Testimony over; Luong didn't testify

MOBILE, Ala. - Testimony is over in the capital murder trial of Lam Luong, the father accused of throwing his four children off the Dauphin Island Bridge in January, 2008.

The state called more than 30 people to the stand and Wednesday, the search efforts to find the children took center stage, along with a medical examiner who testified that the children were alive when they hit the water.

Four people took the stand Wednesday to describe in detail finding the bodies of the four children, including a Duck Hunter who said he thought he was in shock when he first saw infant Danny's body.

The testimony was hard to hear, and the evidence was even harder to see. That evidence included a video of Hannah's little body floating face down off the coast of Venice, Louisiana.

A commercial shrimper spotted her body while filming the stormy condition at sea; he wanted the jury to see it. Hannah was the last child found after nearly 2 weeks of searching. The last witness to take the stand was Karen Kelly, the State Senior Medical Examiner at the time of this tragedy.

Kelly testified that all four children were still alive when they hit the water, and died from blunt force trauma and drowning. All except 2-year-old Hannah; her body was too far decomposed to tell if there was any blunt force trauma.

The medical examiner said they were able to identify Hannah because her toe nails were painted.

All of the children also has what the medical examiner described as 'washer woman changes', their skin had begun to prune because of the time they spent in the water. Images of their tiny hands and feet were flashed on large screens to show the changes.

The defense rested it's case with no testimony. When Judge Graddick asked if Lam Luong wanted to testify, he shook his head no.

Thursday morning, closing arguments will begin and the case will be handed over to the jury. Judge Graddick said he was pleased with how quickly trial moved and expects everything to be finished on Friday.