Casey Anthony’s defense wants all TES records. They say they’ve found 2 TES volunteers claiming Caylee’s body wasn’t there in Sept. 08
A while back, Judge Strickland ordered Tim Miller to turn over the name of 32 volunteers who searched near the wood’s where Caylee was found. Miller said no volunteers searched the exact area where her body was discovered. The defense team has filed a motion demanding that Tim Miller now release all his records concerning the Caylee Anthony search.
Motion to modify the court’s order for TES documents LINK
They say they’ve located two additional volunteers whose names weren’t on Tim Miller’s list. The defense says these two TES volunteers claim Caylee’s body was not in the woods when they searched the area in September, 2008. If this can be proven, it supports Casey’s defense team’s claim that a stranger dumped Caylee’s body where it was found while Casey was in jail.
Joe Jordan claims he searched the area on Sept. 1, 2008 with five or six other people. One of those people was a dog handler named Danny Ibison and there was another dog handler from the Panama City Sheriff’s Office.
Laura Buchanan, New Jersey, has submitted a sworn statement saying:
“On Sept. 3, 2008 … I personally searched near the privacy fence and worked my way towards, and then the spot, where the body was found.I did not notice anything unusual. I did not notice a strange smell. I noticed no buzzards, nor unusual animal or insect activity.It is my opinion that the remains of Caylee Anthony were not there during the time of our search.”
Those two of course aren’t the only former TES volunteers to say Caylee’s body wasn’t there in September. Joy Wray put her two cents in saying she was questioned by detectives Monday. She claims to have information on her computer that proves Casey’s innocence……
http://www.orlandosentinel.com
WESH video about the TES witnesses
If Caylee was placed in the wood’s in June, (and the entomology reports verify that) her body would have quickly skeletonized in the hot Florida sun. There would have been no smell, no buzzards, no unusual animal or insect activity by September.
It’s also my understanding that the area in question was under water or boggy when Miller’s search teams were in the area. So, did these two walk on water? And if they were on a search team, why aren’t their team mates coming forward to make similar claims? Why just these two? Do we know if Danny Ibison, the dog handler has been found?
My guess is that the defense had these people’s statements before they asked for TES volunteer records. They asked for them in hopes of verifying Jordan’s and Buchanan’s statements. When they didn’t show up among the 32 Miller gave them, they decided to try again to get the full list of volunteers to check their names against.
And I’m not even going to comment on the infamous Joy Wray.
In a news conference tonight,it was revealed by police that 5 year old Shaynia Davis’ cause of death was asphyxiation. Mario McNeill is being charged with 1st-degree murder and rape of a child. He is being held without bond. It is not yet known if her mother will be charged with murder as well.
This is just so heartbreaking to me. I had prayed she had not been raped. How could anyone do this to an innocent little girl? It’s just beyond all understanding. And please don’t tell me what a horrible life this man must have had. He could have made a different choice. Did he go ahead and kill her because she could have identified him? He got caught anyway. He killed her for nothing. What will happen to him now is far worse than the punishment he would have received for raping her and sparing her life.
By all accounts this child was loved and well-cared for by her Dad. I hope he can find some comfort in knowing he gave Shaynia the security and stability she could never have had if he had not stepped up and raised her. She appeared to be a very happy little girl, and that was because of him.
Did Roy Kronk kill Caylee? The defense says it’s possible in a new memorandum to a motion filed today
Shortly after deposing Roy Kronk, the man who found Caylee’s body, Casey Anthony’s defense team filed another motion. This one alleges that Roy Kronk could be responsible for Caylee’s death.
Baez filed the motion that for the first time gives a glimpse into the defense’s strategy that someone besides Casey Anthony killed Caylee. The motion claims that Kronk has a history of abusing and restraining women with duct tape as well as holding them against their will. It also claims that Kronk has a history of inappropriate behavior with young girls.
The motion states that Kronk, “is involved in an imaginary world of fantasy and violence.” and ends by stating that, “Roy M. Kronk should have been a suspect in this case.”
Kronk, said, “I haven’t done anything wrong, and I maintained that all along.”
Baez interviewed two of Kronk’s ex-wives, a live-in girlfriend’s daughter, and his son. They paint a picture of Kronk as an untrustworthy person who isn’t above resorting to violence. The ex-wives say Kronk physically attacked them, and one of the women said he held her hostage for two week and that duct tape was used to bind her. There are no police reports to support these women’s claims.
Kronk’s son Brandon Sparks said his father told him before Thanksgiving 2008 that he found Caylee’s body and would be on television, leading Baez to claim in the motion that Kronk not only knew the location of Caylee’s body in November of 2008, and that he may even have had possession of it.
The defense hired a new member for the A-Team, Mort Smith, a private investigator and professor at DePaul University. (Andrea Lyon’s stomping ground) He was apparently hired to dig up dirt on Kronk.
Baez says that all the prosecution has is circumstantial evidence against Casey for 1st degree murder and in order for that to stick, all other options must be ruled out according to Florida law.
Kronk’s attorney, David Evans, issued a news release this evening:
“Shortly after adjourning the deposition, the Anthony defense team filed a Motion, Memorandum of Law, and accompanying materials suggesting that Roy Kronk, the individual who found Caylee Anthony’s remains and repeatedly reported his find to law enforcement agencies, should be considered a suspect in the murder of Caylee Anthony,” Evans said. “He voluntarily appeared today and truthfully responded to all questions asked by Anthony’s attorney. He has cooperated fully with law enforcement from Day One. He has nothing to hide, and has hidden nothing.
In their zeal to defend Casey Anthony, defense counsel has filed papers with the Court that are filled with allegations that have no basis in fact and falsely accuse Mr. Kronk of various types of bad behavior,” Evans said. “The State will respond to these papers in due course in the criminal proceedings. As for Mr. Kronk, he vehemently denies the allegations against him and is confident that he will be vindicated. In the meantime, as he stated early on in this case, no good deed goes unpunished.”
Here’s the memorandum to the motion. It’s slightly out of focus but you can still read it. I’ll post a clearer version as soon as I can find it.
Kronk memorandum to support motion in limine LINK
read more on this story below:
I’m stunned speechless!
Jose Baez talked with News13’s Adam Longo the other day about the Casey Anthony case and what could be one of, if not the biggest murder trial in Orange County, Florida history. They hoped to learn what tactics Baez might use in Casey’s case by looking at a recent murder trial he had success with.
His client in that case, Rafael Contreras, had been accused of attempted murder, and Baez won his release. He was hired after Contreras fired his first attorney. Contreras spent 20 months in jail while awaiting his fate. As with Casey Anthony, the state offered his client a plea deal.
Baez said, “I saw a lot of problems with the state’s case. They asked, ‘The offer is 20 years in prison, do you want to take it?’ The answer was no…he’s facing life.”
According to the state, Rafael Contreras had been tossed from a bar and came back and shot the owner. The prosecution had 8 eyewitnesses, but Baez tore the state’s case apart. He used forensic scientists, and 1000’s of photos, charts, and graphs to prove his client’s was only using self-defense.
“You always put your heart and soul into a case and I don’t think the arguments would be as persuasive if you didn’t,” Baez told Longo.
“Well, I was down and he was always giving me hope, like, ‘Don’t worry, trust me, everything’s going to come out OK,” Contreras said.
“These people put their lives in your hand and they trust in you and that’s not something you should take lightly,” Baez said.
Contreras says he’s now going to try and put his life back together, and that his faith has held him up.
“I put my hope in the Lord and him [Baez] that he’s going to do the right job, and he did. We came out with the victory,” Contreras said.
Baez told News 13 that he would do for Casey Anthony what he has done with all of his clients. The state will have to work harder than they ever have before if they want to convict her.
read the story below. It includes more detail about Contrera’s trial:
Well, I don’t know if Channel13 succeeded in learning anything in particular that would be a stand-out in the way Baez defends Casey other than he uses the same boisterous tone when talking about the Contreras trial.
Shaniya Davis, age 5, reported missing by her mother almost a week ago, was found alongside a North Carolina highway today–dead. Her mother, Antoinette Davis, age 25, is charged with human trafficking and child prostitution. She claimed that she put her little girl on the sofa at 5:30am Tuesday morning, and at 6:30am she had vanished.
Brenda Davis, Antoinette’s sister said her sister told her she didn’t do this and she believes her. “I don’t believe she could hurt her children.” Davis’ 7 year old son was removed from her home last week and put in foster care.
At first, Antoinette Davis’ boyfriend was arrested, but he was later released when a hotel in Sanford, N.C. found a surveillance tape showing, Mario McNeill, carrying the little girl into a hotel elevator. The timeline the mother gave and the time she was seen in the video didn’t jive, leading to the mother’s arrest.
McNeill was arrested Friday and charged with 1st degree kidnapping. He admitted that Shaniya was sold into a child trafficking ring, but the child was nowhere to be found. A frantic non-stop search for the little girl ensued.
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
Mario McNeill
Antoinette Davis
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Fayetteville police spokesperson, Theresa Chance told ABC News that they had been searching a portion of Interstate 87 between Harnett and Lee counties saying, “Information that we received leads us here as far as where the body was discarded.”
“This is very hard on the officers,” she said. “They have their own small children. Everyone thinks ‘What if this was my child?’ ….We’ve got a lot of people out at the scene right now that are torn up. Detectives have been running off adrenaline to find this little girl and to bring her home alive. You have a lot of people in shock right now.”
She would not comment on the cause of death or the condition of little Shaniya’s body.
Bradley Lockhart
Shaniya’s father, Bradley Lockhart, told the Associated Press over the weekend that his daughter, the result of a one-night stand, had lived with him until about a month ago. He said he decided to give Davis a chance to raise their daughter after she showed him that she was turning her life around. He said he should have never let her go.
————————————————————-
Mark Lagon, executive director of the Polaris Project and the former US ambassador to combat human trafficking, said it was unusual for parents to put their children out for prostitution or to sell them when they are very young. When it does happen, the fathers tend to be abusive and the mothers are usually desperate, but he went on to say that,
“No poverty or economic desperation can alone explain the prostitution of a child.”
He said that the average age for becoming a prostitute is between 12 and 14 years old. There are no studies on how many young children are sold by their parents, but about 100,000 minors are trafficked in the US each year. He said most of them are runaways or throwaways.
Lois Lee, the founder and president of the non-profit Children of the Night, says it is drug use by the mothers that cause them to sell their children. She also said it was “very rare” for this to be done to a 5 year old.
read it below:
I’ve been following this story since it first came out and I have to say I really thought, since the truth of what happened was discovered so quickly, Shaniya would be found, go back to live with her dad, and in the end she would have a “Happy Ending.” I was stunned when Mikka posted the article saying her body had been recovered. I just feel sick.
I just can’t praise enough the men and women who have dedicated their lives to law enforcement. What a difficult and thankless job they have.
