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Was Trayvon Martin's homicide investigation mishandled by both Volusia County and Sanford officials? State Attorney, Angela Corey has assured the public that from day one, the death of Trayvon Martin was handled as a criminal homicide, does the official autopsy report indicate differently? Why didn't Sanford officials attend Trayvon Martin's autopsy? Sanford PD does appear to have a standing practice of attending autopsies, why didn't they attend Trayvon's autopsy? |
May 28, 2012 |
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UPDATES ARE IN GREEN FONT Back in March of this year (2012), VolusiaExposed revealed the Volusia County connection to the Trayvon Martin homicide investigation. While Mr. Martin was shot and killed in the City of Sanford, which is in Seminole County, his autopsy and the forensic death investigation were conducted by Volusia County officials. Many are unaware that Seminole County contracts out their medical examiner's office to the County of Volusia. Tara Malphurs Lindsey Crim VolusiaExposed's Commentary The Trayvon Martin Incident What needs to be done The Sanford Police Department The Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office It has been our experience that most, if not all, medical examiners and law enforcement agencies within the local Central Florida area, either by policy, or by practice, have an investigator at the autopsy of a possible homicide victim. Gary Davidson, the Public Information Officer of the Volusia County Sheriff Department informed us that - "While it's standard practice at the Sheriff's Office that one of our investigators attends the autopsy in homicide cases, I'm not aware of anything in our written policies or directives that requires it." Mr Dave Byron, Volusia County spokesman offers VX some advice within the above email communications. The autopsy clearly indicates that there is forensic evidence to be collected (bullet fragments, etc). Shouldn't law enforcement officials have had a desire to be at the autopsy, to at the very least, secure such evidence, by insuring the starting of the legal chain of custody on said evidence? |
State Attorney Angela Corey defends the Sanford PD investigation. (9:31-10:27 minutes of news conference) S.A. Angela Corey's states that Sanford PD had conducted a thorough and intensive investigation. She further indicates, that the public should have waited for the completion of that investigation. (21:20-22:42 minutes of news conference) State Attorney Angela Corey's entire news conference. |
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UPDATE May 28, 2012 - VolusiaExposed.Com randomly selected five other homicides / suicides that transpired within the city limits of Sanford, Florida. We then, made a public record request for those autopsy reports from Volusia County officials. We were advised by officials, that only two of the five reports were currently available for public record release.(Some of these death investigations are still active - please see the below email communications between VolusiaExposed.Com and Volusia County officials) Email communications with Volusia County officials Interestingly, both autopsy reports that were available as public records, clearly indicated that Sanford law enforcement officers do exercise a practice of attending autopsies of suspected homicide and suicide victims. So why didn't they attend Trayvon Martin's autopsy? Lisa French's 2007 autopsy (Homicide) Harry Harper's 2009 autopsy (Suicide) So why, with three independent law enforcement agencies investigating, none of them had an investigator at the Martin autopsy? Could the answer be very simple - none of these agencies were investigating the Trayvon Martin death as a criminal homicide? If so, are the 4th Judicial Circuit's State Attorney's (Angela Corey) comments (see the attached videos) misleading. Were these investigations as "thorough and intensive" as S.A. Corey has assured us they were? We suspect that almost immediately after the shooting, that the decision was made to handle the Trayvon Martin death as a justifiable homicide. (And that might have been the correct decision) We further suspect that only after there was a large public out cry, that followed the Martin shooting, did officials decide to "re-visit" their decision. In our mind, we suspect that S.A. Corey is simply playing good politics by not throwing Sanford PD, the Volusia County ME, or her peer, S.A. Wolfinger under the bus for their obvious initial decision not to investigate this death as a possible criminal homicide. However, in doing so, S.A. Corey, in our opinion, has sold her credibility rather cheaply. With all the lying, falsification and case manipulation attached to this case, we seriously doubt that TRUE justice can be found for either Trayvon or George. This case is driven more by politics, then by facts, or the truth (whatever that may be). The whole Martin / Zimmerman debacle is merely a well publicized symptom of the little acknowledged disease of political corruption, that breeds unabated, within the Central Florida law enforcement community. VolusiaExposed.Com has requested that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigate our concerns, but to no avail. When we, as citizens, allow our law enforcement officers to openly falsify documents in death investigations, merely because the decedent was an inmate, or not of our race, creed, social or economic backgrounds, then where does that leave us, should we find ourselves being falsely accused, by the very same law enforcement officials? Should we at all be surprised, that in 2012, law enforcement officials within several departments would manipulate a death investigation involving a 17 years old young man, when in 2009, very few were concerned when law enforcement and correctional officials were falsifying records in the death of Inmate Tracy Veira, a 28 year old mother of two. Volusia County Sheriff Investigator Campanella was keenly aware that Ms. Veira had been dead longer then correctional officials were admitting to. How do we know this - Investigator Campanella notes this, as well as Forensic Investigators Lunt's and Clark's, suspicions that Veira had been dead longer then acknowledged by jail officials. VolusiaExposed requested via public record requests, from the Sanford police department, any policies or practices they have regarding the attendance of law enforcement during autopsies. As of yet, we have received no response to our request. Emails to Sanford PD officials |