Anthony testimony focuses on bag of garbage inside car

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla.

An attorney for a mother charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter suggested Tuesday that a crime-scene investigator altered crucial evidence.

Casey Anthony’s defense attorney questioned crime scene investigator Gerardo Bloise about why he dried out garbage found in a bag in Anthony’s car. The bag is important since defense attorneys say a foul odor in the car came from the garbage, while prosecutors contend the smell was from decomposing human remains.

“You had no idea it would alter significant items in this case?” defense attorney Jose Baez said during cross-examination.

Bloise said he was following protocol, since drying out evidence preserves it and makes it easier to examine.

Caylee Anthony’s skeletal remains were found in a wooded area not far from her grandparents’ home in December 2008. Anthony has pleaded not guilty to killing her daughter. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death. Her defense attorney has said the toddler drowned in the family’s swimming pool.

Casey Anthony was born in Warren in 1986 to George and Cindy Anthony, who lived in Howland before moving the family to Florida in 1989.

A K-9 handler also testified that his German shepherd alerted on Anthony’s car trunk and also the backyard of the Anthony home during a search for evidence of Caylee in the days after she was reported missing. When deputies opened the car’s trunk, the dog jumped forward and placed his paws on the car. He then laid down, indicating an alert, Jason Forgey testified.

Forgey then took the dog to the Anthony home where he alerted on an area in the backyard near a playhouse and sandbox, the handler said.

Under cross-examination, however, Forgey said when he and the dog returned to the Anthony home the following day the dog did not alert on anything.