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Bay News 9

Smith trial continues with prosecution evidence

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Much of Thursday's testimony in the Joseph Smith murder
Despite the seriousness of the charges against him, Joseph Smith laughed with his attorney at one point Thursday.
trial centered around a videotape of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia and what shots would be admitted in court.

Smith is accused of abducting and killing Brucia in 2004.

In the fourth day of the trial, Judge Andrew Owens Jr. decided not to show video from the crime scene to the jury because of the graphic nature of the video.

Smith's attorney, Adam Tebrugge, argued the video should not be shown because Brucia's body had begun decomposing and shots of flies and maggots were too disturbing.

Out of respect for the family and because of Brucia's young age, attorneys from both sides agreed only to show still frames taken from the video that do not show Brucia's body.

One of the reasons the prosecution is pushing so hard to introduce the
Watch a video of Judge Owens talking about crime scene evidence.
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video of Brucia's body is because it apparently establishes that the body was dumped behind the church off Proctor Road in Sarasota days before it was found.

To prove that would be consistent with Smith allegedly having abducted Brucia from the car wash on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2004, and then having dumped her body that night or the next morning.

A Smith roommate already has testified in the first week of the trial that Smith borrowed his yellow station wagon on that Sunday and did not return it until after daybreak the next morning.

Assistant State Attorney Debra Johnes Riva said during the open-court debate over the video that expert witnesses will testify about the decay of Brucia's body.

After viewing the video, still photographs of the crime scene were introduced. As with the video, the jury, but not the courtroom audience, saw the photographs.

After displaying the photographs, prosecutor Craig Schaeffer continued to cross-examine Lisa Lanham, a crime-scene technician with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, who recalled going to the medical examiner's office to retrieve the red shirt Carlie was wearing as evidence.

She also said she took fingerprints - only nine, because what she described as "animal activity" had so damaged the 10th digit.

Demonstrators outside the courtroom said they want Carlie Brucia to be remembered.
Asked by the defense whether representatives with other agencies had handled the evidence retrieved from the crime scene, Lanham answered, yes, the FBI had.

The last witness to take the stand Thursday, who works for the FBI, said a piece of hair that was found in the station wagon Smith allegedly drove is consistent with Brucia's.

Meanwhile, a group outside the courthouse passed out pink ribbons in remembrance of Brucia.

"We want her to be remembered as a little girl," a demonstrator said. "Not just as a case. Not just as a media thing."

The trial will resume Monday.

Information from Bay News 9's partner, The Herald, was used in this report. Pick up a copy of The Herald for the latest about the trial.




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