ORLANDO, Fla. – The murder trial of Casey Anthony, who is accused of killing her daughter, Caylee, resumed Wednesday, a day after the defense attacked forensics evidence previously offered by the prosecution.
Judge Belvin Perry said day 25 of the trial will only be a half-day because he has to attend a meeting.
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The defense's first witness on Wednesday was Maureen Bottrell, a geologist/forensic examiner with the FBI, where she's worked for 16 years. Bottrell said her main duty is analyzing soil, rocks and gemstones.
In her report from March 4, 2009, Bottrell said she received items from Anthony's car and home, including a shovel and 22 pair of shoes. She also examined soil from the area where Caylee's remains were found.
Bottrell said the shoes could not be scientifically connected to the wooded area where the remains were found. She said under cross-examination, however, that doesn't mean the shoes were not ever worn at the scene.
The defense then called Madeline Montgomery, a forensic toxicologist with the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., to the stand.
Montgomery, examined hair found with Caylee's remains. She told jurors she found no trace in the hair sample of a number of drugs, including ones that can have a sedative or knock-out effect.
On cross examination, Montgomery said hair is not the best way to test for drug exposure.
"Even if it had been positive, I wouldn't have been able to say when or how often the person was exposed," Montgomery said.
"Can you tell if this child drowned?" Ashton asked.
"I have no expertise in that area," Montgomery said.
The defense's third witness of the day was Dr. Michael Sigman, a University of Central Florida chemistry professor.
Sigman said he was asked by Orange County sheriff's officials in July 2008 to take air samples from Anthony's car. He said sheriff's officials were referred to him by Dr. Arpad Vass, who testified earlier in the trial.
Sigman detailed how he and a colleague pulled 1 liter of air into a bag and another sample into a second bag. Sigman said he later performed more tests.
"In those, the data was better than the bag ones," he said. "The pattern was gasoline, and looking more closely, we saw chloroform (and other chemicals)."
Sigman said he could not conclusively determine that human decomposition was present in the trunk of Anthony's car.
In cross-examination, Sigman said he did not fully examine the trunk on July 21 and only opened it about an inch to take the air samples. Even so, he said an odor was noticeable, although he did not testify to the type of odor he smelled.
He also said he was unaware that the trunk liner had been removed days earlier. State experts have testified that the chloroform they detected came from a stain on the liner.
Susan Mears, the Orange County Sheriff's Office crime scene supervisor, was the next witness called by the defense and stated that a Disney bag and a Gatorade bottle were located about 7 inches from Caylee's skull. The state did not cross-examine Mears.
The defense followed by calling Dr. Michael Rickenbach, a forensic chemist with the FBI who was declared an expert earlier in the trial, and briefly asked him about chloroform.
Rickenbach tested a steering wheel cover and a car seat from Anthony's car but did not find chloroform on them.
He also tested the aforementioned Gatorade bottle and said it contained a liquid, possibly a mixture containing a cleaning product. Low amounts of chloroform were detected in the substance, Rickenbach said.
The defense's sixth witness of the day was Karen Korsberg Lowe, an FBI forensic evidence examiner earlier declared an expert in the trial.
She discussed tests performed on items, including clothing and duct tape, that were taken from the Anthony family home.
Local 6 News has also confirmed that Vasco Thompson, a convicted kidnapper whom the defense claims had contact with George Anthony in 2008, will be deposed Wednesday at defense attorney Cheney Mason's office.
Thompson last week denied knowing George Anthony, the father of Casey Anthony, saying he didn't have the same phone number during that time and has never talked to George Anthony.
It's not known if the defense will attempt to call him as a witness.
Forensic botanist Jane Bock testified Tuesday that 2-year-old Caylee Anthony's skeletal remains were in the woods for two weeks when they were discovered in December 2008, a much shorter time period than prosecutors allege. Bock admitted under cross-examination, however, that the remains could have been in the woods for much longer than two weeks.
The defense team also suffered a setback when Perry ruled that a defense DNA expert could not testify about decomposition evidence found in Anthony's trunk until a hearing is held.
During Tuesday's lunch break, Baez accused the prosecution of a discovery violation, for what he said was late disclosure of computer evidence from the hard drive of the Anthony's family desktop.
Prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick said a notice of what they planned to possibly introduce in their rebuttal case was just submitted, but that the defense had possessed copies of the hard drive information for two years. Specifically, the state said it may highlight evidence of computer traffic on June 16, 2008 -- the day Baez said in his opening statement that Caylee Anthony drowned.
Baez admitted he initially received the information in 2009, but said the state never narrowed down what specific information they'd use. Perry ruled there had been no disclosure violation.
"It became quite evident from (the opening statements), that for the defense, June 16 was a day of great importance," Perry said. "...You all knew what dates would be of particular importance."
Anthony, 25, is charged with first-degree murder in Caylee's death and has pleaded not guilty. She could face the death penalty, if convicted.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.