Posted 11:43 pm Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Defense Questions Evidence Integrity
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
CONROE — The defense team of the man accused of beating to death a 13-month-old Rusk County girl in 2008 raised serious questions Tuesday about the integrity of evidence and the crime scene.
Staff Writer
CONROE — The defense team of the man accused of beating to death a 13-month-old Rusk County girl in 2008 raised serious questions Tuesday about the integrity of evidence and the crime scene.
Blaine Milam’s team of lawyers, including Rick Hagan, John Moore and Stephen Jackson, attempted to paint a picture for the jury of an incompetent Rusk County Sheriff’s Office and their handling of what has come to be known as the “exorcism murder.”
Milam and the child’s mother, Jessica Carson, stand accused of the beating death of the child. Prosecutors on Monday said the child suffered hours of torture including being sexually abused before being bitten and then beaten and strangled to death.
The defense team started with Texas Ranger Lt. Kenney Ray early Tuesday morning by questioning the methods used by police, but it was with the several hours of testimony by Rusk County District Attorney Investigator William Brown that the team tried to unravel the case.
Brown acknowledged there were parts of the investigation that could have been done differently and that proper investigation techniques had not all been followed.
One area was the security of the scene with no log book indicating who entered the crime scene and at what time. The period of days between finding evidence at the scene was also a key point, but on redirect.
Brown told prosecutors other investigators had been to the scene and had documented what they saw and had collected evidence.
One point the defense team could not overcome was the jury hearing testimony from a Rusk County Jail nurse who told the jury that Milam had confessed to killing Amora.
“He was really breaking down and he said ‘I am going to confess I did it, but the Blaine that you know didn’t do this. My dad told me to be a man. Tell Jessica I love her,’” she said.
Additionally, Milam’s sister Theresa Shea told jurors that during a visit with her brother about a week later at the jail he told her Ms. Carson may have placed something underneath the trailer.
Prosecutors asked Mrs. Shea whether she had asked anyone to give her a ride to the home where the murder took place to fetch evidence and she testified she had not.
However, the next witness, Shea’s husband’s aunt, told the jury she was asked by Ms. Shea to take her to the scene to retrieve some evidence in the case.
The aunt told jurors she excused herself from Mrs. Shea and called Rusk County Sheriff’s officials and relayed the information.
Working with the information the sheriff’s office received, a search warrant was signed and new evidence was found at the scene, Brown said.
Brown said former Rusk County Sheriff’s Sgt. Amber Rogers located a pipe wrench underneath the trailer in a plastic baggie.
Authorities believe Amora was sexually abused with the tool and possibly beat with it.
Brown is scheduled to return to the stand Wednesday morning when the case resumes at 9 a.m.
The defense team started with Texas Ranger Lt. Kenney Ray early Tuesday morning by questioning the methods used by police, but it was with the several hours of testimony by Rusk County District Attorney Investigator William Brown that the team tried to unravel the case.
Brown acknowledged there were parts of the investigation that could have been done differently and that proper investigation techniques had not all been followed.
One area was the security of the scene with no log book indicating who entered the crime scene and at what time. The period of days between finding evidence at the scene was also a key point, but on redirect.
Brown told prosecutors other investigators had been to the scene and had documented what they saw and had collected evidence.
One point the defense team could not overcome was the jury hearing testimony from a Rusk County Jail nurse who told the jury that Milam had confessed to killing Amora.
“He was really breaking down and he said ‘I am going to confess I did it, but the Blaine that you know didn’t do this. My dad told me to be a man. Tell Jessica I love her,’” she said.
Additionally, Milam’s sister Theresa Shea told jurors that during a visit with her brother about a week later at the jail he told her Ms. Carson may have placed something underneath the trailer.
Prosecutors asked Mrs. Shea whether she had asked anyone to give her a ride to the home where the murder took place to fetch evidence and she testified she had not.
However, the next witness, Shea’s husband’s aunt, told the jury she was asked by Ms. Shea to take her to the scene to retrieve some evidence in the case.
The aunt told jurors she excused herself from Mrs. Shea and called Rusk County Sheriff’s officials and relayed the information.
Working with the information the sheriff’s office received, a search warrant was signed and new evidence was found at the scene, Brown said.
Brown said former Rusk County Sheriff’s Sgt. Amber Rogers located a pipe wrench underneath the trailer in a plastic baggie.
Authorities believe Amora was sexually abused with the tool and possibly beat with it.
Brown is scheduled to return to the stand Wednesday morning when the case resumes at 9 a.m.
