Casey Anthony Trial--it's ON

[_Jersey Girl]

Update: Casey Anthony will not testify in her own defense.

I am talking to myself here...and yet, I'm okay with it!
:-)

I've watched the videos short of the Defense resting it's case.

Testimony regarding how the Anthony pets were buried by Cindy, George and Lee. This essentially went nowhere.

Testimony by Dominic Casey regarding where he searched in the woods. Again, Defense seemed to drop the ball on this testimony and left it hanging out there in the Universe. I wasn't able to discern even the purpose of the testimony.

Testimony by George Anthony regarding his use of duct tape not only fell flat but fell short of proving anything at all.

[_Jersey Girl]

The Defense rested it's case and rebuttal by the Prosecution has begun. They expect to send out the jury for deliberation (hopefully) on Saturday.

Prosecution Case in a Nut Shell

Casey Anthony administered chloroform to her daughter Caylee and applied duct tape to her mouth and nose, thus causing her death.

Comments: The Prosecution fell short of proving pre-meditation. Otherwise, the presentation of their case, including testimonies and evidences, was nearly seamless. Links to chloroform and Casey Anthony are hazy at best. There are no direct lines tying Casey to the chloroform searches except for the very real possibility that Cindy Anthony lied on the stand which is going to be covered in the rebuttal by the prosecution. There are no lines whatsoever tying Casey to the duct tape. There is infact, more reason to believe that George Anthony had full access and use of duct tape.

All expert forensic experts were challenged by the Defense team. In my mind, the veracity of the Prosecution's experts vs the Defense experts is essentially a coin toss.

Defense Case in a Nut Shell

In their opening statements, the Defense contends that Caylee Anthony died as a result of accidental drowning in the family pool. Her body was discovered by both George and Casey, both of which panicked and attempted to cover up the body. Further, the Defense contends that the 31 days after the death when Casey was partying like a rock star, shopping, renting movies without obvious signs of grief was due to Casey having learned to disassociate on account of years of sexual abuse by her father George Anthony.

Comments: At no time did the Defense even come close to proving that George Anthony sexually abused his daughter, Casey. This, remember, was the foundation of their assertion regarding Casey's behavior following the death of her child. Lead Attorney Jose Baez essentially bumbled his way through the questioning of witnesses. His method of questioning was basically incoherent and sloppy, leaving the listener to wonder if he had any strategies in place at all. Suffice it to say that Baez in his examination of witnesses was "all over the place" and I wouldn't let him defend my dog on barking charges. Casey Anthony chose poorly. The Defense team gave the impression that they were unprepared, disorganized and unfamiliar with pieces of evidence.


Here are the charges once again and I haven't changed my mind about how I think the jury will decide:

First-degree murder (not guilty)
Aggravated child abuse (guilty)
Aggravated manslaughter of a child (guilty)
Four counts of lying to law enforcement (guilty)

With a skilled Defense team, Casey might have had a fair shot at being found guilty on just the last count. That she lied to law enforcement is undeniable, they have her on video and audio tape admitting that she lied.

Verdict: She is guilty as indicated above and of course, will appeal. There is the outside chance that Judge Perry (as a result of a Defense motion) will remove the Death Penalty from the table. Even if found guilty of First Degree Murder AND given the Death Penalty, it is more likely that Casey Anthony will live out her life in a Florida State prison.

[_Wisdom Seeker]

Update: Casey Anthony will not testify in her own defense.

I am talking to myself here...and yet, I'm okay with it!
:-)

I am reading. Besides your making a historical record which in two short years will be quite useful as this case might end up a mistrial.

[_Bond James Bond]

Someone deserves the chair over this. Ole Sparky for the win!

[_Jersey Girl]

Lying Mother

Cindy Anthony testified under oath that it was she who conducted computer searches for chlorophyll, chloroform, hand sanitizer, alcohol, acetone, inhalation, bamboo, and while on the computer saw a "pop up" for a youtube video about a "Neck Breaking Skateboard Accident".

She also stated that even though her work records showed her at work for 8 hours each day that, because she was a salaried employee, she was free to come and go as she saw fit and no matter how many hours she worked, her time log would show "8 hours" for each day.

Nice try, Mom.

Today the Prosecution, in their rebuttal, brought in the Gentiva (Cindy's former employer) head legal beagle who discussed the intranet system operation and time keeping system. He looked over printouts of both and demonstrated that when the computer searches were said to have taken place on the Anthony home desk top, Cindy Anthony was logged on at work.

Well, what if she left the computer running when she went home?

According to the Gentiva legal representative, when the computer has been inactive for a specific period of time, it automatically shuts itself off.

Also present was her supervisor who testified to time keeping records and verified that on those days March 17th and 22nd (?), Cindy Anthony was on the job for 9-10 hours each day.

A computer forensic expert was brought back to testify having run tests for the words chlorophyll, chloroform, hand sanitizer, alcohol, acetone, inhalation, bamboo, and neck breaking.

Only the words chloroform, how to make chloroform, neck breaking and other self defense/violent type material showed up.

No hand sanitizer, no alcohol, no acetone, and no bamboo.

Okay, wait. There were searches on bamboo Tiki torches. ;-)

But...but...what if she logged on to her work computer from home and did her work there????

According to the forensic computer expert, there were no remote login's conducted to access the Gentiva system on the Anthony computer.

When the Defense team was asked if they wanted to bring Cindy back to the stand for questioning, they declined.

Uh, Cindy? Can you say "perjury"?

To be fair to an obvious liar, if you search on yahoo for chloro--you will come up with chlorophyll, chloroform and how to make chloroform.

Don't believe me? Go ahead and try it.

If you search on neck breaking, you can eventually find the youtube video from, I think, 2005.

My money, as if I had any, says that someone figured this out and either handed it to Cindy to use or she figured it out herself. The point is, she didn't make those searches and lied her @ss off under oath.

The only possible way for the Defense team to use this in their closing statements would be if they said something to the effect: See? The mother is a liar, who do you think taught Casey to lie? Didn't we tell you they were a family of dysfunctional liars?

Okay, no.
:-)

[_Jersey Girl]

Someone deserves the chair over this. Ole Sparky for the win!

I'm not certain that anyone deserves death even though there are cases in which I think the person should be wiped off the planet. In all seriousness, I don't think I would do well on a jury in a capital case. In Florida there are two options. The electric chair and lethal injection.

If Casey Anthony is convicted of anything, I sincerely doubt that it will be Murder One which carries the death penalty. I would be very surprised if all other convictions didn't stand. The abuse charges alone carry 30 years each.

She will def be convicted of 4 counts of lying to police officers. The evidence for that is solid and not circumstantial as for the other charges. They have her on audio tape admitting she lied to police so that is a done deal.

The closing arguments are tomorrow, Sunday. Each side gets 3 hours to make their closing, the state gets to offer a rebuttal, and then the jury will receive it's instructions for deliberation and be sent out to deliberate.

In reality, I think it really doesn't matter what they find her guilty of. The case will automatically go to appeal and the more likely case is that she will live out her life in jail.

[_beastie]

Jersey Girl -

I admit that I haven't read all of your posts, and I haven't watched every minute of the trial. I've seen quite a bit, though, and have been following it. Here's my take:

I don't think the accidental drowning cover up makes sense. If they wanted to avoid Cindy's ire, and avoid charges of neglect, all they had to do was lie and claim that they were watching her in the pool but couldn't get to her fast enough once they realized she was in trouble.

The elaborate cover up, which included lying to Cindy the entire time, makes no sense at all. Moreover, George's suicide note made it clear he did not know what happened to Casey.

So I completely rule out the defense's theory of accidental drowning.

I do believe Casey caused her daughter's death. I think it's possible she may have been chloroforming her in order to sedate her so she could go party and accidentally overdosed her. Of course, she would still be criminally negligent.

There is no clear date of death. They only know the last time Caley was seen alive. So if Casey was doping her up to go party, it's possible the actual date of death was later than suspected, hence, no smell in the car.

If I were on the jury, I would probably not convict her of first degree, but would go with felony murder.

[_Jersey Girl]

Hey beastie,

I really need to scoot right now, but I will likely come back here later tonight to make more comments. I essentially agree with everything you stated. The accidental drowning doesn't make sense, George's suicide note the fact that he got a gun to try to force information out of her friends proves that he didn't know what had taken place, and the Defense hasn't done anything to forward the accidental drowning theory except for the photos of Caylee climbing into the pool and trying to open the sliding door.

Agree with your take on the verdict. I don't think there is enough to convict her of Murder One but stranger things have happened. I did a brief review of the Scott Peterson case and see that he was sentenced to death based on circumstantial evidence so who knows what the jury will decide.

The hell that this young woman has put her family through is simply beyond agony.

Also beastie, if you've witnessed George Anthony's public expression of deep emotional grief think about this. If you knew that Caylee had drown in the family pool--would the pool still be up in your yard?

Uh, no.

[_beastie]

Absolutely, that pool would be gone.

I do think Casey is a sociopath for what she's done to her family. She threw them all under the bus without hesitation. And, given that probable sociopathy, I think it is possible she premeditated murdering Caley, but I don't think the state has proven that beyond a reasonable doubt.

When I watched the defense attorney fight tooth and nail to keep out the work records that proved Cindy was lying, I thought to myself, this is why society hates lawyers so much. He knew what the truth was, and fought to keep the jury from hearing the truth.

Oh, one more thing. If Casey did deliberately plan and murder Caley, I believe her motive was simply to hurt her parents, in particular her mother. I can't remember if this came out in court or I heard it on a show, but supposedly Casey and Cindy had a huge fight right before Casey disappeared in which Cindy told her she was not a fit mother. If Casey wanted to wound her mother as viciously as possible, she did a good job.

[_Jersey Girl]

Absolutely, that pool would be gone.

I do think Casey is a sociopath for what she's done to her family. She threw them all under the bus without hesitation. And, given that probable sociopathy, I think it is possible she premeditated murdering Caley, but I don't think the state has proven that beyond a reasonable doubt.

When I watched the defense attorney fight tooth and nail to keep out the work records that proved Cindy was lying, I thought to myself, this is why society hates lawyers so much. He knew what the truth was, and fought to keep the jury from hearing the truth.

Oh, one more thing. If Casey did deliberately plan and murder Caley, I believe her motive was simply to hurt her parents, in particular her mother. I can't remember if this came out in court or I heard it on a show, but supposedly Casey and Cindy had a huge fight right before Casey disappeared in which Cindy told her she was not a fit mother. If Casey wanted to wound her mother as viciously as possible, she did a good job.

Hi beastie,

Finally getting back here to reply to your post. I started following this case when Caylee was reported missing. I don't know how I ended up viewing this on Nancy Grace, but that's the show I started watching it on beginning in summer of 2008. When the remains were found and autopsied, I started reading crime blogs and researching decomposition, etc., and found that fascinating.

When the trial began, I tried hard to remain objective and look for "holes" in both the prosecution and defense cases. I used this thread to play devil's advocate on several issues and think them through on the screen mainly, because I do like to write.

Now that the closing statements are about to take place, I have to say that all things considered, I think that Casey caused the death of her daughter but I can't say that it was intentional.

I am more inclined to think that she was sedating Caylee with chloroform and went too far. I don't have an opinion as to whether or not she used the duct tape to silence Caylee or to make it look like a kidnapping.

I do think that Casey is a Class A Sociopath. Who else would leave her daughter's disappearance go unreported for 31 days, drag her entire family through a media circus and hell all at the same time, lie her @ss off to them during jailhouse visits, directly lie to police detectives, not to mention cleaning out her friend's checking account for shopping sprees, steal money from relatives, and in the end...

who would throw her entire family under the bus in order to save her sorry self?

She has put her family through nothing short of living hell. George and Cindy Anthony are both on disability now. They are emotionally and psychologically spent. When her father recently testified about the finding of the remains and so obviously cried from deep within his soul, Casey sat there stone faced. When her mother mouthed the words, "I love you" upon leaving the witness stand, she was met with eye rolling by her daughter. Did you see that, beastie?

Even if there was an accidental drowning, even if George was the one who found Caylee in the pool, there is no possible way that I see this man throwing her tiny body out in the wooded area to be eaten by animals.

Do you recall seeing the jailhouse tapes where Casey referred to her daughter as "that little girl"? Am I remembering correctly?

George Anthony LOVED that little girl. The pride he had in her and love for her showed immediately his first day on the witness stand when he talked about being there for her birth. The gleam in his eye is something that cannot be faked.

And his daughter publicly accused this man of sexually abusing her, dear Lord.

I think that she has loved the attention she's gotten from this trial. I also think that her expectations of what her life will be like in years to come are as naïve as were her lies.

When you listen to her interviews with Det. Melich, you hear a young woman who has little real life experience attempting to get over on a mature and experienced police detective who knows BS when he hears it.

I only wish that little Caylee's story had been told.

:-(