Anthony defense focuses on DNA

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla.

The defense concentrated on the reliability of the prosecution’s forensic evidence Thursday when it called its first witnesses in the murder trial of Casey Anthony, the Florida woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter.

An FBI technician testified that the duct tape found attached to the decomposed skull of toddler Caylee Anthony was contaminated during testing by another technician.

Heather Seubert, who examined the tape at an FBI lab, told jurors that DNA on the tape did not match the victim, her mother, Casey, or her grandparents. Instead, it matched another forensic examiner who analyzed the duct tape.

The child’s skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near the family’s home in December 2008.

FBI lab technician Lorie Gottesman later testified that it was her DNA found on the duct tape. Gottesman, who is a forensic document examiner, said she wore gloves during her examination.

“I have no idea how it happened or when,” she told jurors.

Casey Anthony’s defense team began presenting its case on the third anniversary of the last time Caylee Anthony was seen alive.

The 25-year-old mother is charged with first-degree murder in Caylee’s summer 2008 death and has pleaded not guilty. The state contends the child was suffocated by three pieces of duct tape being applied to her face. The defense said in its opening statement that she drowned in her grandparents’ above-ground 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.