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Smoke & mirrors or resonable doubt: Daniel Wade Moore trial

By Bobby Shuttleworth - Bio | Email

DECATUR, AL (WAFF) One side says smoke and mirrors, the other says reasonable doubt. 

That's the essence of Wednesday's testimony in the Daniel Wade Moore murder trial.              

Some say the defense is trying to divert attention to other people they believe could have killed Karen Tipton, everyone from friends to co-workers.  

Former chief of the Decatur Police Department Violent Crime Unit testified for hours Wednesday and Tuesday.

Barry Hamilton was asked why he excluded certain people as suspects in Karen Tipton's murder.

Several friends and even service workers were called into question.

"This is a circumstantial evidence case which means the prosecution does not have any direct evidence that Mr. Moore committed this crime. So they have to base it on circumstances. The defense is pointing fingers at several other people who could have committed this murder," is how courtroom observer Scott Anderson explained it.

Anderson says that's done to take the focus off the defendant and place it somehwere else.

"You have to remember that the jury is going to be instructed that with circumstantial evidence, not only does that have to lead to the defendants conviction, beyond as reasonable doubt, but it also has to exclude any theory that is reasonable consistent with his innocence," said Anderson.

The prosecution also established a timeline, showing phone calls and more to show the time of death and where these other people were at the time of Tipton's murder.

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