Casey Anthony Wants Heart Sticker Evidence Excluded

Casey Anthony wants heart sticker evidence excluded from trial

Casey Anthony's defense team filed a motion Tuesday seeking to exclude references to the sticker or heart-shaped residue from her first-degree murder trial.

December 29, 2010

Casey Anthony's defense team doesn't want any mention of a heart sticker or heart-shaped residue — which was reportedly found on duct tape that was uncovered with her dead toddler's remains — during the mother's first-degree murder trial.

In a motion filed late Tuesday, defense attorneys asked a judge to exclude the "phantom" evidence, claiming it violates Anthony's Constitutional rights, including to due process.

Anthony, 24, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie in the summer of 2008. Caylee's remains were found in December 2008 in woods just blocks away from her family's east Orange County home.

The toddler's death was ruled a homicide, but the medical examiner couldn't determine how she was killed.

Orange County Sheriff's Office investigative documents earlier released said a piece of silver duct tape was placed over Caylee's mouth area.

Detective Yuri Melich wrote that when the tape was processed at a FBI lab, a technician noticed residue in the shape of a heart. It appeared to be consistent with a heart-shaped sticker, Melich wrote. He also noted investigators found a heart-shaped sticker similar in size to the residue in the search area.

But other investigative reports publicly released said the residue couldn't be detected after the FBI processed the evidence for fingerprints. No one took a picture of the residue before it was destroyed.

In his motion, defense attorney Jose Baez said the fingerprint examiner only saw the alleged residue when she performed a procedure called "super glue fuming."

The examiner said she wasn't certain exactly what she saw and did not authorize law-enforcement to "allege otherwise, the story of the 'heart sticker.'"

"Law enforcement has been instrumental in manufacturing a story where there clearly was none," Baez wrote.

"Despite their complete lack of basis in fact, these reckless and patently untrue statements have exploded in the media and quickly spiraled out of control. There is now a common public perception, contrary to fact, that actual residue of a sticker was found on the duct tape."

Baez said defendants have the right to examine tangible evidence, and when evidence is destroyed, it can't be used against the defendant at trial and must be excluded.

The defense asked that a hearing date be set to argue the matter.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-casey-anthony-heart-sticker-20101229,0,5749918.story