The Role of Evidence in Criminal Investigations
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36 3 The Role of Evidence in Criminal Investigations distribute or post, copy, not Do Copyright ©2017 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. Objectives After reading this chapter you will be able to • Discuss the investigation of the • Explain the various levels or • Discuss reasons for the hearsay death of Caylee Anthony. Identify standards of proof rule and the exceptions to it the major evidence in the case and the probable reasons why • Compare direct evidence with • Compare the role of lay Casey Anthony was found not indirect evidence and give an witnesses with expert witnesses guilty in the trial example of each • Provide examples of corpus • Differentiate between judicial • Identify the various forms of delicti evidence, corroborative evidence and extrajudicial circumstantial evidence evidence, cumulative evidence, evidence, as well as exculpatory associative evidence, • Define testimonial evidence, evidence and inculpatory identification evidence, and real evidence, documentary evidence behavioral evidence evidence, and demonstrative evidence distribute From the CASE FILE The Death of Caylee Anthony or On June 15, 2008, Casey Anthony, twenty-two, had a brought her home. Casey explained to her mother that huge argument with her mother Cindy Anthony. Cindy that she actually left Caylee with Fernandez-Gonzalez discovered a photograph of Casey at a “no-clothes in Orlando on June 16 and that Gonzalez kidnapped party” and was not happy about it. Cindy not only had Caylee. Casey told her mother that she had not seen concerns about the behavior of her daughter butpost, also Caylee since then. about the welfare of two-year-old Caylee, Casey’s daughter and Cindy’s granddaughter. Cindy told Casey On July 15, 2008, Cindy called the police to report she was unfit to be a parent and threatened to get Caylee was missing. Investigators questioned Casey. custody of Caylee. Casey lived with her parents, Cindy She told them a similar story to what she told and George, in Orlando, but for everyone involved, her mother earlier: Caylee was kidnapped by her things were intolerable. The next day, June 16, Casey babysitter, Fernandez-Gonzalez. She told investigators packed up and left the housecopy, with Caylee. She said that she left Caylee with the babysitter when she went they were going to Tampa and that she was going to to work at Universal Studios. She said that she did not get her old job back at Universal Studios. During the tell the police about Caylee earlier because she was next thirty-one days, Cindy called Casey numerous too afraid. Upon checking for a “Zenaida Fernandez- times to see how Caylee was doing. Every time she Gonzalez,” investigators discovered that there was not no such person. Casey had lied. After Casey showed called, Casey told her mother that Caylee was with the babysitter, Zenaida “Zanny” Fernandez-Gonzalez. investigators around the Universal Studios theme park, they discovered that she did not actually work there. On July 13, 2008, Cindy and George received a letter She had worked there two years ago, but not recently. Doin the mail informing them that Casey’s car had been Another lie. Casey was arrested on July 16, 2008, for towed and was available for pickup at a particular the neglect of a child, providing false statements in a tow lot. George went to get the car. In the car he criminal investigation, and obstruction of a criminal found Casey’s purse and Caylee’s car seat and toys. investigation. Investigators wondered what else she Reportedly, he also noticed a strong odor coming from was lying about. She was released from jail on the trunk. Now Cindy was even more concerned. She August 21 but was arrested and returned to jail on eventually found Casey at her boyfriend’s house and August 29 for check and credit card fraud. Copyright ©2017 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. 38 CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION Initially the investigation focused on trying to find blanket that was recovered with Caylee’s remains also Caylee, although investigators were not optimistic matched Caylee’s bedding at her grandparent’s house. that they would find her alive. When Casey’s car was In June 2011, three years after the disappearance of examined, a cadaver dog alerted to decomposition Caylee, the trial of Casey Anthony began. She was in the trunk of the vehicle. Insects and maggots charged with first degree murder, aggravated child commonly associated with dead bodies were also abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child. In a found in the trunk. The examination also revealed a nutshell, the prosecution’s theory was that Casey was trace of chloroform in the trunk, and investigators a party girl and no longer wanted the responsibilities recovered a hair that was microscopically similar to of being a parent. She used chloroform to incapacitate Caylee’s hair (a sample of which was obtained from Caylee and then used duct tape to suffocate her. Her a hairbrush). Analyses revealed that the hair had body was kept in the trunk of her vehicle. The Internet certain characteristics that indicated that it came search for chloroform showed premeditation. from a dead body. Computers in the Anthony house were seized and analyzed. On one of the computers Casey’s lawyers had a different explanation for the investigators found Google searches for the term the disappearance and death of Caylee, and they chloroform made in March 2008. Upon checking the had alternative explanations for the prosecution’s whereabouts and activities of Casey from June 16, evidence. According to the defense, Caylee actually 2008, to July 15, 2008, they did not find much except drowned in the family pool on June 16, 2008, and that on July 2, Casey got a tattoo that read “Bella Casey’s dad helped cover up the death so that Casey Vita”—“beautiful life” in Italian. would not be charged with child neglect. Caylee’s death was not the result of adistribute murder; it was a tragic On December 11, 2008, a meter reader found accident and then, unwisely, covered up to avoid skeletonized human remains in a wooded area near police scrutiny. The attorneys further explained that the Anthony house; the remains were determined to Casey had an abusiveor childhood and was sexually be those of Caylee Anthony. Duct tape was found in abused by her father and her brother, so she got the hair and around the skull. Investigators reasoned used to disguising and hiding her emotional pain. that Caylee died from suffocation as a result of the As for the evidence, through expert testimony the duct tape being placed over her nose and mouth. Duct defense argued that odor analysis of the trunk was tape that was the same as that found with Caylee not scientific and was not accepted by the scientific was found in her grandparent’s garage. A laundry bag post,community. A primary compound found in human that was the same type and brand as one found with decomposition was not present in the trunk. The guts Caylee’s remains was found in the Anthony house. A of the maggots found in the trunk were not analyzed copy, not Do PHOTO 3.1–3.2: When she was being investigated as a suspect in the disappearance and death of her daughter, Casey Anthony provided several stories to investigators about her activities and the whereabouts of Caylee. These stories were shown to be false, and this, along with other evidence in the case, led many people to think Casey was responsible for Caylee’s murder. Copyright ©2017 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. Chapter 3 • The Role of Evidence in Criminal Investigations 39 for DNA; therefore, it was not possible to determine had no connection to or role in her death. The Google what they had consumed, if human remains or searches for chloroform were not conducted by Casey other organic material, such as food or excrement. but by her mother who was actually searching for According to the defense, the source and reason chlorophyll and then got sidetracked and searched for for the presence of chloroform in the trunk was not chloroform as well. adequately specified and did not prove anything. The hair in the trunk was presumed to be Caylee’s, but After thirty-three days of testimony, on July 5, 2011, this was not proven with certainty. Caylee’s body the jury found Casey not guilty of first degree murder, was never in the trunk, it had nothing to do with her child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child. accidental death. The duct tape found on Caylee’s She was only found guilty of four counts of providing skull was simply trash recovered with the body; it false information in a criminal investigation and check forgery. Casey did not testify at the trial. Case Considerations and Points for Discussion • Two fundamental questions are present in homicide may have helped to establish that Caylee was investigations and trials: (1) Did a homicide occur? murdered and that Casey committed the murder? and (2) if a homicide occurred, did the suspect/ defendant commit the homicide? What evidence • Many people think that Casey actually killed Caylee. in the Caylee Anthony investigation suggested What do you think? Was Casey found not guilty that a homicide actually occurred? What evidence because she diddistribute not do it, or was she found not suggested that Casey Anthony committed the guilty for some other reason? Explain.