Orlando - Casey Anthony sobbed Friday as a prosecutor described what her daughter's final moments might have been like.  Prosecutor Jeff Ashton suggested that Caylee Anthony was knocked out "chemically" and had duct tape put over her mouth and nose.  At the same hearing Casey Anthonys attorneys asked the judge to stop prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against her.  Casey's parents were subpoenaed but did not testify at the hearing.

Orlando – Attorneys for Casey Anthony told an Orlando judge that based on the known facts, the prosecution’s case against Casey Anthony does not qualify as a death penalty case. They're seeking an order which would prevent the prosecution from seeking death. Anthony's defense team is also asking for protective orders, demanding Orange County jail stop videotaping attorney visits.  The defense wants the court to order jail officials to destroy videotaped jailhouse family visits as well as audio taped phone calls with family members.  George and Cindy Anthony along have been subpoenaed by the State to testify in the hearing.

–In Session Staff

Orlando, Florida - Casey Anthony’s defense team filed a motion late Thursday suggesting that there is as much evidence pointing to meter reader Roy Kronk in the death of toddler Caylee Anthony as there is against her mother, Casey. That doesn’t mean the evidence against Kronk is strong. The defense believes the entirely circumstantial case against Anthony is weak; ergo, the evidence against Kronk is weak. The defense, however, says they are entitled to present this Kronk evidence to the jury. Last December, Kronk found Caylee’s skeletal remains in a wooded area about a quarter of a mile from her home. The defense believes Kronk has knowledge of or may be involved in the placing of the remains in the wooded area.

Defense investigators dug up information they claim the State should have uncovered. After speaking to two former wives of Kronk, his estranged son, and the daughter of a former live-in girlfriend, the defense says they learned that Kronk was physically and psychologically abusive toward both wives—both of whom divorced him. One of the former wives, Jill Kerley, claims that Kronk used duct tape on at least two occasions to bind her wrists. He beat her so severely she was hospitalized. She married him in the early 1990s and stayed with him fewer than five months.

Crystal Sparks, the other ex-wife, told the defense investigator that the family was concerned about Kronk and young girls; they didn’t want him around a niece who was three years old at the time. No further details were revealed in the defense motion. She also said that when Kronk was arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a former girlfriend, he had duct tape, handcuffs and a plastic gun.

Crystal Sparks’s son, Brandon, said he was estranged from Kronk, his biological father, for about a decade when Kronk called him last year. It was about a week before Thanksgiving and three weeks before Caylee’s remains were found. Brandon said his father told him he found the skull of a little girl and that it may be Caylee. Sometime later, Brandon received another call in which Kronk told him that he was going to be on TV “tomorrow” and to look for the report. Kronk called 911 on December 11, 2008. Police arrived, found a black garbage bag with the remains of the missing toddler, and, indeed, within hours Kronk’s identity was known though he didn’t actually appear on television for a few more days.

Kronk befuddled many when it was revealed last December that he had called 911 three times, on three consecutive days the previous August, claiming to have found a bag with a “white round object” in it, possibly the missing toddler. Police responded to the scene but Kronk was not there until the third call on the third day. The deputies searched but found nothing of note though the search was, admittedly, not very thorough.

Kronk was fired in late October from his county job for excessive absenteeism following a work-related injury. He used up his sick days and medical leave then failed to show at a disciplinary hearing. Through his attorney, David Evans, Kronk denies all the allegations the defense claims in this recent motion.

–Beth Karas, In Session Correspondent

Fort Myers, Florida - On the third day of trial against Juan Mendez Jr. , the last person to hear Whitney Mendez and Lorena Stone alive testified she heard Whitney Mendez tell her attacker he wasn’t supposed to be there because of a restraining order.

Moments later, Brandy Ayers heard Whitney Mendez scream. “It sounded like something from a horror movie,” she testified.

Prosecutors say Juan Mendez Jr. killed the Lorena Stone and his estranged wife and mother of his child, Whitney Mendez. Ayers, a key witness for the prosecution, also testified that she heard a male tell the young mother that she “wasn’t a good mom and that the baby wouldn’t be with her much longer.”

A welfare agent who used to work for the Department of Children and Families also testified that the defendant agreed with her request, one day before the women’s death, not to see his son that weekend.

Earlier in the day, a medical examiner detailed for jurors the numerous locations Mendez and her mother were stabbed. Both were stabbed and or cut more than 20 times, mostly to the head, neck, and upper torso. Some of the wounds, to the forearms and hands, were consistent with defensive wounds, the medical examiner testified.

The defense says Mendez is innocent. They believe police rushed to arrest Mendez despite not having any evidence linking the defendant to the crime. Ayers did not give a statement to police until one year after the killings.

– Nancy Leung, In Session Producer

Fort Myers, Florida - Whitney Mendez was “already on the ground” when she was stabbed, according to a crime scene technician.   The testimony, Monday, came as the technician described where blood was shed in the home Mendez shared with her mother Lorena Stone.   Both were stabbed more than 20 times in July, 2006.

Prosecutors believe Mendez’s estranged husband, Juan Mendez Jr., killed the women.  He faces second-degree murder charges.

Gabrielle Suboch of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, examined the blood spatter and made three conclusions:  that Whitney Mendez struggled in the hallway with her attacker; that at some point, Whitney Mendez was stabbed even after she went down to her knees near the bed where she was ultimately found; and that her mother also struggled as she was stabbed multiple times in a different bedroom.

Despite her testimony, Suboch conceded she could not identify the killer based on the pattern of blood spatter.

Suboch was one of three witnesses who testified Monday about evidence collected from around the crime scene.  A deputy testified he organized the line search in the vacant lot where a knife was found.   Another crime scene technician said she collected a footwear impression, a cell phone, a newspaper and a knife from the kitchen drawer which appeared similar to the alleged murder weapons, tested for fingerprints and other trace evidence from the victims’ bodies. 

On cross-examination, all of the witnesses said they followed standard operating procedure to maintain the integrity of the crime scene and evidence, as well as used the most advanced technology available to test. 

None of them linked the evidence they gathered to defendant Juan Mendez Jr.   

The defense has accused the investigators and prosecutors in this case of rushing to judgment despite a lack of physical evidence.

– Nancy Leung, In Session field producer

FORT MYERS, Florida – Testimony ramped up Monday in the second-degree murder trial of Juan Mendez, Jr.

He's accused of killing his estranged wife Whitney Mendez and her mother, Lorena Stone.

Their bodies were found July 24, 2006.

The crime scene was horrific… Investigators say each woman had been stabbed more than 20 times and that Stone was found partially decapitated.

Using a floor plan and a red marker, crime scene specialist Gabrielle Suboch described the blood spatter seen throughout the house. 

Suboch testified that the blood indicated there were signs of a struggle in the bedroom where Whitney Mendez was found.     

–IN SESSION staff

ORLANDO, FLorida–Former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one felony count of burglary to a conveyance and to one misdeameanor count of battery.

In a packed Orlando courtroom, victim Colleen Shipman, who in 2007 was competing with Nowak for the affections of NASA astronaut Bill Oefelin, told the court she knew in her heart that Nowak was going to kill her back in February 2007.

Nowak had driven from Texas to Florida and followed Shipman to her car at an Orlando airport while wearing a trench coat, dark glasses and a wig. Nowak, who was carrying a steel mallet and knife in her duffle bag, sprayed pepper spray into Shipman's vehicle.

In sentencing Nowak, Judge Marc Lubet reserved adjudication on her guilty plea, ordering her to serve one year of supervised probation. Additionally, she must complete 50 hours of community service and must write a letter of apology to Shipman within 10 days.

Nowak was facing life in prison.

–Jean Casarez, IN SESSION correspondent

ORLANDO, Florida – In Session has confirmed former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak will plead guilty today in an Orlando, Florida court.

Lisa Nowak

A source close to the prosecution tells me that a plea deal was reached after Nowak agreed to plead guilty to one feonly count of burglary of a conveyance and one count of misdemeanor battery.

Alleged victim Colleen Shipman has arrived from the west coast and will take the stand to give a victim impact statement. Nowak has flown from Texas to be at today's hearing.

Nowak will be allowed to have the court withhold adjudication at today's hearing. Upon successful completion of a probationary period, there will be no conviction at all on her record.

Nowak is charged with attempted kidnapping, burglary and battery after driving from Texas to Florida to confront Shipman, who had started dating Nowak's love interest, former NASA astronaut Bill Oefelein.

–Jean Casarez, IN SESSION correspondent

NEW YORK –The first criminal trial following the April 2008 raid on the FLDS ranch in Texas begins Monday in Eldorado, Texas. Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, is charged with one count of Sexual Assault of a Child under the age of 17. Jessop is also charged with Bigamy, but that trial will be held at some later date.

Raymond Merril Jessop

The raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County, Texas took place between April 3 and April 9 last year. Hundred of documents and photographs were seized including certificates of “spiritual unions” which are expected to be used to corroborate the allegations that underage marriages were taking place, birth records, dictations of prophet Warren Jeffs, and photographs of FLDS men and their numerous wives.

Following the raid, more than 400 children were removed from the ranch by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. An appellate court eventually ruled that the State did not have grounds to remove the children. Most of the children were reunited with their families in June 2008. A child named Merianne, who had purportedly married Warren Jeffs when she was twelve years old, was later sent to live with a relative. She’s now fifteen.

Child Protective Services, within DFPS, was building a number of cases of child abuse and other crimes against the parents but ultimately “non-suited” most of them. The cases were dropped after the mothers took parenting classes during which they were advised, among other things, of Texas law forbidding underage marriages. The mothers signed a “service plan” prepared by CPS where they promised to abide by the advice they learned in the classes. CPS, however, has no jurisdiction to follow up on cases that were non-suited so, aside from limited self-reporting coming out of the YFZ ranch, there is no way to know how the children are faring.

The Texas Attorney General, however, built criminal cases against 12 men following the raid. These men, who include Warren Jeffs and the current defendant Raymond Merril Jessop, were indicted in July and August last year and charged with crimes ranging from Failure to Report Child Abuse and Unlawful Marriage Ceremony of a Minor Child to Sexual Assault and Bigamy.

The alleged victim in this first trial was 15 when she was purportedly married to Jessop on August 12, 2004. She had been married to Jessop’s brother, Ernest. Ernest had been kicked out of the ranch by prophet Warren Jeffs and three of his wives were reassigned to his brother, Raymond. In this trial against Raymond Jessop, the Attorney General is seeking to introduce what is called evidence of “extraneous acts.”

The defense vigorously opposes these acts on the grounds that they cannot be proven, are highly prejudicial, and irrelevant to the charge of Sexual Assault. One of the acts, however, is about the alleged victim in this case. In a motion filed late last month, the Attorney General wrote that “Jessop placed his purported wife and unborn baby in danger by not seeking medical treatment for them.”

The alleged victim, who was 16 at the time, was in labor for three days in August 2005. She was not taken to a hospital “because of her age and the associated governmental pressures against the Prophet,” according to the motion which quotes Warren Jeffs.

Other acts the Attorney General wants to introduce include Jessop’s purported marriage to eight other women, allegations that he engaged in illegal banking activities, and aiding and abetting a fugitive when he failed to turn in Warren Jeffs while Jeffs was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List. Jessop faces up to 20 years in prison. He has been free pending the outcome of the trial after posting a $100,000 bond.

-Beth Karas, In Session correspondent

NEW YORK–Last month, on the one-year anniversary of her release from a San Diego County jail, Cindy Sommer reflected on the events in her life that led to that day. She had spent two and half years in jail on charges that she murdered her husband Todd in 2002, an active-duty Marine.

Cynthia Sommer

Sommer wasn’t arrested for almost four years, and only after the Navy decided to test some of Todd Sommer’s tissues preserved from autopsy. The tissues had fatally high levels of arsenic, leading authorities to reclassify his death a homicide.

By this time, Sommer had started a new life in Florida with her four children. She always denied poisoning her husband, but a jury disagreed, and convicted Sommer of first-degree murder in January 2007.
Sommer faced life in prison without the possibility of parole but, after much litigation, the trial judge didn’t sentence her. Instead, in late November 2007, he set aside the conviction and granted Sommer a new trial, in part because of the ineffectiveness of her attorney at trial.

Sommer had to sit in jail awaiting the new trial. In the meantime, convinced that earlier tests finding arsenic were flawed, her new attorney demanded that the prosecution look for more preserved tissues taken at autopsy. Luckily for Sommer, the state found some tissues that were frozen in another government lab. These samples were tested for arsenic in early 2008 and yielded a totally unexpected result: negative for arsenic. The San Diego District Attorney immediately moved for Sommer’s release. The charges were dismissed, for the time being, and Sommer walked out of jail on April 17, 2008.

Sommer now wants the dismissal of the murder charges to be “with prejudice,” which means they can never be reinstated. At the moment, the dismissal is “without prejudice.” And that’s where the matter stands right now. Sommer’s court date earlier this month has been rescheduled to August 28, at the prosecution’s request. She is hopeful that the DA will concede, on that date, that the matter should go away forever.

Meanwhile, Sommer is trying to get her life back and appears to be doing well. She is focused and driven. Sommer is enrolled full-time at a university where she is studying business, and also works about 30 hours a week. She has custody of her two older children, Jenna, 17, and Graham, 14. She is trying to get full custody of the younger children, Bailey, 13, and Christian, 9, who is Todd’s son. He was not even two years old when his father died. At the moment, Sommer shares custody of Bailey and Christian with her brother, who raised them during the years she was incarcerated.

I spoke with Sommer recently. She described her daily struggle to transition back to life on the outside. At one point, Sommer compared herself to a fire victim, whose possessions are all lost. But a fire victim, she said, doesn’t lose her bank account and credit history. Nor does a fire victim have to explain to potential employers what she does: a big hole in her resume—what she was doing between November 2005 and April 2008.

Recently, Sommer reached out to organizations like the Innocence Project where, no doubt, she could be a great asset. While Sommer resents the hurdles that come with explaining her arrest, trial, conviction, and dismissal, she has a lot to be thankful for. She came very close to being sentenced to state prison. Once there, an appeal based on the very same issues the trial judge heard, post-conviction, would have taken years and could have resulted in an affirmance of the conviction, especially if, after several more years, those frozen, arsenic-free tissues could no longer be located.

–Beth Karas, In Session correspondent