Here are live updates from the hearing of Christine Abrams, who is accused of starving her dog to death by looking her in a crate without food or water when she moved out of her central Florida home. These are being posted on the Orlando Sentinel’s “Animal Crazy” blog. We will keep you posted as the hearing goes on.

(From Orlando Sentinel reporter Laurin Seller, blogging live from the Brevard County Courthouse. Filed at 1:30 pm today)

VIERA - A hearing in the case of accused animal abuser Christine Abrams is underway before a packed crowd at the Brevard County courthouse in Viera. Abrams' attorney is trying to have all of the evidence tossed out, saying police were illegally searching her home March 12 when they found her dog, Ella, dead in a crate without food or water.

For nearly an hour, the attorney, Andrew Stine of West Palm Beach, has been grilling Abrams' neighbor about what he did and saw that day when he called police about a foul odor and flies at the Cocoa home. Abrams, 30, was arrested after police peered through a window and saw the white, three-legged German shepherd dead in the crate, a bag of unopened dog food just a few feet away.

Police said they broke into the home because they feared for Abrams' safety. She was found about five hours later and six miles away at her new roommate's home. She told investigators she had moved out two months earlier and left Ella in the locked crate because her roommate didn't like dogs, according to arrest reports.

She is facing two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. Each carries a maximum penalty of one year in the county jail and a $5,000 fine. The case has drawn outrage from animal lovers worldwide.

(More from Laurin Sellers, posting at about 3:10 pm today)
The hearing could last for a few more hours. Right now a police sergeant that responded to Christine Abrams' Cocoa home on March 12 is testifying about what he saw that day and why officers entered the house.

They said there was a foul odor and flies and that seeing the dead dog in the crate through an open window only heightened their concern about Abrams' safety. They said they went inside to search for her. But her attorney, Andrew Stine, said they should have obtained a search warrant before entering the house on Peachtree Street.

Stine has spent much of the day grilling the neighbor that called police to the home and the officers that responded.