Casey Anthony defense calls insect expert

ORLANDO, Fla., June 17 (UPI) -- Testimony by a bug expert that bolstered the defense in Casey Anthony's murder trial in Florida Friday was tempered by his answers under cross examination.

Dr. Tim Huntington, a forensic entomologist from Concordia University in Nebraska, had told the court during the morning he doubted there had been a body in the car of the 25-year-old defendant who is charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, the Orlando Sentinel reported. But later in the day, under questioning by prosecutor Jeff Ashton, Huntington acknowledged that when he examined Anthony's car about two years after the girl's 2008 death, the car still smelled.

Huntington had said earlier the odor in the car's trunk may have come from garbage left in it. However, he later said there was no apparent food remnants found in the car.

Other witnesses have testified the car smelled like a dead body had been in it.

Huntington also said insect evidence from woods where Caylee's remains were found indicated her body had been moved there after probably decomposing two or three days, a timeline coinciding with prosecutors' theory. In addition, he confirmed the body likely had been left in the woods months before it was found, which authorities also think was the case.

Drama also unfolded outside the courtroom Friday. A fight among spectators in line for the trial led courthouse officials to tighten admission rules.

People began lining up at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, and about 5 a.m., two men tried to cut to the front and began throwing punches, WFTV, Orlando, reported. One woman was seen punching a man to free her friend from a headlock.

The Orange County Courthouse announced Friday spectators now will have to line up at 8 a.m. on the day before they want to attend a hearing. A list will be drawn up at 4 p.m., and at 8 the next morning, people on it must present identification to get in. Those wishing to attend a Monday court session must line up Saturday afternoon.

Outside the courthouse, Vasco Thompson, who was added as a surprise defense witness earlier this week, said he has no idea why the defense wants to call him.

Thompson, a convicted felon, said he only got the phone number defense attorneys say link him to Casey's father, George, in 2009 -- months after Caylee Anthony died.

The Sentinel reported phone records indicate four calls between George Anthony and Thompson on July 14, 2008, the day before Cindy Anthony, Caylee's grandmother, reported the child missing.

The defense called an insect expert as a witness Friday morning.

Much of the morning passed with the jury out of the room as the prosecution argued Huntington wasn't qualified to discuss the issue.

Huntington testified if a body actually had been in the trunk "you would expect to find hundreds if not thousands of these blow flies. They're in there. They die there. They're stuck there."

The defense opened its case Thursday, calling crime scene investigators and FBI employees to testify on forensic evidence.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Jose Baez said Caylee drowned in the family pool in the summer of 2008, her grandfather helped dispose of the body and a meter reader found the remains and moved them to woods near the home where they were found in December 2008.

The prosecution called more than 30 witnesses and introduced hundreds of exhibits before resting.