SARASOTA - An FBI evidence examiner testified Thursday that hair taken from Carlie Brucia's head had the same characteristics as two hairs found in a station wagon driven by the man on trial accused of abducting, raping and strangling the 11-year-old girl.
Karen Korsberg's testimony came on a day prosecutors focused on forensic evidence in building their case against Joseph Smith. Earlier in the week, jurors watched a security camera's images of Carlie being led away from a carwash parking lot by a tattooed man in a uniform, and they heard Joseph Smith's brother John testify that Joseph confessed to the crime and told him where to find the body.
Joseph Smith, a 39-year-old former auto mechanic, is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery. If convicted, he could receive the death penalty.
Four days after her disappearance on Feb. 1, 2004, Super Bowl Sunday, Carlie's body was found on the grounds of a church.
Korsberg also testified that seven fibers found in the station wagon were consistent with reddish-pink fibers from a shirt Carlie wore the night of her disappearance.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Adam Tebrugge, Korsberg said consistencies between hair samples and fibers don't prove exact matches. "The most I can say is that it's consistent," she said.
Tebrugge also raised concerns about whether evidence was contaminated and questioned the accuracy of the FBI evidence analysis in questioning Korsberg, two FBI agents and a crime scene technician with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
Tebrugge asked sheriff's crime scene technician Lisa Lanham, who took forensic evidence from Smith's house, whether she also had taken forensic samples from a man who lived at the house where Carlie attended the slumber party the night before she disappeared, or from a man who was staying in Carlie's mother's house. Lanham said she didn't take evidence from either man.
The defense throughout the trial has contended that investigators focused from the beginning on Smith as a suspect, to the exclusion of others who might have harmed Carlie.
Thursday morning, jurors scribbled on note pads while viewing photos and a video of the scene where Carlie's body was found.
The television in the courtroom was positioned so only jurors could view the video of the body, and they were shown less than five minutes of it, not all. Circuit Judge Andrew Owens agreed with the defendant's attorneys that there was no need for them to see disturbing closeups of the effects of decomposition.
"Very graphic and unsettling," was how Owens described the video. The photos were also kept from spectators' view.
Later, in response to a request by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and television station WFLA, Owens said the photos and video could be examined by reporters, provided no reproductions of the images were made, published or broadcast. But later he reversed himself, citing an exemption to the state's public records law that prohibits the public release of autopsy photos. Lawmakers passed it in response to NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt's family's pleas after his autopsy.
The trial to is expected to resume on Monday with testimony from a medical examiner.
