Casey Anthony: 84 chloroform searches? That’s a bombshell - Hal

Casey Anthony: 84 chloroform searches? That’s a bombshell
posted by halboedeker on June, 8 2011 6:16 PM

The big headline came at day’s end in the Casey Anthony trial.

A computer forensics expert, John Dennis Bradley, revealed that someone in the Anthony home had looked up chloroform 84 times.

WFTV-Channel 9 pointed definitively to Casey Anthony as the searcher. ”We heard Casey looked up chloroform 84 times,” anchor Josh Benson said. WFTV’s Kathi Belich agreed and added, “Prosecutors say Casey Anthony might have thought she’d covered her tracks by deleting her self-incriminating searches on her family’s computer.”

Other stations weren’t ready to say the searcher was Anthony, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee. Prosecutors want to show that Anthony was contemplating killing her child when the computer searches were made in March 2008.

“Nobody is able to confirm who was making these computer searches,” WKMG-Channel 6’s Mike DeForest said.

WKMG legal analyst Mark NeJame predicted the prosecution will use process of elimination to reveal that only Casey Anthony could have been using the computer at the time of the searches. NeJame also predicted the defense will have an explanation for Casey’s chloroform searches: She wanted to know more about something a boyfriend put on MySpace, a picture with the statement ”win her over with chloroform.”

WKMG’s Tony Pipitone said that work hours of George and Cindy Anthony, Casey’s parents, will show that one or both were out of the house when the computer searches were made in the home. “The state is going to argue this was Casey Anthony,” Pipitone said.

Judge O.H. Eaton Jr., WESH-Channel 2’s legal analyst, said the defense had done a good job of showing you can’t tell who might have used a running computer. Yet he added that he suspected that state would take care of that issue by calling other Anthony family members.

WOFL-Channel 35 anchor Sonni Abatta noted that the state still has to prove Casey Anthony was at the computer. WOFL’s Shannon Butler agreed, ”It’s going to be hard to do, because nobody actually saw her do anything or move a body or put the body in the trunk or put it there in the field.”

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer praised prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick and said “she laid a trap” for defense attorney Jose Baez in getting the 84 times answer. Anchor Vanessa Welch wondered why Burdick waited so long in the day to get the information. Sheaffer’s take: “She finessed it out of him. There’s really an art to this.”

How was the technical testimony about computers going over Thursday afternoon?

WOFL’s Holly Bristow said the jurors seemed to get interested and start taking notes every time chloroform was mentioned.

WFTV’s Belich wondered what jurors were making of computer searches on ruptured spleen, internal bleeding, head injury and chloroform.

WFTV’s Sheaffer called the search “rather bizarre” because it was all about how to inflict death or bodily injury. “I think the jury will pick that up,” he added.

Jurors seemed antsy during the more technical computer talk, WESH’s Amanda Ober said. Yet information about specific computer searches roused the jurors’ interest, Ober added.

WESH’s Eaton said the testimony of Internet forensics expert Bradley was “very dry” and “the kind of testimony where I used to like to breaks more often than usual” to let people stretch their legs and fight off drowsiness.

WOFL legal analyst Diana Tennis found it difficult to follow Bradley and get the import of his comments.

WKMG anchor Gaard Swanson found Bradley’s testimony sophisticated but easy enough to follow.

WFTV’s Sheaffer said the reality of trials can be tedious and technical. “It’s not all just putting a witness on who has a Perry Mason moment and breaks down, and says, ‘Yes, I did it.’ Far from it.” But Sheaffer confided about some of the technical evidence: “Even my eyes start to cross.”

What kind of day was it in court?

“It’s a good day for the state because a lot of this evidence, I think, is compelling and I think it’s being presented well,” WKMG legal analyst Mark O’Mara said. “But there’s a lot of openings for the defense as well to show the problems with presuming too much with this evidence.”

What do you think?

MOre: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/06/casey-anthony-84-chloroform-searches-thats-a-bombshell.html