Casey Anthony Trial Update: Smell in car was from bag of trash, says defense witness
ORLANDO, Fla. (CBS/WKMG/AP) - Casey Anthony's defense team spent the second day of their case attempting to poke holes in the prosecution's case against the Florida mother by calling entomologist Dr. Timothy Huntington to the stand to contradict a prosecution witness.
Pictures: Casey and Caylee Anthony, Personal Photos
Casey Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
Huntington, a certified forensic entomologist and a professor at Concordia University in Nebraska, was the first witness called by the defense Friday morning.
Huntington said evidence in the trunk of Anthony's car indicates a body did not decompose in the car. The defense claims the smell from the trunk was from a bag of trash. Prosecutors say it came from the girl's body.
The defense's expert witness testified about what he'd expect to see in the trunk of a car with a decomposing body in it, based on research about what happened to decomposing pigs inside car trunks, reports CBS affiliate WKMG.
"If we assume that a body was in the [Anthony] trunk, you expect to find many flies," Huntington said. "I would expect to find hundreds, thousands of those dead insects as I did in the experiment."
Instead, he said, his analysis was consistent with the smell coming from a bag of trash with trash-feeding insects in it.
Additionally, Huntington testified that the decomposing pigs gave off liquid that stained the trunks of the cars.
"It is a sticky, greasy, disgusting material," he said. "Once it soaks in there, I'm not sure a professional cleaner could get it out."
On Saturday, state expert Dr. Neal Haskell testified that a decomposing body had been in Anthony's trunk for a few days before being removed. Haskell said that entomological evidence showed that Caylee's body had been in the woods off Suburban Drive around six months before her remains were found in December 2008.
Anthony's defense claimed during opening statements that meter reader Roy Kronk somehow obtained Caylee's body and held onto it for months before placing it in the woods to obtain reward money when he reported finding it.
Anthony has pleaded not guilty and faces a possible death sentence if convicted. The prosecution contends the child was suffocated by duct tape placed over her nose and mouth. The defense said in its opening statement that she drowned in her grandparents' swimming pool.