This past week saw the State rest on the presentation of their case. At that time it appeared the defense believed the witness stand now belonged to them. The week ended with Judge Perry setting them straight that it did not belong to them and he was still fully in charge of how it would be used. While the beginning of the week was rather lackluster, the end of the week was full of piss and vinegar…maybe more so from Judge Perry than anyone.
On Monday the State called Stephen Shaw, a hair and fiber examiner with the FBI, to have him present the findings of a study he did on hairs removed from living individuals and then placed in varying environments. The purpose of the study was to see if any of these hairs would develop dark banding, consistent with post-mortem banding, due to environmental effects. None of them did.
Elizabeth Fontaine, who is a physical scientist forensic examiner in the latent print unit of the FBI labs took the stand next. She is the one that saw a “heart-shaped impression” on Q63, one of the pieces of duct tape found on Caylee’s skull.
Tuesday began with Catherine Theison, the Chief of the quality assurance and control unit of the FBI. She is the person who conducted the mtDNA on the “death hair” from the trunk, a hair from the hair mat found with Caylee’s skull, and on a hair taken from Casey.
After Ms. Theison came Alina Burroughs who is a crime scene investigator for OCSO who assisted in the search and seizure of evidence at Suburban Drive and at the Anthony home in December 2008. Linda-Drane Burdick went through a series of photographs taken during the searches at the Anthony home showing numerous heart-shaped stickers, sheets of heart-shaped stickers, etc. found in Casey’s room. Later the 3D gel heart-shaped sticker found on Suburban Drive would be entered into evidence. They jury showed great interest in this and asked to see it themselves.
Cindy Anthony was called back to the stand and asked about items that came up missing at the Anthony home between June and December 2008. These items included the Winnie the Pooh blanket (found with the Caylee’s remains), and Caylee’s teddy bear. Cindy stated the blanket came up missing sometime after the end of May, which is the last time she says she remembers seeing it. The Teddy Bear appears to have been taken by Casey after Cindy let her know she had started sleeping with it in the first week of July because she missed Caylee.
Linda Drane-Burdick then asked Cindy about the hair length and any color processing done on members of the family including Casey, Caylee, Cindy, Lee and Shirley Plesea. This was to get their hair characteristics on record because and eliminate them as potential sources for the death hair. This was done because these individuals would also match the mtDNA results for the death hair.
Cindy was then asked about duct tape and Whitney laundry bags. While Cindy’s testimony about duct tape was “questionable” in how honest she was being, her testimony on the laundry bags was clearly honest. She admitted she owned two Whitney Designs laundry bags, a rectangular one which was still in the house when the December 2008 searches were conducted, and a cylindrical one, which was found with Caylee’s remains. During this testimony Cindy dropped a bit of a mini bombshell. At least a grenade, if you will.
I do not remember previously learning that the cylindrical laundry bag was last kept on the top shelf above the washer and dryer in the garage. Not only that, but Cindy revealed it was stored inside a black plastic trash bag to keep it from getting dusty. This is a major point considering Caylee’s remains were found (partially) within the laundry bag which was within 2 black plastic trash bags.
After Cindy left the stand the State presented the Bella Vita tattoo. They brought Bobby Williams, the employee from Cast Iron Tattoos who gave Casey the tattoo to the stand. Mr. Williams testified to getting a phone call a few days before the 2nd of July in which Casey made an appointment to get the tattoo. He then told of her coming in and getting it and acting normal. Then he told of her stopping back by on July 15th to make another appointment for the 19th for her “and a friend” to get tattoos. She told him she would bring Caylee with her on the 19th.
The State rested on Wednesday morning and the podium was turned over to Cheney Mason who argued for the court to acquit Casey and drop the whole deal. Judge Perry denied the motion for acquittal and that was that for the day.
Thursday morning the defense began presenting their “case” by calling Gerard Bloise, OCSO forensic technician back to the stand. He told of processing Casey’s car, Tony Lazzaro’s Jeep, and clothing taken from Casey’s closet for presence of blood. Everything was negative. On cross Linda Drane-Burdick asked Mr. Bloise if Tony’s Jeep smelled like it had a dead body in it and he responded no. On re-direct Baez asked if it had 3 week old garbage in it and Mr. Bloise responded no.
Next to the stand was Heather Seubert who worked as a Supervisory analyzer in the DNA analysis unit for the FBI in 2008. She is the person who conducted the serological testing on items that had tested for potential presence of blood under ALS. Everything was negative. She also conducted the nuclear DNA testing on Caylee’s known sample and from the sample of the tibia found at the remains site. Ms. Seubert also conducted nuclear DNA profiling on Casey, Cindy, George and Lee.
Jose Baez then asked Ms. Seubert about her DNA testing on the pieces of duct tape (Q62-Q64) found on Caylee’s skull. This is where Baez brought in the “contaminated DNA” return that ended up belonging to Lorie Gottisman, another FBI employee. He also brought up the infamous “17 allele” which he tried to show was from some unidentified person. Baez also asked about DNA testing done on Brian Burner’s shovel.
Baez then asked if Ms. Seubert had been asked to conduct a parentage test for Caylee to see if Lee was her father. This led to a hot mess because Ms. Seubert was never asked to conduct paternity testing and it was clear Baez was trying to slip in an insinuation that would bolster Baez’s claim in his opening statement that Lee molested Casey as a teenager.
Upon cross Jeff Ashton addressed the “17 allele” and the major point was that even if it could be used as a conclusive return George Anthony doesn’t have a 17 allele in the D3 loci, which the witness confirmed was correct. Ashton also questioned Ms. Seubert as the degradation of DNA that would have taken place on the duct tape in the environment it was in and Ms. Seubert confirmed the environment would have had degrading effects on any DNA present.
Robyn Maynard was brought to the stand next. She was the OCSO crime scene investigator who found the 3D gel heart-sticker at the site. That’s about all that came out in this questioning.
Robert Murdoch, the OCSO investigator who mapped all the locations of evidence found on Suburban was then brought to the stand. He was asked to bring up his mapping software and tell the jury the distance between the location of Caylee’s skull and where the heart-shaped sticker was found, which was about 30 feet. Then Baez asked how far Q63 and Q64 were found from the skull at which point Linda Drane-Burdick and Jeff Ashton called him over to the State’s table and explained they were ON the skull. All of a sudden he didn’t have anymore questions about that.
Baez then called Jennifer Welch, crime scene investigator for OCSO who took photographs of the remains scene, back to the stand. He preceded to show a lot of pictures of trash that was collected from the remains scene. Spent a lot of time doing it as well. Linda Drane-Burdick got up and asked one question on cross: Would you characterize the location Caylee’s remains were found at as a trash dump? Ms. Welch answered yes.
Lorie Gottisman, FBI analyst in the question documents unit, was then called to the stand. She is the one whose DNA was found on the nonadhesive side of the duct tape found on Caylee’s skull. She also testified to using the VSC (Video Spectral Comparator) on Q63 to see if she could find the heart-shaped impression Ms. Fontaine had reported seeing. She could not.
Then Mr. Cary Oien was called to the stand to talk about 1/4″ hair he found on the sticker on the handle of Brian Burner’s shovel. Don’t ask me. I still haven’t found out why this time was wasted. Neither did Jeff Ashton apparently.
Friday saw exactly one witness on the stand all day long. Dr. Tim Huntington, the defense’s forensic entomology expert was called to the stand. This was a long day with a lot covered so I’ll just point you to the detailed report on that day instead of rehashing it here. What I will add is that this is the first case of an expert witness getting on the stand and testifying to opinions that were not included in any report, not revealed in any deposition, and which was an ambush to the State. Despite the underhanded, and intentionally misleading presentations the defense pulled off, this day did not end well for the defense. Ashton rocked the Casbah…and Dr. Huntington’s world.
Then we get to Saturday – the half day of testimony that had more action than a week’s worth of Fourth of July. It started out with the defense calling Dr. William Rodriguez, a forensic pathologist who had worked with Dr. Bass in setting up the “Body Farm”. Dr. Rodriguez testified about the remains scene saying that no typical “ring” or “stain” had been found on the ground which is usually indicative of the initial deposition and decomposition site. Like Dr. Huntington before him, it appeared that Dr. Rodriguez did not take into account that Caylee’s remains were triple-bagged, so I’m not sure why this would be a major point.
Then Dr. Rodriguez did something that caused an all out shitstorm to ensue. He testified about Dr. Warren’s video that showed possible placement of the duct tape on Caylee’s skull. He said there was no way to know where the duct tape was originally placed, other than it was in the head area. This was the second time a defense expert testified to an opinion not included in their report or disclosed to the State. This time, it got real fugly, real quick.
The jury was excused and a bit of a proffer took place at which point it was revealed Dr. Rodriguez had told Jose Baez of his opinion on the duct tape prior to issuing his report which did not contain this opinion. That would be January of this year. Judge Perry brought the hammer down on Baez. He said that this was clearly intentional in order to ambush the state, that he would not allow this in his court, that this witness would step down for the day, that the State would have the opportunity to depose this witness at 1:00 pm yesterday, that he would not be back on the stand until Monday at the earliest, that the State might get to add new expert witnesses based on what they found out in the deposition, that he would entertain reading an instruction to the jury about the violation of disclosure laws if the State chose to draft one, and that he would consider contempt charges against Baez after the trial was over.
And he warned Baez that lightning does not strike twice in the same place, which means…this doesn’t need to happen again. At least for this witness, if any other unrevealed opinion is stated on the stand by this witness, Judge Perry will exclude the witness entirely. Baez was instructed to call his next witness.
When the jury returned Dr. Rodriguez was no longer on the stand and the next witness called was Dr. Werner Spitz, forensic pathologist expert for the defense. Cheney Mason conducted the direct questioning of Dr. Spitz. Going over just his credentials and experience took about a half hour. Suffice it to say that Dr. Spitz has about 60 years experience, with his first autopsy possibly being on Jesus.
Dr. Spitz’s main message to the jury was two-fold: 1.) Dr. G didn’t do a proper autopsy because she didn’t saw the top of Caylee’s skull off, and 2.) Dr. Spitz found black sediment on the left interior side of the skull which was desribed as “brain dust” indicative of the decomposition of the brain, deposition of the residual elements and compounds from the brain. Dr. Spitz’s message on this latter point was that the skull had to have been lying slightly to the left in order for the deposition to occur.
Before we go any further on what happened in court, let me just say some things about Dr. G not sawing the top of the skull off. In Jeff Ashton’s monumental cross of Dr. Spitz it would be brought out that while sawing the cap of the skull off might be standard operating procedure for a corpse which still has brain matter left, it doesn’t necessarily need to be done on fully skeletonized, disarticulated remains because the interior of the skull is visible by other means…and there is no brain to extract to be examined.
Setting that argument aside, because if you questioned X number of forensic pathologists about whether it was necessary or not based solely on complete skeletonization, you’d probably get half saying yes it was necessary and the other half saying no. So who knows. But let’s go back to an article JWG wrote in March of this year reviewing Dr. Spitz’s report after he conducted his second autopsy. To quote form the article and report…
The skull was eggshell thickness without evidence of injury, pathological changes or deformity.
And then to revisit the autopsy report concerning the examination of Caylee’s skull…
The skull is removed from the bag, photographed, and xrays
are obtained.
So the Medical Examiner not only examined the inside of the skull with light, but conducted xrays as well. With the skull being “egg shell thin”, as described by Dr. Spitz, any fractures or staining due to brain hemorrhage, which was Dr. Spitz’s two main points for why the cap is removed, would have been identifiable using these techniques.
But back to the trial. Dr. Spitz’s other points were that neither cause of death (which was ruled undetermined by Dr. G.) nor manner of death (which was ruled homicide by Dr. G.) could be determined. The other topic that Dr. Spitz had an opinion on was the duct tape. He does not agree it was placed on the face of Caylee Anthony prior to decomposition. He believes it was placed after full skeletonization. The problem is, that just prior to him stating this opinion, he had just said that there was no indication of tape adherence to the bones. So, that’s a bit problematic.
One of Dr. Spitz’s contentions on the tape being placed prior to full decomposition is that there wasn’t any of Caylee’s DNA on it. It didn’t seem to matter to Dr. Spitz that the body, and tape, had been in a Florida swamp for almost 6 months. He gave the ridiculous comparison that he placed duct tape on his own arm and it would have his DNA on it. If Dr. Spitz is willing to leave his arm with the requisite duct tape in a swamp for six months and then check…we’ll listen.
Then Jeff Ashton began cross of Dr. Spitz. Holy moly sapphire.
Ashton asked Dr. Spitz what information, in addition to conducting the second autopsy (in which Spitz did saw the cap from Caylee’s skull) did he use to conclude that the manner of death was undetermined. This is where we learned that the only additional information Dr. Spitz had was from Baez, Mason and the Anthonys (only he can’t remember who at the Anthony home he actually talked to – could have been the pizza delivery boy). In other words, from the lying side of the court room.
On further questioning Dr. Spitz revealed he didn’t really care about the circumstances of Caylee’s life, and by default I guess what the circumstances were of her disappearance, prior to her death. He admitted he knew she was supposed to have been turned over to a babysitter, and that her disappearance wasn’t reported for a month, but that didn’t seem to matter. One thing that did matter is that when he went to the Anthony home he either saw a pool IN the house or AT the house and that might be the cause of the death, and therefore the manner of death…accidental drowning. Dr. Spitz doesn’t get paid the big bucks to not remember when he needs to, or apparently to remember when he doesn’t need to.
Then Ashton questioned him about his accusation that Dr. G didn’t follow protocol and asked him where this protocol was written. Conclusion…it’s not, he just knows it is one by golly and got real mad that anyone would question his authority what with JFK, Martin Luther King and Mary Jo Kopechne under his belt and 60,000 autopsies performed or assisted (by the way, if you take his work to extend a full 60 years that’s 1000 per year. Working every day of the year for 60 years that’s about 3 autopsy a day, every single day – including Passover. Something makes me question that number.)
Then he got off on houses, basements, whether you want a basement, and the full structure of things. He lost me a bit here, but some where in there I’m certain he was making a point. But guess what did get revealed during this rather heated exchange between Dr. Spitz and Jeff Ashton? Dr. Spitz confessed he’s been out of mainstream pathology for some time now. Oh, okay. But nonetheless Dr. G’s autopsy was “shoddy” said Dr. Spitz and it was all Jeff’s fault because he provoked him.
Somewhere in here Dr. Spitz brought up, for the second time, that it was important Dr. G saw the skull open because it was a nationally covered high-profile case. At this point Mr. Ashton asked him why that made any difference in how you would approach an autopsy and Dr. Spitz said it would make a difference versus an 85 year old woman who dies in her bed. Jeff Ashton asked if that meant you only take special precautions when the media is looking versus when some one unknown and uncared for dies?
Then Jeff Ashton started listing off interviews Dr. Spitz had done. Dr. Spitz couldn’t remember an interview just from this past week. That’s gonna leave a mark. Ashton went on to point out that Dr. Spitz seems to gravitate toward high-profile cases and rattled off several of them the doctor had been involved in. In other words, no matter what credit MUST go to Dr. Spitz’s respectable career and prior work, he’s an aged old glorified and elitist ambulance chaser now.
Then Jeff Ashton questioned Dr. Spitz about whether the “brain dust” couldn’t possibly be dirt since the skull was in dirty water off and on for 5 or 6 months. No! Dr. Spitz said PLEASE you have to trust me…this is brain dust. Did you test it, Ashton asked. No, if someone wants to they can, I didn’t do it. The ME didn’t do it either – shame on them. Are you positive it’s brain dust and not dirt. YES! Unless someone tests it and tells me otherwise (lol).
And then it all got crazy from there.
I can’t do it justice, I assure you. Waving mandibles, somebody’s poor skull on the witness stand with top up top down mandible over here mandible over there mandible in the air mandible everywhere, soap, more soap, wet soap, sticky soap, sticky hair, water effect on everything but brain dust (which must have some molecular weight equivalent to Ununseptium because swamp water can move everything at the remains scene except the highly weighted doesn’t move once it lands “brain dust” ), conspiracies, skull stealers who like to take skulls home, duct tape them together and put them back in a swamp…you name it, this story’s got it! YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!!!
Jeff Ashton broke it to Dr. Spitz that when he did saw the cap off Caylee’s skull he fractured the skull, which leads me to a question. How in holy hell did he do an examination on Caylee’s skull looking for fractures, not know he broke the thing, and then conclude there were no fractures. If he didn’t know he broke it, then the fracture should have been noted on his autopsy report, right? WTF???
Dr. Spitz said the medical examiner’s office, or somebody in their evil enclave of nefarious deeds done dirt cheap, staged the hair. You got that right, they moved the hair when it got to the ME office. Moved it all around for some reason. What reason they would have is beyond me, but they did, dammit, according to Dr. Spitz.
Dr. Spitz took scrapings of the highly significant brain dust…he either gave it to someone (who he doesn’t remember) or he kept it – he has no clue what he did with the all-important brain dust! Dr. Spitz’s overall theory about the remains and the duct tape are as follows:
- Remains on Suburban Drive, no duct tape.
- Stager (we will assume based on the opening statement this “stager” is Roy Kronk) goes to remains, takes the skull…maybe even home if you will where his prized duct tape collection is stored…taped the mandible in place because this is – for some unknown and if it were known HIGHLY BIZARRE REASON – VERY IMPORTANT!
- Stager puts the skull back where he found it but now in the anatomically correct position and not in the position it was in while the remains were decomposing.
- Medical examiner’s office, or someone working on their behalf maybe, moves the hair all around after the skull is taken from Suburban Drive. Again, for some unknown and disturbing reason.
- Duct tape on arm with no residue = duct tape on bone with no residue. Dr. Spitz says so – he has the arm to prove it.
Quote as well from yesterday from Perry = "Mr Baez this is not my first rodeo"
he should be in a horror film 
or even 
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