Casey Anthony Investigation and Trial - Term Paper Example

? Casey Anthony Investigation and Trial CASEY ANTHONY INVESTIGATION Introduction Caylee Anthony was merely two years old at the time she was reported missing as from July 15th and later found dead. Caylee lived in with Casey Anthony, her mother in Orlando together with her maternal grandparents. Cindy Anthony, her maternal grandmother, reported her missing through a 9-1-1 call, reporting that Caylee had been missing for a month since July 15 (Lundy et al, 2008). She also reported, during the same call, that her daughter’s car had a smell of decomposition. Her grandmother also explained that her mother had only reported not seeing Caylee for almost a month, after giving different explanations regarding where she was. Casey Anthony was also untruthful to the case’s detectives, for instance, claiming that she thought her nanny had kidnapped Caylee on the 9th of June, adding that, too afraid to contact the police, she had been trying to find her. In October of 2008, Casey Anthony was charged with 1st degree murder (Lundy et al, 2008). To this charge, she pled not guilty. Caylee’s remains were discovered in a wooded area adjacent to the family home five months later. Initial reports from the investigation and testimony in the trial pointed to duct tape being discovered on the skull’s mouth and front (Walensky, 2011). The trial lasted for approximately six weeks in 2011, during which time the prosecution asked the Court for Casey to receive the death penalty. They claimed that her mother who wanted out of parental duties, used chloroform to knock her out and suffocated her with duct tape had murdered Caylee. Jose Baez, countering on behalf of the defense team, claimed that, on June 16, Caylee had drowned in the Anthony’s pool and that her grandfather had sought to hide the body. Evidence in the Casey Anthony Case Roy Kronk first alerted the police to the presence of a suspicious object in August after coming across it on his job as a meter reader. The area where he discovered this object was in a wooded area that lay adjacent to the Anthony’s house. After failing to get through the first time, he managed to get police officers to look at the scene. However, they did not find anything despite Roy telling them to look for something that looked kike a skull in a bag. Roy called a second time in December to report the same thing and, this time, the police found Caylee’s remains in a gray bag together with duct tape (Walensky, 2011). The tape was attached to the little skull’s hair, and the police uncovered more bones after a more thorough search of the area around the discovery. Dr. Jan Garavaglia, the medical examiner in the Casey Case found that the child remains discovered were actually those of baby Caylee and that she had been murdered, although she could not determine what caused her death. Investigation of evidence discovered at the crime scene was also carried out through computer technology. Software from the computer investigations department, under the control of Dennis Bradley, also investigated the computer utilized by Casey Anthony, treating it as a crime scene (Walensky, 2011). Investigations showed that the user had conducted a whooping eighty-four searches on chloroform. However, Dennis admitted that the software had a flaw that had caused it to process erroneously forensic information. Apparently, Casey Anthony had only searched for chloroform once. In addition, the search result that the user had opened was concerned with how 19th century man had used the chemical (Walensky, 2011). The Casey Anthony prosecuting team presented close to 400 items of evidence, some of it put together from the crime scene investigation. During the investigation, investigators discovered a single strand of hair in Casey Anthony’s car that was genetically similar to another strand recovered from a hairbrush that belonged to Caylee (Walensky, 2011). The investigators could also determine that the former strand had come from a dead body because the hair root showed dark banding, which occurs to hair following death. Dr. Arpad Vass, a forensic scientist at the national laboratory at Oak Ridge using a new CSI technique dubbed LIBS also found that a sample of air isolated from Casey’s car trunk had revealed the presence of chemical components that indicate the occurrence of decomposition (Walensky, 2011). The LIBS technology relied on five compounds that were present in the sample out of 400 other compounds. The team to the lab in oak Ridge also stated that they had found the car trunk contaminated with chloroform (Walensky, 2011). In addition, crime scene investigators found a strong decomposition smell that, however, could not be determined on an acknowledgeable scale, such as the Daubert test. Crime scene investigation also found, according to the case’s detectives, that the tape attached to the skull’s mouth had a heart shaped residue. However, investigations in the lab could not capture the heart shape photographically because a dye test had been carried out on the tape, destroying the residue (Walensky, 2011). Investigators also found evidence that Casey had been browsing for information on how to make chloroform, as well as how to snap necks. Casey could have used the computer that was used to make the searches. Investigators discovered Casey’s boyfriend, Mr. Morales, to have posted a poster on social media that referred to winning “her” over with chloroform. The first crime scene investigators at the scene also discovered a damp blanket at the scene that was similar to another present at Casey parent’s house (Walensky, 2011). Further information also became available in an investigation done on the computer that Casey Anthony allegedly used according to the investigators. Apparently, the investigators had failed to check into Casey’s Firefox browser during their evidence collection process (Walensky, 2011). Therefore, they had missed crucial browsing evidence by only considering evidence on her Internet Explorer browser. Investigations into her Firefox browser history revealed that a user in the Anthony residence had used Google to search for methods of foolproof suffocation. The same user had accessed a website, which offered information on taking one’s own life by poisoning and covering their head with a polythene bag. Casey Anthony’s MySpace account was also accessed using the same browser and investigators found that this occurred the same day as the search on foolproof suffocation and tied it to her boyfriend’s post on chloroform (Walensky, 2011). CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL Prosecution The prosecution first called Casey’s father, George Anthony, who on top of denying ever having abused Casey, also testified to smelling a smell like a decomposing body July. The prosecution claimed that this evidence supported the 9-1-1 call made by his wife. Dennis Bradley, another witness for the prosecution was called in as the software developer for the national forensics laboratory (Ashton & Pulitzer, 2011). Bradley testified that a computer allegedly used by Casey was used to search for chloroform on the Sci-spot.com website, which he discovered after deletion. He also contended that it is possible these items had been saved under bookmarks. Prosecution also called on Jason Forgey, who was aK9 dog handler. His dog had indicated that the trunk of Casey’s car had indicated the presence of human decomposition in the car. Jason also testified that his breed of police dog had over 3,000 real world searches. Another prosecution witness, Kristin Brewster, who testified that the K9’s partner dog had also signaled the presence of decomposition, corroborated this (Ashton & Pulitzer, 2011). She explained that the reason none of the dogs had not detected the smell during a later visit was because it had likely dissipated. Dr. Jan Garavaglia was another prosecution witness. The professional medical examiner testified that Caylee had been the victim of homicide, although she could not determine the means. She testified that one indicator of child homicide is their disappearance not being reported to authorities by the parent, which led to her suspicions of foul play (Ashton & Pulitzer, 2011). She also testified that a small quantity of chloroform could cause a child’s death, which corroborated the prosecution’s evidence of chloroform in the trunk of Casey’s car. Michael Warren was another witness for the prosecution who was an expert in human identification at the University of Florida, who gave evidence that, in his opinion, the duct tape was put on the child before decomposition by presenting an animation showing how the duct tape might have been put over Caylee’s mouth and nose. Finally, Elizabeth Fontaine, a latent print examiner with the FBI testified to finding a heart shaped residue on the duct tape (Ashton & Pulitzer, 2011). Defense The defense summoned two witnesses to counter the duct tape testimony. The medical examiner’s chief investigator testified that it was unclear when the tape was first applied, as well as the fact that its position my have moved. Casey’s mother also testified that their family pets were buried in blankets, enfolded in plastic bags and taped up (Baez & Peter, 2012). They also called in Dr. Werner Spitz who testified that he had a performed a second autopsy and that he was no indication that the cause of death was murder. He also contended that the duct tape was put on Caylee after she had decomposed since there was no DNA on it. He also claimed that it was possible the examiner and her staff had planted evidence. The defense also placed Cindy Anthony on the stand where she testified that she had done the chloroform searches after leaving work early (Baez & Peter, 2012). The defense then filed a motion disputing Casey Anthony’s suitability to be committed to trial. However, psychological examination proved she was fit to stand trial. Dr. Ken Furton was also called upon by the defense to dispute the human decomposition chemicals theory. The defense asked the judge not to allow that evidence into court, and he obliged (Baez & Peter, 2012). The defense also raised the issue of the discrepancy in Bradley’s computer software and asked the judge to give extra instruction concerning this evidence to the jury, although the judge declined. Baez, the lead defense attorney, also brought two private investigators to the witness stand that had performed a search on the crime scene. While there was a videotape of the search, there was nothing of note found. Roy Kronk, the meter reader who had found the remains of Caylee was also called by the defense and gave the same story. While he acknowledged receiving a reward of five thousand for the body’s discovery, he denied having been motivated by money (Baez & Peter, 2012). His son, put on the witness stand the net day, claimed that his father had alerted him that the discovery of the body would turn him into a famous and rich man. The defense later called summoned Ms. Holloway who was involved in Caylee’s search and was involved in a secret affair with Casey’s father. She testified that he had texted her that he loved her and needed her after leaving her house and that he had not known for sure the cause of Caylee’s death, instead claiming repeatedly that Caylee’s death was accidental (Baez & Peter, 2012). She testified that Casey’s father had continuously insisted that the root of death was accidental but that it had been blown absolutely out of control. She referred the prosecution to her earlier sworn statement to police during cross-examination, in which she claimed that Casey’s father had always maintained that the death was caused by an accident gone wrong. After bungling the accident, he believed that his daughter had attempted to cover up the accident. When asked by the defense if Anthony had confided to her that Caylee had gone missing at the same time that she publicly stated that she had gone missing, she replied to the affirmative (Baez & Peter, 2012). References Ashton, J. & Pulitzer, L. (2011). Imperfect justice : prosecuting Casey Anthony. New York : William Morrow. Baez, J. & Golenbock, P. (2012). Presumed guilty : Casey Anthony, the inside story. Dallas : BenBella Books. Lundy, S. Prieto, B. & Edwards, A. (2008). Caylee's mother Casey Anthony indicted on 1st- degree murder charge. Retrieved February 23, 2013, from Orlando Sentinel. Walensky, R. (2011). Beautiful life? : the CSI behind the Casey Anthony trial & my observations from Courtroom Seat #1. North Charleston : CreateSpace . Read More