UPDATED: Casey Anthony Trial: Day 26

Explosive testimony from the mother of Casey Anthony, the Florida mother accused of killing her two-year-old daughter.

FOX News Radio’s Eben Brown reports from outside the courthouse in Orlando:

“She maintained exactly what she said in her deposition while the timeframes she explained why the scheduling was different that she can only work 40 hours a week so she filled in some hours even though she may not have worked those particular days – but certainly she indicated she did not research how to make chloroform – she did not research neckbreaking- she believes that there was a youtube video that came up regarding a skateboarder – she testified as truthfully as she did when she testified for the state of Florida.

“The reason her memory is better…certainly as time goes on your memory normally gets a little more cloudy…but she was taking medication because of the various issues and the stress she was suffering for the past 3 years – her medication has since been changed by her doctor and it has clarified her memory from 3 years ago so when she originally gave her statement to now her memory may not necessarily be perfect but its better than it was.”

Twenty five year old Casey Anthony faces the death penalty, if convicted.

FOX News Producer Kathleen Reuschle was in the courtroom for the day’s proceedings, and has this summary:

Cindy Anthony was the person responsible for searches of chloroform on the Anthony’s home computer back in March of 2008, and the stain in the trunk of Casey’s Pontiac Sunfire was there when they bought it. This was some of the explosive testimony jurors heard this afternoon at 3pm when Cindy Anthony took the stand for the first time since the Defense began their presentation.

Prosecutors have hinged portions of the pre-meditated murder charge against Casey Anthony based on evidence she was searching for “How to Make Chloroform”, “Neck-breaking”, “shovel”, “making weapons out of household products” and a host of other incriminating items on the Anthony family HP desktop computer 3 months before Caylee died.

They believe the internet searches in combination with evidence of chloroform compounds in the trunk indicate she may have intentionally poisoned her daughter with the substance.

They had ruled out the notion that Cindy or George made the computer searches, because records showed they were both at work.

However in a difficult explanation, Cindy testified her time-cards do not reflect the truth. “It may have been an error…..I was salaried. Even if I put in four hours, I still mark eight hours. My normal day was a nine hour day, by the end of the week I would always have overtime.” While under cross examination Cindy explained she remembers leaving work early around that time because it was both Casey’s birthday and her anniversary.

She didn’t take full responsibility for all the internet evidence, however. While she believes she searched chlorophyll and in turn chloroform because she was investigating whether bamboo leaves in her backyard were making her dogs ill and sleepy, she did not recall specifically typing “How to Make Chloroform” into the search field. Prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick asked Cindy the question half a dozen times until Cindy said she could not remember. Cindy also said she never searched anything 84 times. She said she made searches for alcohol, acetone and hydrogen peroxide, but not search “shovel,”  ”neck-breaking” or “making weapons out of household products.”

Prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick scored some points when she asked Cindy whether she had a Facebook or Myspace account in March 2008 to which Cindy replied, “No.” (Chloroform searches were done around visits to MySpace according to the Internet report.) She also insinuated Cindy neglected to mention this to investigators and was not as forthcoming in her deposition, going so far as to ask her if medication changes are the reason behind these new revelations.  Cindy conceded it is “possible” she was home and says she told the sheriff’s office and prosecutors about searching for chlorophyll.

Jose Baez called two more computer forensic analysts from the Orange County Sheriff’s office to further diminish the idea Casey was spending a lot of time reading about chloroform online. Sgt. Kevin Stenger testified he ran two reports on the deleted internet history files on the Anthony computer and came out with two different results. His “Net Analysis” report showed MySpace had actually been the website that was searched 81, 82, 83, 84 times in the four-day period.

Earlier in the day the defense called FBI hair and fiber analyst Stephen Shaw to attempt to demonstrate to the jury that detecting hairs that come from a dead body from hairs that come from a live person is not an exact science. Prosecutors earlier had entered into evidence a hair that was found in the left side of Casey Anthony’s trunk that had a dark band on it that is considered a characteristic of decomposition, helping support their theory that Caylee’s remains were in the back of Casey’s car and therefore make her the perpetrator.

Jurors saw dozens of before and after photos of live hairs that were subjected to various environmental effects. A photo of a live hair placed in water for 17 days had developed some darkening that a lab worker misidentified as decomposition. In cross-examination prosecutor Jeffrey Ashton had Shaw play the rest of his slide show to show no other scenario produced hair banding and when compared to slides of hairs from cadavers the distinct visual difference was evident.

Jurors also heard from forensic chemist and toxicologist Dr. Barry Logan who raised questions about the state’s expert witness Dr. Vass of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who did the controversial odor analysis on Casey’s trunk and chemical analysis of the waxy substance found on a napkin in the trash bag in her trunk. Vass had testified chloroform levels in the trunk were shocking and there were fatty acids on the napkin that are like adipocere AKA grave wax. Logan says the lab is a research lab and not a forensics lab and judging from the reports he had seen, Dr. Vass had no protocols, quality control, or proper control samples. He said they changed techniques midway through the study and the valves on the chromatograph mass spectrometer were in the wrong position. He also said they appeared to be getting positive readings even when running a blank sample, indicating the instrument wasn’t set right. Ultimately, he said their experiment was not reproducible, a prerequisite for determining scientific viability.

Aside from court proceedings, the 23rd floor of the Orange County Courthouse was abuzz about reports the Anthony’s may now think their daughter Casey is guilty. George and Cindy Anthony’s attorney Mark Lippman was careful in his statement to reporters at the end of the day’s court proceedings to say his clients don’t believe their daughter is guilty of murder.  She is facing a 7-count indictment. They don’t know what she is guilty of, if anything. He also indicated they come to court everyday to support their daughter and simply find out the truth and what both the state and defense respectively to do their jobs to that end.