SARASOTA, Fla. — Three witnesses told jurors Tuesday they were certain Joseph Smith was the man captured in grainy surveillance camera images abducting 11-year-old Carlie Brucia outside a car wash last year.

Lynn Dinyes testified during the second day of Smith's capital murder trial that she was shocked when she saw a television news broadcast as she got ready for work on the morning of Nov. 3, 2004.

By that point, local news had been broadcasting for more than 24 hours the images recorded on the security system at Evie's Car Wash. Three days later, the child's half-naked body was discovered on the grounds of a church.

Dinyes said she instantly thought she recognized the man shown pulling Brucia away by the arm. She believed it was a co-worker of her husband, Ed Dinyes.

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"I thought, 'Oh my gosh ... It looks like Joe Smith,'" she said.

Dinyes immediately woke up her husband and made him watch the news reports about Carlie's disappearance. Reviewing the images several times, they finally decided to call police.

Crying as she identified the defendant as the man she observed on the news, Lynn Dinyes said, "He's the man over there in the gray suit and the striped tie."

Smith looked down as the witness pointed at him.

Joseph Smith

George Skaluba, an FBI analyst who examined the security video, said he enhanced the low-resolution digital images as much as possible, but the images did not reveal anything conclusive. Specifically, Skaluba tried to read what appeared to be a name tag on the dark coveralls the kidnapper was wearing.

Unlike in television dramas, where crime scene technicians can blow up images thousands of times to read the smallest text, most closed-circuit security cameras produce low-quality images that don't enhance well.

"These aren't high-definition movies like we see that have a lot of detail," Skaluba said.

On cross-examination, he noted that digital images can be manipulated with the right software.

"You can make adjustments," he said. "You can change things."

Lawyers for Smith have not accused anyone of manipulating the images — at least, not yet. Although prosecutors claim they have a DNA link between Smith and semen found on Carlie's shirt, the video seems highly important for both the state and the defense.

Ed Dinyes

Ed Dinyes, who described himself as a friend and business associate of Smith, testified that he immediately agreed with his wife that the images on the news resembled the defendant.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Dinyes, who reported the tip to 911 and a hotline number. "I said, 'It is Joe. What the f--- is he doing?' ... I couldn't believe this is the guy that I know. I couldn't believe it was him."

Another witness, Haskell Clemons, said he also recognized Smith from the news stories of the abduction.

"It was his demeanor, the clothes he was wearing at the time, his gait, posture, walk," Clemons said. "And just a visual recognition."

Smith's lawyers contend that many people called authorities after seeing the images to say that they thought the man abducting the girl looked like someone they knew. But when detectives decided the kidnapper was Joseph Smith, they pursued no other leads, the defense claims.

If convicted of first-degree murder, jurors could recommend that he be sentenced to death or sent to prison for life without parole.

'What's this all about?'

Smith's roommate, Jeffrey Pincus told jurors Tuesday that the defendant borrowed his yellow 1992 Buick Century station wagon at about 3 p.m. the day of the abduction and did not return it until 7 a.m. the following morning.

Smith told police that he returned to Pincus' home about midnight after visiting a marina for several hours to look at the water.

According to Pincus, he set the trip odometer to zero the day before the abduction because he had a feeling that Smith was going to ask to borrow it. When Smith returned the car, the trip odometer had more than 300 miles on it, Pincus said.

Sarasota County Sheriff's Det. Toby Davis, testified that Smith was cooperative when he interviewed him on Feb. 3, 2004. Smith offered the detective a seat on his porch and the detective began the interview by asking Smith where he was the previous Sunday, according to testimony.

Smith claimed he spent the morning with Pincus and his wife and the afternoon with his brother, John Smith, who will be a key prosecution witness later in the trial. Davis said that when he asked Joseph Smith if he had any tattoos on his arm, the defendant asked why he wanted to know.

"What is this all about?" Smith inquired, Davis said.

Told that a little girl was missing, the detective said that Smith answered, "I don't know anything about any abduction."

On cross-examination, Davis was asked about his investigation of Ronald Choquette, a convicted felon who lived in the house where Carlie had attended a slumber party the night before she was abducted. The defense claims Choquette spoke about sexual issues with Carlie and was seen driving his tow truck in the area of the car wash the night she disappeared.

Davis testified that he was satisified that Choquette was not involved in the abduction after speaking with him, searching his truck and learning that he did not own any mechanic uniforms or have any tattoos.

Defense attorney Adam Tebrugge asked Davis about a statement Choquette made to him when Davis showed him a still photograph of the man captured by the car wash's surveillance camera.

"Did he say, 'That does look like me, doesn't it?'" Tebrugge asked.

"Yes sir," Davis said.

"And it did, didn't it?"

"Yes sir," the detective responded.

The trial is being broadcast by Court TV and streamed online by Court TV Extra.

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