntington.

Demonstrating how flies can get into a car, but then die inside it, seemingly not being able to find a way out and showing graphic photos of maggot activity on the pigs after 10 days in the trunk, the prosecution objected to his expertise on some subjects, and asked for numerous sidebars with the judge to limit the testimony.

Lengthy objections were made by the prosecution while the jury was out, as the state attempted to preclude Huntington's testimony on anything unrelated to bugs, including human decomposition and body fluids stains.

Smiling Jose Baez looked confident during a pause as Judge Belvin Perry looked over previous days' insect expert witness testimony to decide if Baez could continue on the line of questioning about decomposition and stains, Baez arguing the prosecution witnesses were allowed that testimony.

Huntington told the Judge he had told Jose Baez that he didn't think there was evidence of a decomposing body in Casey Anthony's car, having looked only of photos, because there was not enough body fluids left in the carpet, adding a "professional cleaner" would have had to clean the car to remove those fluid stains.

The prosecution was never told about Huntington's opinion statement to Baez on the Anthony car stain, nor did it appear in his final report, leading the prosecution to object to this line of questioning before the jurors.

The Judge ruled Baez was allowed to continue asking Huntington's opinion, adding that the jury can find for themselves if they consider Huntington's testimony on decomposition and body fluids as "expert."

Huntington told the jury, the flies found in the Anthony car had "no forensic value," as he claims they are so common, they would be expected to be found in any bag of trash or garbage, in contrast to the prosecution's testimony that the flies found were commonly seen in decomposing bodies.

Update: In the afternoon session Prosecutor Jeff Ashton tore into Dr. Huntington's morning testimony, fairly well demolishing the defense expert. Ashton got Huntington to admit there's a great difference between a study of pigs in a car trunk, and a 2-year old child wrapped in a blanket, inside two garbage bags, and then inside a laundry bag.

Ashton also demolished the defense expert's theory that the flies in the trunk were attracted to containers full  of chewing tobacco spit, and food in the trash and not decomposing Calley's body. Huntington was shown the actual evidence for the first time, instead of photos he had seen, and discovered there actually was no food or spit in the actual trash evidence.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:18 AM

    Who gives a rats ass about Casey Anthony Trial

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  2. If I remember correctly, the day before Caylee died, Casey had an argument with Cindy. Casey's resentment toward Caylee probably hit its peak and she saw an opportunity to rid herself of her motherly responsibilities while spiting her mother at the same time. Just my opinion. http://bit.ly/jyKSqb

    ReplyDelete