TAMPA, Florida–The defense began Thursday in the case of Florida v Joshua Rosa, after prosecutors rested their case-in-chief.  In total, the state presented 18 witnesses, ranging from the sister of the victim and young people near the scene of the crime, to law enforcement who analyzed the blood and DNA evidence. 

But the one witness many were waiting for never took the stand.

Stephen Tomlinson's father, Ron Tomlinson ,who has been at every hearing since his 13 year old was strangled to death, was not a witness as many thought he would be. Tomlinson told me himself before the trial he was going to testify, but just didn't know when.

It was Ron Tomlinson who told the St. Petersburg Times in January 2006, about 4 weeks after his son's murder, that he saw Rosa and his son practice karate moves in the Tomlinson driveway. The jury didn't hear that testimony, even though the medical examiner testified that Stephen died from manual strangulation that could have included choke holds as used in martial arts.

The defense case began with Raquel Rosa, Joshua's mother, testifying that her son was a full-time student at a local college here in Tampa, and also worked 15-20 hours a week at Sports Authority. She told jurors he was the leader of their church's youth group, the Royal Rangers, and the group always always met on Thursday nights. December 8, 2005, the date of the murder, was a Thursday.

Peter Vidal, the assistant pastor of Rosa's church, Zion Pentecostal, said the white gloves Rosa had with him that night were regularly used in church services and by the youth of the congregation to perform religious pantomimes, songs, skits and dramas. He said it would not be uncommon to have rehearsals during the week for Sunday presentations and white gloves could definitely be used during those rehersals.

Vidal testified, however, that the Royal Rangers held elections on the night of December 8, 2005 and gloves would not have been used that night.

Raquel Rosa testified her son was very athletic, and he had been taking nutritional supplements because he was so thin and also had taken about a month of martial arts training at that time. She said that Stephen Tomlinson was not a good friend of his, and they didn't have regular contact, but when she got home around 5:30 p.m. on December 8th, she saw her son and Stephen sitting together on the Rosa's porch. The Hillsborough County medical examiner testified Stephen Tomlinson died at around 7:00 p.m.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Ronald Wright is now on the stand, and then we will find out if Rosa himself tells his story. After that you can expect closing arguments.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

NEW YORK - Cindy Sommer will be back in court Friday as her attorney argues that a pending murder charge should be dismissed with prejudice, meaning she could never face a retrial. Sommer was convicted of the arsenic poisoning of her husband, Todd, an active duty Marine, in January 2007. She was never sentenced to the mandatory term of life without parole because the judge ordered a new trial after finding her trial attorney made errors that tainted the process. The new trial was scheduled to begin last May but in April the San Diego District Attorney suddenly moved to dismiss the charges without prejudice. The mother of four had been in jail since November 2005 for a crime she says she did not commit. She was immediately released and has been living with relatives in northern California since then.

Earlier this year, in preparation for the new trial, the District Attorney had discovered more tissues from Sommer’s husband, taken at autopsy, and stored separately from tissues tested and used at the first trial. If Sommer had, indeed, murdered her husband by feeding him arsenic-laced food or drink, then these new tissues should have tested positive for arsenic. But they did not. There was no arsenic in any of the tissues which, incidentally, were taken from the same organs as those used at trial where arsenic was present. The difference was in how they were stored and where they were tested. Some samples were preserved in formaldehyde and others were frozen. The new tissues had been preserved in a third way, in paraffin blocks. The tissues used at trial were analyzed at a government lab. The new tissues were analyzed at a private lab in Quebec.The defense has always maintained that the samples used at trial were contaminated.

A new judge, John Einhorn, is hearing the motion to dismiss but Sommer’s attorney, Allen Bloom, wants the matter to go back to the original trial judge, Peter Deddeh, who is currently assigned to a different courthouse. The District Attorney’s position is that since the case was dismissed a few months ago there is no matter pending before Judge Einhorn and, hence, he has no jurisdiction to consider the motion. Sommer’s attorney, Allen Bloom, says that Einhorn or Deddeh has jurisdiction to hear it and that the court can consider not only evidence introduced at the trial but also the new evidence of arsenic-free tissues from Sommer’s husband that led to her release from jail.

–Beth Karas, In Session correspondent

TAMPA, Florida–The crime scene and autopsy photos of 13-year-old strangulation victim Stephen Tomlinson are lasting images of what this young boy went through before he died. They are now evidence in the prosecution's case-in-chief of first-degree murder against youth minister Joshua Rosa here.

I looked closely at these photos, shown one after the other to the jury, and saw that Tomlinson was severely strangled. As Medical Examiner Dr. Leszek Chrostowsky testified, the contusions and abrasions to his neck and lower jaw, show by their redness in color, occurred at or near the time of death. Stephen was fighting to live. This young man consciously knew during those last moments what was happening to him.

Stephen's family wasn't in the courtroom for this explicit testimony. The defendant's family bowed their heads or shut their eyes as the photos of Stephen were displayed to the jury one after the other.

Jurors were taking notes and listening seriously to the medical reasoning behind every injury. The defendant Joshua Rosa showed no emotion. We see that so often in trials...what it means is individual...no one can be programmed to act in a certain way.

Stephen Tomlinson was found with his black belt undone, and his blue jean shorts down to his ankles but his sport shorts (used as boxers) were still on. There is one photo that shows the elastic waistband of those shorts left a deep fence-like pattern impression in the skin of his hip area. The medical examiner believed blunt trauma to Stephen's hip caused the permanent marking. The pathologist hypothesized that Stephen may have been pushed to the ground so hard the impact to his hip created the pattern markings from the elastic band.

His other injuries were to his back, inside his lip, and his right shoulder and it was not a single hold which caused the strangulation death. Dr. Chrostowsky testified the assailant's hands changed positions several times and could have even used karate moves. Was Rosa trained in karate? A rape kit performed at autopsy showed no evidence of sexual assault.

Prosecutors are not required to prove a motive in their case. The defense maintains Rosa is not guilty, and was only trying to help Tomlinson after he found him lifeless in the park.

There are many unknowns in this circumstantial case that truly is a murder mystery.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

TAMPA, Florida–Day one of the trial Florida v Joshua Rosa went quickly, and not only was there critical witnesses testimony, but Judge William Fuente told the victim's family they have to keep their cool or risk a mistrial.

Nine witnesses took the stand, including some law enforcement and teens from the Logan Park subdivision who testified they saw Rosa running from the wooded area of the neighborhood park in the early evening of December 8, 2005.

Testimony included witnesses who say Rosa yelled that a kid was injured or dead...that kid was 13-year-old Stephen Tomlinson, one of Rosa's closest neighbors.

As the day went on direct and cross-examination helped both sides...like a ping pong match, Stephen's sister and close friend of the Tomlinson family both testified defendant Rosa came over to the Tomlinson's house in the late afternoon of December 8, 2005 looking for Stephen. But on cross-examination, both testified they somehow forgot to tell that to law enforcement when questioned in the days after the murder...even though everyone thought Rosa was responsible for the crime.

During the mid-morning examination of Kevin Whitely, the 21 year old who bent over Stephen's body trying to find a heartbeat, a photo of the young victim's body was displayed on the court's multi-media screen for Whitely to identify. Ron Tomlinson, Stephen's father, gasped in horror and abruptly left the courtroom with a baliff in tow following him.

After that, came accusations of threats by the Tomlinson family toward the defendant. Judge Fuente stepped in, outside the presence of the jury, and asked them to calm down or he would have to declare a mistrial. An emotional father went back to his seat after agreeing that he understood what the judge had just said...they rest of the day went smoothly.

Prosecutors will call witnesses such as the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Stephen, DNA analysts and a blood spatter expert. Stephen's father tells me he also expects to take the stand...he just doesn't know when.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

NEW YORK - The Los Angeles District Attorney just filed a motion in Phil Spector’s pending murder case. The motion seeks to admit at the upcoming retrial yet another incident where Spector threatened a woman with a gun. Jurors in Spector’s first trial last year heard from five women who detailed remarkably similar experiences between 1988 and 1995.

 According to the filing, prosecutors learned about this new incident earlier this year. Norma Kemper had just been hired as Spector’s assistant in September 1996, a position she would hold for the next four years. Unlike one of Spector’s prior assistants, Dorothy Melvin, who also testified against him at last year’s trial, Kemper says she was never romantically involved with him.

The day after she was hired, Kemper was invited to dinner at Dan Tana’s with Spector and his friend, Jay Romaine. Kemper told investigators that Spector drank a lot during the meal and, at one point, leaned across the table to kiss her. When she rejected his advances, Spector allegedly opened his jacket and revealed a small handgun in a shoulder holster. He said: “You know I could kill you right now.”

An angry Kemper eventually calmed down. After leaving Dan Tana’s, they went to House of Blues, where seven years later Spector would meet Lana Clarkson. After some time, Kemper says she asked Spector to take her home. When he refused, she found a ride with a friend at the club.

Kemper told investigators that when Spector drank and took his psychiatric medications, his personality changed and he would become “mean.” It was established at last year’s trial that Spector was taking psychiatric medication on or about February 3, 2003 when Lana Clarkson died in the early morning hours by a single gunshot wound to the head. He had been drinking extensively throughout the evening.

The District Attorney wants to put Kemper on the stand to further establish Spector’s pattern of violence against women especially when he was drinking, was romantically interested in a woman who wasn’t necessarily interested in him and whom he wanted to control.

–Beth Karas, In Session correspondent

NEW YORK - There are always arguments to be made against war crimes tribunals.

Cambodia: too little, too late? The Cambodian people have waited 30 years for the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, which starved and slaughtered nearly two million men, women and children, to be brought to justice. A hybrid international/Cambodian tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which I visited last December, is holding five geriatric Khmer Rouge leaders now, awaiting a trial that has been in the works since it was authorized a decade ago. Speak to any Cambodian and you’ll get the same answer: “They killed my parents.” “My sister.” “Right before my eyes.” “This is the tree they swung children against until they were dead.” It is heartbreaking stuff. Let’s move this tribunal along, can’t we?

The ECCC is moving slowly in part because it’s breaking new legal ground by giving a significant role to victims, allowing them to be present as parties to the action, allowing them to ask questions of the perpetrators directly or through attorneys, and to seek compensation. It is also in desperate need of funding. Japan and many European countries have donated millions; the United States, which contributed to the rise of the anti-American Khmer Rouge by its bombing of Cambodia in the early 1970’s, nothing.

Darfur: too much, too soon? The sitting president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, faces an arrest for genocide and war crimes in connection with the genocide currently under way in Darfur. Already China and others have criticized the move as having the potential to cause further unrest. When a quarter of a million people have already been killed and over two million displaced, when rape of women and girls is widespread, not acting for fear of causing “unrest” is a sick joke.

After the horrors of the Holocaust became known throughout the world, the rallying cry of “Never again!” has been repeated often. Unfortunately, we have not lived up to it. Genocide did happen again, in Cambodia, and the world knew and did nothing. Again, in Iraq, again, in Bosnia, again, in Rwanda.

Perpetrators of genocide can’t be brought to justice too quickly. Every victim deserves to see the world community join together to stand with them in support of war crimes tribunals. They are in their infancy, and imperfect. But they beat the alternatives, brutality, war, and unredressed injustice.

–Lisa Bloom, In Session anchor

TAMPA, Florida–The jury has just heard opening statements in the Tampa case of Florida v Joshua Rosa. Five men and nine women (including alternates) are now listening to the evidence presented by both sides.

Jurors include a college student who reads the Bible and a middle-aged woman who is an avid watcher of CSI.

Rosa, a 21-year-old youth minister, is accused of strangling to death his 13-year-old neighbor, Stephen Tomlinson, in December 2005 when Rosa was just 19.

During jury selection, a potential juror stood up, directing his comments toward the defendant and stated that Rosa is so young...and three years ago he was even younger. "I don't think I could ever convict Rosa here in an adult court," the prospective juror said. Prosecutor Jay Pruner said to the juror "thank you for your candor" and then moved on. He was later dismissed from the panel.

The man's comments include values and opinions that many jurors contemplate in cases involving a young defendant even though they are only supposed to look at the evidence...period.

Another prospective juror, also 21, and the same age as the defendant, introduced himself by saying he was a newlywed and his wife was expecting their first baby late this year. I looked at Rosa and wondered what he was thinking...this truly was a juror of his peers. Prosecutors also struck this juror during final selection.

Rosa was the youth minister for Zion Pentecostal Church here in Tampa. The victim, Stephen Tomlinson was a member of Rosa's youth group.

Joshua Rosa is facing life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty. The defense claims that Rosa discovered Tomlinson in a local park near where both lived and was trying to resusitate him, and did not harm him.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

NEW YORK - Gerald Robinson, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest in Ohio, lost his first appeal last week. Robinson was convicted in May 2006 of the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Pahl was stabbed 31 times in the sacristy of a chapel at Toledo’s Mercy Hospital. A suspect since 1980, Robinson was not arrested until 2004. In a lengthy decision, a three-judge panel of Ohio’s 6th District Court of Appeals rejected numerous claims by Robinson including ineffective assistance of counsel and improper arguments by the state.

Robinson claimed his attorneys failed to file a motion to dismiss before trial because of preindictment delay since nearly a quarter of a century had passed from the murder to the indictment. During that time, police reports were lost and witnesses died. In a thorough analysis of the record and the law, the appeals court found no error in the failure to dismiss the charges on the grounds of delay.

The appeals court also rejected Robinson’s argument that the state improperly injected Satanism into the case as a motive. Robinson took issue with the state’s explanation for a round mark of blood on the Sister Margaret Ann’s forehead. The state argued that Robinson anointed her using her own blood after first dipping in blood the round end of the letter opener used to stab her. The state also argued that the victim’s body, covered with an altar cloth, was stabbed nine times in the form of an inverted cross. A witness for the prosecution explained that this behavior made a mockery of the rituals of Catholicism.

Twenty-two more stab wounds were also inflicted to the neck and face. Sister Margaret Ann’s lifeless, exposed body was found on the floor of the sacristy. Her stockings and undergarments had been rolled to her ankles and her dress and brassiere were pulled up.

Robinson has always denied killing Sister Margaret Ann on Holy Saturday, April 5, 1980. He intends to appeal last week’s decision to the Ohio Supreme Court.

–Beth Karas, In Session correspondent

TAMPA, Florida–We are in the midst of jury selection here for our next live trial, Florida v. Joshua Rosa. Rosa, a youth minister, is accused of murder in the strangulation of 13-year-old Stephen Tomlinson in a neighborhood park. About 60 jurors are being questioned now by both sides about their knowledge of the case and possible bias toward either side.

 Rosa was a youth minister for the Zion Pentacostal Church here in Tampa. There are so many supporters for him here today that Judge William Fuente may have to conduct the trial in a larger courtroom than was planned.

Ron Tomlinson, Stephen's father, is here with his twin brother, sister and her husband.

Joshua Rosa is in the courtroom for jury selection. He is wearing a suit and tie and appears quite serious and mature for his young 21 years.

He faces life in prison if he is convicted. The defense says Rosa was trying to help resuscitate Tomlinson, a friend who attended Rosa's church.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

TAMPA, Florida–I'm here in Tampa, Florida getting ready for our new live trial live, beginning early next week. It is the tragic case of 13-year-old Stephen Tomlinson, who was found beaten and strangled to death in a park close to his home.

His neighbor and then 19-year-old youth pastor, Joshua Rosa, has been charged with first-degree murder and is facing life in prison.

I sat down with Stephen's father, Ron Tomlinson, as he told me how he jumped into his car, drove to the park and found little Stephen dead with his shorts pulled down, just a few blocks from his home in December 2005.

The horror, shock and trauma that Tomlinson says he continues to live day in and day out now culminates with a trial of the person Tomlinson trusted with his son.

According to the defense, Rosa would be the last person anyone would suspect of committing murder. Witnesses say they saw Rosa running from the park, but Rosa says he discovered his young friend's lifeless body and was only trying to get help.

This circumstantial case will likely hinge on witness testimony and forensics. Stay tuned to In Session for all the latest developments.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent