A judge has approved about $21,000 for a defense review of surveillance videos which could provide clues in the killing of 11 women whose remains were found at the suspect’s home.
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CLEVELAND (AP) — A judge has approved about $21,000 for a defense review of surveillance videos which could provide clues in the killing of 11 women whose remains were found at the suspect’s home.
The money approved Thursday by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose was about half of what the defense for Anthony Sowell, 51, had requested.
The defense wants to review 2,000 hours of surveillance video from a sausage shop next to Sowell’s Cleveland home. Before the bodies were found, neighbors blamed a lingering odor on the shop.
Sowell has pleaded not guilty and goes on trial Feb. 14 for aggravated murder, kidnapping and other charges.
Prosecutors turned over 227,000 video clips to defense lawyers Rufus Sims and John Parker. It was shot between August and early November of 2009 from five security cameras at Ray’s Sausage.
Ten victims disappeared before that time. Diane Turner, 38, of Cleveland, disappeared in September 2009 and her remains were found in a black plastic bag in a third-floor bedroom of Sowell’s home.
The defense team received the tapes last week, but they don’t know what they will find in the footage, Sims said Friday.
"It’s some kind of surveillance of the area around the house," Sims said. "It may be nothing. It may be something. That’s the problem."
Sims says the defense team doesn’t have much time left before the trial to examine the many hours of tape.
There was no immediate comment from the prosecution on any evidence value to the tapes. A message seeking comment was left Friday at prosecution offices.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
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