By Mary Stevens
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Dr. Warner Spitz said during testimony that in his opinion the skull of Caylee Marie Anthony was manipulated when it was photographed. Spitz took the stand as a witness for the defense Saturday in the State of Florida v. Casey Anthony

Dr. Spitz is an internationally known forensic pathologist, and has been an expert witness for over 300 trials including providing consult for high-profile cases such as the O.J. Simpson trial, the JFK investigation, and Martin Luther King Jr. investigation.

After performing over 60,000 autopsies in his 56-year career, he still could not determine the cause of death for Caylee Anthony, but Dr. Spitz could not rule out accidental death or homicide.

Three pictures of Caylee’s skull were shown on Saturday. By seeing these pictures, Dr. Spitz formed the opinion that the skull was manipulated when the pictures were taken.

“It had to be manipulated. There is no way it would not,” he said. “How do I know that? Because it is positioned on a brown paper for the purpose of taking a picture. Well the skull didn’t walk there. The skull didn’t go there. The skull was put there by the hands of somebody.”

Spitz criticized Dr. Jan Garavaglia for not cutting the skull to examine it during her autopsy. He said without cutting the skull a complete autopsy could not be completed. He said in his opinion, “the medical examiner did a shoddy autopsy.”

By conducting his own autopsy and opening the skull, Spitz was able to determine that the skull was on its left side during decomposition. He also found that sediment inside the skull proved that the body had been moved.

Casey Anthony started crying when Spitz explained why and how he cut Caylee’s skull, continuing to cry throughout his testimony. Casey looked away when three pictures were shown of Caylee’s remains were shown.

Throughout his testimony Spitz confused the names of mother and daughter, using Casey’s name when referring to Caylee’s decomposed body.

Spitz was the second witness to testified on Saturday after a forensic anthropologist, Dr. William Rodriguez, had to postpone his appearance until Monday because his opinions weren’t in his report.

After the jury was dismissed, Judge Perry notified the attorneys that he was taking into consideration extending court hours to 5:30 pm or 6:00 pm on weekdays and 3:00 pm on Saturdays.