Casey Anthony Trial Day 19: Prosecutors rest case, recap (Day 13-18)

The prosecutors in Casey Anthony trial rested their case on Wednesday after presented 70 witness testimonies in 19 days.

The jurors were in the courtroom for about five minutes on Wednesday morning, and then were dismissed with strict orders not to discuss the case, use social media or watch newscasts.

Casey's defense lawyers will call their first witness on Thursday.

On Wednesday, defense lawyer Cheney Mason asked Judge Belvin Perry to acquit Casey, because the prosecutors lacked solid evidence.

The state has stacked up inferences, but has presented no solid evidence, Mason said. However, acquittal was denied after a brief recess.

In the past three and a half weeks, prosecutors presented several witnesses whose testimonies suggested that Caylee Anthony was killed by her mother who put a duct tape over her mouth and nose after chloroforming her, though a medical examiner testified the cause of death was undetermined.

Only the manner of death has been ruled to be homicide.

Here's a recap of what happened from Day 13 to Day 18:

Day 13:

Sandra Osborne of the Orange County Sheriff's Office testifies that computer forensic examiners had found searches on how to make chloroform, neck breaking and self defense.

The searches were made by Casey in March 2008, 3 months before Caylee went missing. The records were found in the hard drive of the computer even though they had been deleted, Osborne, who had obtained a complete Internet history in the computer belonging to the Anthony family, says.

Orborne says they also searched Zenaida Fernandez Gonzalez name on or after July 16, 2008. The only instances of that name were found in search queries on or after July 16, 2008. No instance of the name appeared before that, Osborne says.
John Bradley, the owner of an Ontario-based company that develops forensic computer software, testifies one specific website related with chloroform had been visited more than 80 times.

Searches were also conducted using terms such as inhalation, self-defense, meningeal artery, ruptured spleen, alcohol and head injury, Bradley says.

Deputy Kristin Brewer, a dog handler with the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, testifies that her cadaver dog Bones had alerted her of the odor of body decomposition in the Anthony's backyard.

Day 14:

The prosecutor shows photos of Caylee's remains, including her skull to the jury. The photos showed a duct tape wound round the mouth of Caylee's skull. Small white pearly teeth were visible under the tape.

The photos also showed other items that were found together with Caylee's remains, including a black plastic bag, an off-white canvas bag, a red plastic Disney bag, a pair of shorts, a blanket and clothing remnants. Casey cries while the photos are being shown and becomes sick.

Casey's brother Lee testifies that Casey said Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez was a Hispanic woman with a dark complexion, medium height, weighing about 100 pounds.

Casey told her brother that the nanny kidnapped Caylee to teach her a lesson as she was not a qualified mother. Gonzalez also told her not to call the police.

From time to time, Casey said the nanny contacted her through Casey’s MySpace page and ordered her to do something.

Day 15:

Prosecutors play a disturbing video to show how Caylee could have possibly died. The video superimposed Caylee's skull on a photo of the toddler when she was alive.

Casey's lawyers say the disgusting superimposition is nothing but a fantasy and make a motion for mistrial. Judge Belvin Perry denies the motion.

Orange County's deputy chief medical examiner Dr. Gary Utz testifies he could not determine the cause of Caylee's death.

Dr. John Schultz, an associate anthropology professor at the University of Central Florida testifies Caylee's remains were probably lying in the wooded area for around six months. Her femur bones were chewed on by animals, he says.

Schultz says it is his opinion that the body was relatively intact when it was disposed off in the woods. There was no evidence of trauma, he adds.

Chief medical examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia testifies that Caylee's death was a homicide and not accident because of three reasons:
[1] The fact that Casey took 31 days before she reported Caylee missing raised a red flag
[2] The fact that Caylee's remains were tossed in a field to rot in bags...as though she was a piece of rubbish, and
[3] The fact that there's no reason for the duct tape to be put over Caylee's mouth after she has died or if she had died an accidental death.

Garavaglia says she can't say for sure how Caylee died but is certain that it is not an accidental death. Accidental deaths are reported 100 percent of the time - unless there's reason not to, Garavaglia says.

Garavaglia also says it is absolutely possible that overexposure to chloroform could kill a child.

Dr. Michael Warren, associate anthropology professor at the University of Florida, testifies while showing the video that the duct tape found near Caylee's remains must have covered Caylee's mouth prior to decomposition or else the mandible attached to the upper skull would have been displaced. Warren says he is not sure whether the tape could have been the cause of Caylee's death.

Mike Vincent and Robin Maynard, Orange County Sheriff's crime scene investigators, testify that they had found and collected maggots from a garbage bag found in Casey's car Pontiac Sunfire as well as from the site where Caylee's remains were found. They say the samples were sent to forensic entomologist Dr. Neil Haskell.

Day 16:

Forensic entomologist Dr. Neal Haskell testifies that the bugs or insects found at the site where Caylee's body was dumped as well as in the trunk of Casey's car are related to decomposition of body.

Haskell suggests Caylee’s body was moved twice and not once as supposed earlier. Before the body was put in the trunk of Casey’s car, Caylee’s body had experienced a short, intial stage of decomposition, Haskell says.

Haskell says he found only a single leg from the type of fly - a blowfly - that feasts on a fresh dead body. But he found hundreds of eggs and adult specimens of another type of gnat-like bugs called phorid flies, which are found in the next stage of decomposition.

Haskell says the bugs were found on Caylee's remains that were found in a wooded area, on paper towels as well as inside a vacuum cleaner that were used to clean the trunk of the car.

He estimates that the corpse was placed in the trunk for 3-5 days, long enough for biochemical changes to take place that attracted the bugs, before being dumped in the woods.

The entomologist says the bugs found in the woods on Caylee's remains suggest that the body was in advanced decomposing state when it was placed there. He also dismisses the claim of Casey's lawyers that the bugs could have been attracted to garbage, saying empty pizza box, empty soda cans and other refuse in the trash bag would not have attracted these specific flies.

Crime scene investigator Jennifer Welch, who had collected over 390 pieces of evidence from the wooded area where Caylee's remains were found, shows the court a piece of duct tape that was found. She also identifies the lettering on a pink shirt found at the crime site that said, Big trouble comes in small packages. Earlier in the trial, the jury was shown photos of Caylee wearing a similar shirt.

Ronald Murdock, a forensic supervisor with the Orange County Sheriff's Office, identifies several pieces of evidence, including pictures of Casey's bedroom, Caylee's bedroom and a shed at the Anthony home. He also identified a red metal gas can, a trash bag from the garage, Caylee's winnie the Pooh bed sheets (similar to the blanket found near Caylee's remains), a book of stickers shaped like hearts (a duct tape at the remains site had a heart-shaped sticker stuck on it) and several other items.

Gerald Johnston, a local land surveyor who was contacted by the Orange County Sheriff's Office to survey the remains site, shows a 3-D flyover animation of the area to the jury. It included markers where investigators found Caylee's bones.

Day 17:

FBI fingerprint expert Elizabeth Fontaine testifies she found a heart shaped outline on a piece of the duct tape that was hanging on Caylee's remains. She says she had examined the duct tape through a reflective ultraviolet imaging system that can highlight existing fingerprints.

“It was approximately the size of a dime,” she says.

“If you were to wear a band-aid for an extended period of time you have that glue and debris outline,” she says. “Rather than a band-aid it is in the shape of a heart.”

Fontaine says she showed the heart outline to a supervisor, but when she prepared to photograph it, the heart shape mysteriously disappeared and no fingerprint was found.

FBI hair analyst Stephen Shaw testifies that the strand of hair found in Casey's car is consistent with the hair left on Caylee's comb. According to Shaw, the hair found in the car showed post-mortem banding, which is a dark band of color near the root sometimes seen on hair from a corpse.

Day 18:

Tattoo artist Bobby Williams of Cast Iron Tattoos testifies he inscribed two Italian words “Bella Vita” on Casey's left shoulder blade, which means beautiful life on July 15, 2008. During the procedure, she seemed normal and looked happy. She seemed normal, Williams says. She didn't seem upset about anything, she seemed happy for the most part.

Because William had known Casey for seven years, he also talked about Caylee on that day. Casey said Caylee was with her nanny and that she would be accompanying her on July 19, the day of her next tattoo appointment.

Prosecutors claim Casey was celebrating her freedom brought about through Caylee's death but defense lawyer Jose Baez explains the tattoo “Bella Vita is a tribute to recently-deceased Caylee, who was a beautiful life.

Catherine Theisen, who is an FBI expert on forensic mitochondrial DNA, testifies she compared the strand of hair found in Casey's car to cheek swabs from Casey and matched them.

The testing, Theisen says, could not exclude Caylee, Casey, Casey's mother Cindy, her brother Lee Anthony or any maternal uncles as the source of the hair.

Alina Burroughs, a crime scene investigator, testifies she found a quarter-sized heart sticker with a red glittery border stuck on an envelope and a sheet of smaller pink and purple heart-shaped stickers found in a dresser in Casey's bedroom, while she was collecting evidence from the house of the Anthony family. The jurors are showed the photos.

During cross examination, Baez says the stamp on envelope under the sticker is only 37 cents, which means it had been there for a long time ago.

Baez also points out that the items in the drawer where the heart-shaped stickers were found were from a baby shower scrap book.

Casey's mother Cindy testifies about the two canvas laundry bags found by the authorities who searched her home. The prosecutors claim Casey stuffed Caylee's body in a canvas laundry bag and two black plastic garbage bags with yellow ties like the ones found at the Anthony home.

Cindy testifies that while one bag was used to store the balls Caylee played with, the other was used to keep her stuffed animals until they were moved to a display. She says the latter bag used to be kept between Caylee's bed and the wall, and that she has not seen it since.

Cindy also is asked to recall the length and color of her, Casey's and Caylee's hair at the time of Caylee's disappearance.

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