ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) ? A judge ruled on Monday that accused child killer Casey Anthony is mentally fit to continue standing trial based on psychological testing conducted over the weekend at the request of her lawyers.
Judge Belvin Perry revealed that an emergency motion for the examinations filed by the defense was the reason behind the abrupt cancellation of Saturday's court session.
In preparing for the murder trial, the defense procured its own mental evaluation of Casey but chose not to mount an insanity defense.
Perry provided no explanation of what provoked attorneys to request new evaluations, and the judge sealed the psychological reports from the three court-appointed experts.
The 25-year-old Florida mother is accused of smothering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee with duct tape on June 16, 2008, driving around with the child's body in her car trunk for several days and dumping the remains in woods near their Orlando area home.
Evidence showed Casey spent the following month happily partying with her boyfriend.
Defense attorney Jose Baez contends Caylee accidentally drowned in the Anthonys' backyard pool, and that Casey's inappropriate reaction stemmed from a history of sexual abuse.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The closely watched trial is now in its sixth week. The delay caused by the competency testing came as the defense presents the final days of its case.
Biochemist Kenneth Furton took the stand for the defense on Monday to rebut key prosecution evidence that chemical compounds found in Casey's car trunk could be the result of Caylee's body decomposing there for several days.
BODY VAPORS
Both Furton and Arpad Vass, who testified for the prosecution, acknowledged this is the first time either had provided evidence in court on the science of chemical vapors given off by a decomposing body.
Furton, a Florida International University professor who studies the volatile chemical compounds given off by live and dead humans, testified that scientists around the world disagree on whether it is possible to identify human remains from chemical signatures.
"There is no instrumental method that's been scientifically validated" to identify a human body from chemical compounds, Furton said.
Furton testified that many of the compounds found in decomposing humans are also found in milk, animal meat and household products.
Vass, who spent 20 years conducting research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory body farm, previously testified that the chemical vapors in Casey's car trunk could not be the result of normal trash.
"It couldn't be caused by someone eating a hamburger and wiping their face," Vass said, adding that the quantity of acids found would require several pounds of raw and very fatty meat loaded with the type of bacteria found inside a body.
Seeking to suggest errors in the investigation, defense attorney Baez also recalled the case's lead detective, Yuri Melich, and two crime scene specialists to testify about a cadaver dog that signaled it had found human remains in Casey's car trunk.
All three witnesses had said in depositions that the dog investigated only one car. The dog handler, however, testified he let the dog sniff a random car in the sheriff's parking lot before taking it to Casey's car, for a total of two cars.
(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jerry Norton)
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