DNA on a shirt Carlie Brucia wore the day she disappeared matches Joseph Smith to a "reasonable degree of scientific certainty," an FBI examiner said in Smith's murder trial.
By Associated Press
Published November 15, 2005
SARASOTA - A semen stain found on a shirt Carlie Brucia wore the day she was abducted matched Joseph Smith's DNA, an FBI forensic examiner testified Monday on the fifth day of Smith's murder trial.
Smith, 39, is on trial for first-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery.
Carlie's apparent abduction in Sarasota on Feb. 1, 2004, was recorded by a carwash security camera. Her body was found under brush on the grounds of a church more than four days later.
The sample from the back of the 11-year-old girl's red shirt included female DNA, said Jennifer Luttman, the FBI examiner from Quantico, Va. Carlie could neither be matched conclusively to the female DNA nor ruled out, Luttman said. But "I'm able to say Joseph Smith was the source of the male DNA to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty."
Earlier Monday, a medical examiner testified that scrapes, marks and bruises on Carlie's body indicate she was bound, dragged on her side and strangled from behind with a cord or string.
Carlie also appeared to have been sexually assaulted, because her bra was pulled down and she was naked below the waist, Dr. Russell Vega said as jurors were shown almost two dozen images on a television screen of her body.
Marks on her neck indicated that someone taller than Carlie stood behind her while strangling her, Vega testified. Marks on her wrists were consistent with her hands being tied while she was alive, and abrasions on her sides suggest she was dragged over a surface like concrete and also over branches while her hands were bound, Vega said.
