By John Springer Court TV
SARASOTA, Fla. Graphic images of the body of Carlie Brucia, the 11-year-old girl whose abduction was captured on videotape and broadcast around the world, were shown Thursday at the capital murder trial of the man authorities say strangled her. Calling crime-scene photos and a short video "explicit" and "unsettling," Judge Andrew Owens Jr. ordered that the images only be shown to the jury and not released publicly. Jurors appeared stoic, and at least one sighed heavily, as they viewed the images of Carlie's half-naked body, which was discovered on the grounds of a church not far from her home. Prosecutors say auto mechanic Joseph Smith, 39, abducted Carlie from Evie's Car Wash on Feb. 1, 2004, raped and strangled her, and left her under tree branches.
Several witnesses have testified that Smith resembled the man seen grabbing Carlie by her arm in the parking lot of the car wash, but the identification was far from conclusive. Crime-scene technicians from the FBI and the Sarasota Sheriff's Office collected potential evidence, but were unable to find anything conclusive to place Carlie in the 1992 Buick Century station wagon that Smith borrowed from his roommate on the night of the abduction. A string of FBI agents and crime-scene technicians testified Thursday, the fourth day of Smith's trial. In painstaking detail, each witness described his or her role in collecting evidence from the crime scene, Smith's home and other places. FBI hair and fiber examiner Karen Kosberg said four hairs found in Smith's station wagon were either consistent with or similar to a known sample of Carlie's hair. Despite the results, however, hair examination cannot conclusively place someone at a given place. "All I could say was that it was similar," Kosberg said. "Hair examinations are not a positive means of identification." Kosberg also testified that a red fiber found in the station wagon was consistent with fibers from the red cotton shirt Carlie was wearing when she was abducted. Crime-scene technician Lisa Lanham told jurors that she found 17 fingerprints on the exterior of the station wagon, and 15 more inside. She also attended Carlie's autopsy and took into evidence the red shirt prosecutors say contained semen linked to Smith by DNA comparison. FBI agent Susan Bucenell testified that she did not find any evidence of semen on or near Carlie's body. Prosecutors have said that animals who came upon Carlie's decomposing body disturbed her genital area and evidence that might have been recovered if the body had been located sooner. Another FBI agent, Lynn Billings, said criminalists worked on the station wagon for more than 11 hours looking for trace evidence. The vehicle was vacuumed several times and was sprayed with Luminol in an effort to locate blood or semen; none was found. Prosecutors have yet to call witnesses to analyze the mountain of evidence collected for forensic examination. The defense has said that with the exception of the suspected semen stain — which the defense plans to challenge — no physical evidence links Smith to Carlie's murder. There will be no testimony Friday, a court holiday. The trial resumes Monday at 9 a.m. The trial is being broadcast by Court TV and streamed on the Web by Court TV Extra.
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