Orlando, FL- Occurrences yesterday afternoon had me checking my Google Earth maps to double check that the Orange County Courthouse was not next door to NASA doing their ignition checks. The flare ups were numerous and loud.
Defeat Is Not an Option
“I’m Winning..”- Jose Baez (borrowed from Sheenster)
During the motion for exclusion and Frye hearing, Jose Baez, lost it.
Avid readers and contributors here know I am not about the drama. This was actually that baaaaadd.
FRYE’S WIT DAT?
Shy of jumping up and down or retreating to a fetal position with thumb-sucking involvement, Jose Baez, counsel for defendant Casey Anthony, needed a time out, several time outs, and was granted one after his co-counsel’s requests, and another, courtesy Chief Judge Belvin Perry.
Because I value your time, and will not subject you to the H O U R S of innocuous banter we witnessed, my highlight reel for your review-
Let’s say Jose Baez does not hold any advanced Science degrees. In the interest of disclosure, neither do I.
I do however understand that blaming the State, in this case, Jeff Ashton, for the reason that Mr. Baez missed deadlines requiring him to agree to a stipulation whereby he can no longer subject the “hardware” of Dr. Arpad Vass to the “Frye” test, is a no-n0.
Chief Judge Belvin Perry: ..Mr. Baez.. it sounds like to me, you entered into an agreement that you are trying to rescind.. If you questioned the results then, why did you agree to it?…
Jose Baez: ..It is the easiest thing in the world to hold a contempt charge over a lawyers head, Judge..
Chief Judge Belvin Perry: “…Your co-counsel is trying to speak to you.”
Jose Baez: “Judge, can we have a 5 minute recess?”
Chief Judge Belvin Perry: “You may have a 5 minute recess.”
This exchange came near the end of what can only be described as a window to the strength of the State’s case against Casey Anthony for the murder of her daughter Caylee, and the utter lack of preparation and skill the defense team has by comparison.
Photo Credit Gary Kazanjin
While it is true that much of what we hear in pre-trial motions is not always what will be admitted at trial, which is the very reason for them in the first place, the defense’s lack of knowledge of their own case is not a valid reason to deny something into evidence.
It is abundantly clear from this editor’s perspective that neither Dorothy Clay Simms nor Jose Baez sufficiently understood the scientific subject matter they are requesting to be rendered inadmissible, or in effect, “junk science”.
Devoid of strategy, repetitious and largely irrelevant, with several pending motions still to be heard, the defense ate up two straight days. As a result, all parties are back in court next Friday and possibly Saturday.
By far the most important witness to take the stand yet , Dr. Arpad Vass, research Scientist of “The Body Farm” fame and globally respected, peer-reviewed author of two separate studies on odor analysis in human remains, NAILED IT.
Dr. Vass’s work, which is also referenced in some of the defense expert witness’s studies , was published in The Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2004 and 2008. His testimony was masterful in bridging the gap between academic jargon and layman “speak.”
He has a delightful and disarming diction and jurors are going to adore the way he can make such a macabre subject matter educational and practical.
Without reservation, Dr. Vass’s testimony riveted both the courtroom spectators and the online community, however, his words brought strange reactions from the defendant herself, Casey Anthony.
When asked by Jeff Ashton what Vass’s response was when he opened the sample containing a swatch of carpet from the trunk liner of the Pontiac Sunfire, he replied,
” At first I jumped back about 2 feet because the odor was so strong, but it was definitely the smell of human decomposition..”
..”What was your reaction to seeing that chromatogram result ?..”
..”I have never seen a peak in chloroform in a sample Ive’s shot in over 20 years like that… The sample was 10,000 times the control sample..”
..”Human decomposition is very unique, it is as unique to me as a skunk smell is to everyone else. You don’t have to see a skunk in the road to know it was run over..”
There are no leaps to be made here, no exaggeration. Dr. Arpad Vass ‘s testimony alone is enough for a reasonable person to conclude not only was there a decomposing human in the trunk of Casey’s car, but coupled with a hair that has a deathband that can only be from Casey or Caylee, and we both know which one is alive, this case is all but waiting for a foreperson slip with an x in the box.
Looking ahead to trial, Dr. Vass colleagues, forensic entomologist Dr. Neal Haskell, forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass and forensic botanist Dr. David Hall are some of the strongest expert witnesses in their respective concentrations in this country.
As an analogy, if I owned the side of a mountain I would carve them in likeness as my “Forensic Mt. Rushmore.”
Dr. Vass was brought into this case by lead investigator Cpl. Det Yuri Melich.
B E S T C A L L E V E R.
For anyone saying- not so fast Blink, Judge Perry still has to rule on the frye issues and admissibility, I say ” minor formality”. He also asked Jose Baez if he had any other motions pending besides the balance of what was known to be heard Friday April 1st to which he answered no. Not a good idea considering co-counsel Cheney Mason filed a request for a rehearing that morning and asserts Judge Perry was bias in his rulings on earlier admissibility or suppression hearings. Musta slipped Jose’s mind.
Do we all realize Judge Perry signed the majority of search warrants BASED ON SOME OF THIS DATA in the first place ?
Do we all realize that Judge Perry presided over the Grand Jury that issued Casey’s indictment?
From the defense table, during the hearings, Casey Anthony furiously scrawled notes and flipped through voluminous reports and deposition transcripts.
On Wednesday, during the testimony of Yuri Melich, whereby at one point he was literally 5 feet away from her scribbling on the defense’s “demonstrative aids” pad at Baez’s request, Casey Anthony never once looked at Melich, or up, from her “make sure and look busy” activities.
Imagine that. Casey Anthony cannot eyeball her accuser, the lead detective in the case of her murdered child and this girl thinks she is going to be acquitted?
She is wrongly accused, this guy had and has it all wrong and she cannot be torn away from her post-it passing to observe his testimony about her dead child in her car? Seriously.
There is no explanation I can fathom where this defense feels it is in Casey Anthony’s best interests to go to trial in the instant criminal case against her. None.
That said, it is.