PINE BLUFF, AR -- Provided through a Freedom of Information request, the crime scene technician tells an investigator she packaged the items taken from Dr. Larry Amos' home.
Once it got to the police department's evidence room, she realized she needed more information for the submission form but didn't get around to it. The investigator asked the technician when did she realize the evidence had not been sent to the crime lab.
The technician responded, "It's not that I forgot it was there. It just got pushed aside for something else. The first time I realized that I really had to get it done was when Sergeant (whose name has been blacked out) called me.
"If you're a crime scene technician and you're accustomed to handling evidence, what would make that day be different?" Laurell Hall, Cleashindra's mother, said.
Laurell Hall can't see why the technician, whose served in that role for 19 years, allowed this flop to happen -- especially a case as high profile as this.
"The fact that there were so many people, so many officers, it seems like that evidence would have important so what made it so different that you didn't follow the procedures that you follow everyday?" Laurell said.
Chief Brenda Davis Jones suspended the technician five days without pay, but the Halls say that can't undo what happened.
They've lost credibility with the force.
"How can she verify that they weren't tainted and she handled them, handled them all the time and she can swear in a court of law that they weren't tainted," Laurell said.
