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Carlie Brucia trial, Tuesday
Well, since more than one person has asked me to keep updating on this case, and since the national MSM isn’t doing a very good job (in my humble opinion), here’s today’s update from the local paper, which is featuring a “live blog”. I’m not sure how often it’s actually updated, as I had to go to work, but I know for a fact that this info was not there this morning.
Witnesses point to Smith as man in surveillance video
By TOM ARTHURtom.arthur@heraldtribune.com
SARASOTA — A former business partner and three acquintances of Joseph Smith testified Tuesday that they had no doubt Smith was the person whose image was captured on a surveillance video leading Carlie Brucia by the hand.They said they recognized his haircut, his mechanic’s uniform, the tattoos on his arms, and his distinctive walk.
“I knew who it was,” said Ed Dinyes, a former business partner of Smith’s who called the authorities to report Smith after seeing the video the day after the abduction.
It was the highlight to a strong day for the prosecution, which established that Smith had borrowed a car similar to the one seen on the video just moments before Carlie was abducted.
Smith, 39, an unemployed auto mechanic with a history of drug arrests and violent attacks on women, is charged with first-degree murder and sexually battery.
He faces the death penalty if convicted.
Prosecutors claim Smith borrowed his friend’s car on Super Bowl Sunday in 2004, spotted Carlie walking home from a friend’s house and pulled into a car wash parking lot on Bee Ridge Road.
A surveillance camera behind the car wash captured a man in a mechanic’s uniform grab Carlie by the arm. Her body was found several days later behind a church off Proctor Road.
Dinyes’ wife, Lynn, testified that she saw the video for the first time on Monday morning, Feb. 2, as she prepared to leave for work.
She has known Smith for years, and awakened her husband to tell him to come look at the video. The two decided Ed Dinyes needed to call the authorities.
In addition to their testimony, a former tire store manager who knew Smith and a friend who had loaned Smith his car both testified that they knew Smith was the man on the video.
There was little defense attorney Adam Tebrugge could do but try to plant a seed of doubt that the video image might be somebody other than Smith.
He continued to try to turn the focus of attention to Ed Choquette, a tow truck driver who lived at the home where Carlie spent her last night. Tebrugge questioned whether detectives spent enough time investigating Choquette as a possible suspect.
Detective Toby Davis said he learned about Choquette early in the investigation, and questioned him. His alibi checked out, Davis said. Plus, he had no tattoos and a search of his tow truck found nothing incriminating. He was ruled out as a suspect.
Davis said he first interviewed Smith at his home afer getting information from a tip hotline.
He said Smith told him he was visiting his brother at the time of the abduction, and that he later drove Marina Jack to look at the water, and didn’t return to the home where he was staying until midnight.
Davis asked to inspect his arms for tattoos, and Smith asked, “What is this all about?”
Davis said he told him about the abduction, and showed him a photograph taken from the surveillance video of a man grabbing Carlie. He said Smith told him, “that looks like me, but it’s not me.”
Davis saw mechanics uniforms in Smith’s bedroom, but did not arrest him on the spot because he needed time to check out his alibi. Other detectives later arrested Smith on unrelated charges of violating probation on a drug charge and took him to jail.
Detectives testified Tuesday that Smith’s brother and mother visited Smith in jail, and that information Smith told them led to the discovery of Carlie’s body.
Now, why is this man pleading innocent, this is what I’d love to know. He’s shown leading Carlie away, it’s said that he’s confessed to his mom and his brother, his DNA was found on Carlie’s shirt. To me, a REAL man would plead guilty and take his punishment, even if it was the death penalty. Of course, I suppose a REAL man would not have committed this crime to begin with.
The slimebag. Keep us posted, would ya?
That’s the thing. He isn’t a real man. A real man would never have committed such a sick, disgusting act. He’s a coward and a waste of human skin. I hope he burns.
You hit the nail on the head, if he were a real man this wouldn’t have happened in the first place. I hope he rots.
Oh Tammy, I hate reading this; but please keep letting us know.
Be sure to see my Enterprise party Invite to find our how you can join!
I agree that it should be just that simple. His guilt is obvious. But there’s more to it than that. In a death penalty trial you are pretty much guaranteed that there will be an appeal; maybe more than one. While that seems a waste of time, money, effort and heartache in this case, we dare not give up the right to have these options.
He pleaded innocent to protect that right to appeal. If we allow justice to be tainted, even when the outcome is obvious, by saying there’s no need for a real trial, then one day that taint will extend to cases where it’s “almost certain” and, by degrees, to “I’m pretty sure…”.
We need to hold our rigorous standards in place, even for someone like this, so that you and I, and all other people who are not baby killers can live safe from injustice.
Having said that, I agree that he’s a scumbag and he should burn for what he’s done.