Depositions Reveal Questioning Of Key Witness In Anthony Case - Pepitone

Depositions Reveal Questioning Of Key Witness In Anthony Case
Medical Examiner Challenged On Manner Of Death, Location Of Duct Tape, Possible Drowning

POSTED: Thursday, February 24, 2011
UPDATED: 11:15 pm EST February 24, 2011

Excerpt:

Local 6 has reviewed previously unreleased depositions from Garavaglia and others, revealing not only how prosecutors are preparing to use testimony to buttress their claim that Casey Anthony murdered her daughter, but also how the defense may challenge that testimony.

. . .

Her primary interrogator: prominent defense attorney Cheney Mason, who -- at age 67 -- reminded Garavaglia at one point “this is not my first rodeo.”

“Will you define homicide?” he asked.

“The death at the hands of another,” Garavaglia responded, then, when challenged, added, “Forensically, hands or means … I don’t know if hands -- maybe actions of another or neglect of another.”

Mason then suggests another possibility: “Suppose this child drowned in the family swimming pool?”

. . .

Mason: “And the circumstances are what you have been told by the detective or other law enforcement people?”

Garavaglia: “No. The circumstances are that a child, an … almost 3-year-old child is found in a plastic bag, in a laundry bag, dumped in a field to rot with duct tape in the vicinity of the lower mandible,” or jaw.

. . .

Local 6 has learned the placement of the duct tape on Caylee’s skull is going to be a crucial issue in the trial. In fact, the state has commissioned a computer rendering of the skull with the tape superimposed on it and on Caylee's hair. (The state has refused to release it to Local 6 because it contains images of the body and hair, making it exempt from public release under the court’s order.)

But, from Ashton’s questions, one can infer why the placement of the tape could be crucial to proving murder.

READ MORE: http://www.clickorlando.com/news/26989474/detail.html