07-12-2011, 06:14 PM
sorry this is kind of a long one. first article is in it's entirety, second one is a couple days old but I found it interesting and thought I'd share.
Medical examiner in Anthony Sowell trial recounts details of 'homicidal violence' on victims' remains
By Michael Scott, The Plain Dealer
Cleveland, Ohio -- More disturbing details emerged this morning as the coroner who conducted five of the 11 autopsies on murder victims on the Imperial Avenue killings took the stand in the capital murder trial of Anthony Sowell.
Former Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj testified about the autopsies of Tonia Carmichael, Amelda Hunter, Crystal Dozier, Janice Webb and Leshanda Long. Balraj had retired as county coroner, but stayed on to continue working at the new Medical Examiner's office under a new county government.
Balraj said Dozier, Carmichael and Hunter died from strangulation. Jurors were shown photographs of Dozier, but the images were not shown to media watching a live video feed in a room behind the courtroom.
Balraj went over details in her autopsy of Long, although police had only recovered her skull from Sowell's home.
Defense attorneys began quizzing Balraj just before the noon hour about whether there was any traces of drugs in any of the bodies she autopsied.
Last week, former Coroner Dr. Frank Miller had also testified about how medical experts used DNA to identify victims. Dr. Krista Pekarski of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office had also been on the stand, talking about the six autopsies she had performed.
Also taking the stand this morning was Christopher Kern, a former forensic scientist with Cuyahoga's coroner's ofice who now works in Washington D.C.
Sowell, 51, was in court today wearing a short sleeve yellow shirt.
He is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and a host of other offenses in the deaths of 11 women whose bodies were found in and around his home in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood in the fall of 2009.
He also is accused of attacking several other women who survived -- and who took the stand in the second week of the trial.
The trial on the 18th floor of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center began June 6. Sowell faces the death penalty if convicted.
Anthony Sowell seemingly captivated by images of decomposed Imperial Avenue victims
Leila Atassi, The Plain Dealer By Leila Atassi, The Plain Dealer
Published: Friday, July 08, 2011, 6:43 PM
Updated: Saturday, July 09, 2011, 3:23 AM
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Images of the remains of 11 women, many rendered unrecognizable as humans by months or years of decay, passed before jurors on a 27-inch monitor Friday -- and Anthony Sowell seemed transfixed by the glowing screen.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose, calling the photos "grotesque," asked the attorneys during a break in Sowell's trial to spare the jury the nightmarish scenes by displaying them only as long as necessary.
But Sowell's gaze was riveted to the monitor several feet away, as he leaned forward slightly in his seat, propped his chin in his hand and listened to investigators explain what they found in and around the suspected serial killer's Imperial Avenue home.
Sowell, 51, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and a litany of other offenses for the deaths of the 11 women. He also is accused of attacking several others who survived. His trial began June 6, and he faces the death penalty if convicted.
Friday morning for jurors kicked off with a silent slide show featuring hundreds of photos taken during the excavation by police of Sowell's house and yard in late October and early November 2009.
The images became progressively more grisly with the testimony of Deputy Medical Examiner Krista Pekarski, who performed six of the autopsies in the case.
Assistant County Prosecutor Rick Bombik asked questions to pinpoint how long each of the women had been dead by the time they were found and their order of death in relation to one another.
Pekarski drew upon the degree of decomposition, the presence of insects or larvae and the dates the women were last seen alive to arrive at her conclusions, she said.
But each set of remains had decomposed under different conditions, temperatures and environments, making it difficult to know exactly when the women had died, she told jurors.
Two of the bodies she examined had been left out in the open air in an attic apartment, while another on that floor had been wrapped in a garbage bag. A fourth was found swaddled in a comforter, a carpet padding and plastic and buried beneath a mound of dirt.
Two more women on whom Pekarski had performed autopsies were buried in the yard, exposed to the elements for unknown periods of time.
full article here
Medical examiner in Anthony Sowell trial recounts details of 'homicidal violence' on victims' remains
By Michael Scott, The Plain Dealer
Cleveland, Ohio -- More disturbing details emerged this morning as the coroner who conducted five of the 11 autopsies on murder victims on the Imperial Avenue killings took the stand in the capital murder trial of Anthony Sowell.
Former Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj testified about the autopsies of Tonia Carmichael, Amelda Hunter, Crystal Dozier, Janice Webb and Leshanda Long. Balraj had retired as county coroner, but stayed on to continue working at the new Medical Examiner's office under a new county government.
Balraj said Dozier, Carmichael and Hunter died from strangulation. Jurors were shown photographs of Dozier, but the images were not shown to media watching a live video feed in a room behind the courtroom.
Balraj went over details in her autopsy of Long, although police had only recovered her skull from Sowell's home.
Defense attorneys began quizzing Balraj just before the noon hour about whether there was any traces of drugs in any of the bodies she autopsied.
Last week, former Coroner Dr. Frank Miller had also testified about how medical experts used DNA to identify victims. Dr. Krista Pekarski of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office had also been on the stand, talking about the six autopsies she had performed.
Also taking the stand this morning was Christopher Kern, a former forensic scientist with Cuyahoga's coroner's ofice who now works in Washington D.C.
Sowell, 51, was in court today wearing a short sleeve yellow shirt.
He is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and a host of other offenses in the deaths of 11 women whose bodies were found in and around his home in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood in the fall of 2009.
He also is accused of attacking several other women who survived -- and who took the stand in the second week of the trial.
The trial on the 18th floor of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center began June 6. Sowell faces the death penalty if convicted.
Anthony Sowell seemingly captivated by images of decomposed Imperial Avenue victims
Leila Atassi, The Plain Dealer By Leila Atassi, The Plain Dealer
Published: Friday, July 08, 2011, 6:43 PM
Updated: Saturday, July 09, 2011, 3:23 AM
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Images of the remains of 11 women, many rendered unrecognizable as humans by months or years of decay, passed before jurors on a 27-inch monitor Friday -- and Anthony Sowell seemed transfixed by the glowing screen.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose, calling the photos "grotesque," asked the attorneys during a break in Sowell's trial to spare the jury the nightmarish scenes by displaying them only as long as necessary.
But Sowell's gaze was riveted to the monitor several feet away, as he leaned forward slightly in his seat, propped his chin in his hand and listened to investigators explain what they found in and around the suspected serial killer's Imperial Avenue home.
Sowell, 51, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and a litany of other offenses for the deaths of the 11 women. He also is accused of attacking several others who survived. His trial began June 6, and he faces the death penalty if convicted.
Friday morning for jurors kicked off with a silent slide show featuring hundreds of photos taken during the excavation by police of Sowell's house and yard in late October and early November 2009.
The images became progressively more grisly with the testimony of Deputy Medical Examiner Krista Pekarski, who performed six of the autopsies in the case.
Assistant County Prosecutor Rick Bombik asked questions to pinpoint how long each of the women had been dead by the time they were found and their order of death in relation to one another.
Pekarski drew upon the degree of decomposition, the presence of insects or larvae and the dates the women were last seen alive to arrive at her conclusions, she said.
But each set of remains had decomposed under different conditions, temperatures and environments, making it difficult to know exactly when the women had died, she told jurors.
Two of the bodies she examined had been left out in the open air in an attic apartment, while another on that floor had been wrapped in a garbage bag. A fourth was found swaddled in a comforter, a carpet padding and plastic and buried beneath a mound of dirt.
Two more women on whom Pekarski had performed autopsies were buried in the yard, exposed to the elements for unknown periods of time.
full article here