Testimony in Anthony trial focuses on odor in car

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla.

The rancor among attorneys heated up Friday as the prosecution introduced key testimony and evidence during the fourth day of testimony in the murder trial of a Florida woman accused of killing her daughter.

The manager of a towing yard where Casey Anthony’s car was kept for more than two weeks during the summer of 2008 testified that he smelled an odor coming from her car consistent with decomposing bodies he’d smelled in the past.

Simon Birch easily was the strongest prosecution witness to date and went largely unchallenged under defense cross-examination.

The state also showed a series of videos of Anthony going on a shopping spree over several days in late June and early July 2008.

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

Prosecutors are portraying Casey Anthony as carefree and cheerful in the weeks after the child, Caylee, was last seen in June 2008, hanging out with friends and hitting the clubs. Caylee Anthony was reported missing a month later, and her remains were found that December.

Anthony, 25, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Prosecutors contend she suffocated Caylee with duct tape. Anthony’s defense team says the child drowned accidentally in a family pool. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death.

Birch said he has spent 30 years in the towing business as well as two years in waste management and had come across deceased bodies at least eight times. He said he first noticed the smell coming from Anthony’s car on the fourth day her 1998 Pontiac was parked on his yard. The car had been towed after spending four days in an Amscot parking lot. It stayed there from June 30 to June 15, when Anthony’s parents retrieved it.

“In my opinion and experience, the smell of decomposition is unique in comparison to rotten food or rotting garbage,” Birch said.

The defense argued in its opening statement that the smell actually was from a bag of trash Anthony left in her car.

“The instant flash in my mind was ‘Oh, I know what that smells like,’” Birch said about noticing the odor.

George Anthony, Casey’s father, testified for the third time in four days Friday and said his mind was racing when he arrived to pick up the car and observed the smell.

“That particular smell, whenever you smell it, is something you’ll never forget,” he said. “... I don’t know if I said it out loud or whispered, but I said ‘Please God, don’t let this be Casey or Caylee.’”

Under cross-examination, defense attorney Jose Baez tried to shake the father on some details of the tow yard visit, including why he knew to bring a can of gas with him for the car and whether it was Anthony or Birch who first decided to open the trunk. Anthony and Baez also clashed over whether it was a bag of trash in the trunk or the trunk itself that was the source of the odor.