After over 2 1/2 years, the murder trial of Casey Anthony is finally underway.
Prospective spectators waited in a line outside the courthouse, some since 5am (est), hoping to get a seat ticket inside the Casey Anthony trial. When everyone finally got into the courtroom, we saw Cindy and George Anthony, Casey's parents/Caylee's grandparents, seated in the back of the courtroom. George sat down and held an open bible on his lap; Cindy held a brown teddy bear on her lap. Concerned about possibly tainting the jury, court deputies spoke to Cindy about the teddy bear, but they let her keep the bear when she agreed not to keep it down so that jurors would not see it.
As the trial began, the opening statements from the Prosecution were clear, to the point and believable. The prosecuting attorney, Linda Drane-Burdick, gave a general overview of the case, stipulating that although this is a murder case against Casey Anthony, the jurors also needed to hear about the victim, Caylee Marie Anthony. Linda spoke about how Casey's lies, the 31 days it took for Casey to tell people that Caylee was missing, how Casey was out partying with her friends during that time period. She also spoke about how Caylee was last seen with her grandfather on Father's Day, and was last seen in the company of Casey. Then she focused the jury on the facts surrounding how Caylee was eventually found, dead, her head wrapped in duct tape and stuffed inside a laundry bag (from the Anthony home) and trash bags, and was thrown into a muddy swamp to rot. To make a dramatic point, pictures of Caylee alive, and dead, were shown to the jurors as the prosecution's opening statements came to an end with the statement that Casey is guilty of first degree murder.
Then Jose Baez, Casey Anthony's lead defense attorney, got up and made his opening statements.
He started off by saying that Caylee was never missing. She died tragically in a swimming pool accident. The ensuing actions by Casey, although odd, could be explained by how Casey was sexually abused from the age of eight years old by her father, George Anthony. And not only was it George who sexually abused Casey, but her brother, Lee, also attempted to sexually abuse her. And all of this was kept quiet from everyone in the outside world. Lies and deception was the family's motto, and then became Casey's personality and actions, which is why she lied to everyone, including the police, about the whereabouts of Caylee. Then came the conspiracy theories. First up in the list of conspirators is George, who Jose said was the person who actually disposed of Caylee's remains, taking her to where she was eventually found. Then there's the money hungry meter reader, Roy Kronk, who supposedly moved Caylee's body after the fact, so he could make money from all the media attention he was planning on getting. Jose also said that the jury cannot trust the police in this case, because they only investigated Casey Anthony as the murderer. They never looked into the theory of a possible accident via pool drowning. Jose continued by telling jurors that they cannot trust an upcoming forensic scientist, Dr. Arpad Vass from Oakridge Laboratories (a 20 year expert in the field of human decomposition). Jose alluded that Dr. Vass is a sort of a crazy/mad scientist, who is also "in it for the money" and stands to make millions from a machine he's invented that is able to detect decomposing bodies. Jose admitted that, yes, Casey acted strangely throughout this investigation, but he stressed that it was because of her dysfunctional family dynamics, having experienced sexual abuse from her father and brother and the fact that she was raised to lie and hide things, having learned to do so from her parents.
After two and a half hours of opening statements, Jose concluded with his request that the jury find Casey "not guilty" of first degree murder, manslaughter, nor child endangerment because Caylee's death was a tragic accident.
The prosecution, evidently expecting this type of opening statements from the defense, put on George Anthony as their first witness.
When George got up on the stand, we saw the face of a man who looked so very sad, but also determine. When the prosecutors asked if he had ever sexually molested Casey, he said "No Sir". He also answered that he was not present when Caylee was found dead in the pool. One great point that was made by the prosecution was when they asked George about his prior training as a police detective. Asked if he had been trained in CPR, he answered yes. And asked if he had found Caylee dead in the pool, wouldn't he have known and attempted to revive her via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He answered - Yes. He would have tried anything to help Caylee, and "we wouldn't be here now". His answers were clear and very believable. Some people say that he was pausing at times before answering, but it just looked like he wanted to phrase his truthful answers correctly, because he had just been accused of not only sexually abusing Casey since the age of eight, but also having a hand in the disposal of his granddaughter, Caylee. That had to have had an effect on him, and to be placed on the witness stand to answer those charges, that would make one carefully phrase each and every answer.
Then Jose Baez got his chance to cross-examine George, to try to show him as being a possible liar. But all he got were clear and concise answers from George. There were several times where Jose asked questions that were objected to by the prosecution, and sustained by the judge. Even though George was instructed not to answer these many questions, these unanswered questions appeared to be Jose's way of planting ideas of George's possible deceptions early in the jurors minds.
After a long and very eventful day of opening statements and accusations, court was adjourned shortly before 5pm (est). It will resume tomorrow, Wednesday, at 9am.
++++
FYI: Below are some additional notes taken during opening statements.
PROSECUTION OPENING STATEMENTS
Immediately after the jury entered the courtroom, prosecution attorney, Linda Drane Burdick got up and began her opening statements. She started by telling the jury that the focus of this trial, although it is against Casey Anthony, still needs to remember that there is a victim in this case, two year old Caylee Anthony. She continued by telling how Caylee, up until her death, had led a seemingly idyllic life. Caylee was a happy little girl who lived at her grandparents home, "in Orlando on a street called Hopespring Drive". Then Linda began talking about how Casey lied and lied and lied, for 31 days, to her parents, her friends and the police, about where little Caylee was. She lied about working at Universal Studios. Linda then told of how Cindy Anthony, Casey's mother, frantically called the police, saying that "it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car".
Linda then talked about what happened during the 31 days that Caylee was missing. How Casey entered a "hot body" contest at a nightclub called Fusion. She then spoke about the forensics in this case, the hair found in Casey's car trunk, that had banding on it that can only come from a decomposing body. How cadaver dogs "hit" on Casey's car trunk and in her parents', Cindy and George Anthony, backyard. And then came in the computer searches found on the desktop computer that was in the home of Casey Anthony, that included "Chloroform, neck breaking, acetone, shovel, self defense, how to make chloroform". She stressed that only Casey Anthony was home at the time of all the searches.
During the prosecution's opening statements, Casey Anthony shook her head several times. She cried a little bit at the beginning, but most of the time, as Linda explained the prosecution's theory of how only Casey Anthony could be the one responsible for the death of Caylee. Since Casey and the defense team are seated directly across from the jury box, the jurors could see her shake her head, with a sad look on her face, seemingly saying that what the prosecution was saying was incorrect.
At the end of her opening statement, photos of Caylee Anthony alive, and the last picture taken of Caylee, her skull, were shown to the jury, side by side. We didn't see these photos on TV, but I have to believe that this was really sad, sickening and effective.
DEFENSE OPENING STATEMENTS
Jose Baez stood up as the jurors walked back in to the courtroom after their lunch break. He addressed Judge Perry, "Ms. Anthony" and the prosecution. He started his opening statements by talking about how the media has been crazy about this case, and how Casey Anthony is on trial for her life.
He then said that he would explain what happened to Caylee Marie Anthony AND how ROY KRONK is involved in this case. WTF? ROY KRONK? OK... back to Jose's opening statements.
Jose continued how the police only investigated Casey Anthony in the death of Caylee Anthony. He implied how the police were under media pressure to find Casey guilty. His statements included: "We're not here to talk about Casey's foolish actions, how she acted during day 1, day 2, day 3... you (the jurors) cannot lose focus that you are here for a death penalty case, this is not a murder case, not a manslaughter case, not a child abuse case.... we have to remain focused. We are not the media. We are not here to speculate. We're going to talk about many things, including the ugly things that come with life. There will be some things that will be referred to science, but are more along the lines of science fiction. Everyone wants to know what happened. How in the world can a mother wait 31 days to notify
Caylee Anthony accidentally died on June 16th in the family swimming pool. Jose continued about how sad, but common that this type of death happens to small children. He continued with saying that "you will hear how this family is dysfunctional, ugly things in this family... he said that we will hear what happened behind closed doors of this seemingly happy family. After Caylee died, Casey did what she always did... hide her pain, go into that dark corner, and pretending that she does not live in the situation that she lives in (the TV cameras then focused on George and Cindy Anthony who were seated in the back of the courtroom, with a picture in picture of Casey Anthony wiping her tears away).
She went back to that deep dark place called denial, to pretend that nothing was wrong. You will see how something is now right with this girl (Casey), but what you didn't hear, was that Casey was an excellent mother. She was never neglected, never abused, never went to the hospital... or anything but loved by everyone in this family....
NOW HERE COMES THE ACCUSATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE BY GEORGE ANTHONY:
It all started when Casey was eight years old, when her father came into her room and started to touch her inappropriately (Casey starts crying into a tissue), and it escalated. What does a sex abuse survivor look like? Do they wear a scarlet letter? (Camera focuses on George Anthony who has a mixed look of anger and ... a look that he was anticipating that this would be said about him. Cindy's face is blocked by another spectator). Jose continued by saying that Casey was a sex abuse victim. And then Zanny the nanny... yes, Casey lied... and that Casey Anthony did everything and anything she could to protect her child, (I'm guessing from George, Casey's father), including living a lie (Casey shakes her head yes), making up a nanny, making up a lie, she forced herself to live in a life she wanted to... when Casey came home saying that she was pregnant, she was told to keep quiet. Why? Well, the way this investigation was done, we'll never know why (is Jose implying that George was Caylee's father?). But it wasn't until she was 7 1/2 months pregnant, did the outside world know that Casey was pregnant.
Then Jose shows a picture of Casey pregnant at a wedding. He said that the parents wanted to hide her pregnancy. Then Jose said that Casey's parents wanted to hide Caylee before she was born and then that should lead to the conclusion that they wanted to hide her after she died. WTF?
Jose then continued about how Cindy and George tried to hide Casey's pregnancy until it just couldn't be hidden anymore, and then Cindy announced to her coworkers that she was going to become a grandmother.
Jose continues by saying "This is strange, this is bizarre, this is the life of Casey Anthony."
As this case was being investigated, this all came to light, that everyone hid this beautiful child like a flower in the attic. They treated this pregnancy never happened. Then you will hear that Casey has a brother, and that he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, and he as a teenager attempted to touch his sister. Although it didn't go as far. It got so bad that the FBI did a paternity test to see if he was Caylee's father. When he was asked by the FBI about this, he didn't deny it, he said that he'd talk about it when the time was right. Well the time is now" Jose raises his voice a little as he continues.
The time is now to save his sister's life, but these family secrets still remain locked. You're going to hear all sorts of bizarre family... That's what this case is going to be about. Casey was raised to lie. This child, who at 8 years old, learned to lie immediately.
THEN (do not read further if you do not want to hear explicit sexual statements that were made by Jose Baez)...
She could be 13 years old, have her father's penis in her mouth and then (Casey breaks down and cries at the defense table; George sits in the back with a scowl on his face as Jose talks to the jury) go to school, play with the other kids, as if nothing ever happened; nothing's wrong. That will help you understand why no one knew that her child was dead... Sex abuse does things to us; it changes us. Some people are fortunate to be able to live with it. In this sad tragedy, it had to happen to Casey. On June 16th, 2008, Casey was home with Caylee, and so was her father. Early morning hours, George Anthony approached Casey and started yelling "Where's Caylee, where's Caylee?". They couldn't find her. They searched in the bedroom, in the garage, then they went outside. They have an above ground pool in the backyard. Then Casey saw George Anthony hold Caylee in his arms. Casey then cried and cried. Then George yelled at Casey (Jose then starts yelling) "Look what you've done! Your mother will never forgive you and you will go to jail for child neglect for the rest of your frickin' life" (I don't know why but that action of Jose yelling like that seemed so, um, fake).
Jose continues about finding Caylee after she drowned in the pool: "She (Casey) cried and cried (camera pans over to George, who is looking down at the back of the person's seat in front of him), and asked for her father's help. Then her father did help. It's at this point Casey should have been stronger. She should have called 911. This is not a murder case, not a manslaughter case. Why didn't George call 911? If the investigation had gone a different way, we might have found out. Cindy Anthony will testify that on June 15, Casey and Caylee went swimming into the late hours. They have a ladder that was on the pool, and that they were religious about making sure the ladder was up. But unfortunately did Cindy forget to put the ladder up? Is she holding guilt for not holding the ladder up? If the investigation had gone in a different way, we might have known. Caylee could get out of the house so fast, and that's why they were so religious at getting the ladder up. The day after, on June 17th, Cindy tells her coworkers that someone is swimming in her pool, and someone is leaving the gate open. This is information that law enforcement's mind and that they ignorned cuz it's not sexy enough, and the media loves it. You'll find that professional police work took a back seat in this case. They were more concerned with the public than they were with their jobs. On the 15th of July and immediately, within 24 hours, Cindy Anthony tells Yuri Melich about the ladder incident and it goes ignored. No questions asked, no forensics. They were more interested in the transport of the car, than finding out what happened. They didn't care.
George Anthony took certain steps to make sure that he was as far away from this situation as possible and that Casey would end up taking the blame for this. Why? Well if Casey comes forward and is lying her butt off, who's going to believe a liar, especially if they cry sexual abuse. You'll see evidence of George throwing Casey under the bus to protect himself.
On June 20th, Casey runs out of gas. Casey does what she always does, she goes into the shed to get gas. Everyone knew she wasn't working, George Anthony knew she wasn't working; it's all part of the lie; all part of the facade. Nobody cares. So what he does, on the 24th of June, 9 days after Caylee drowned, he reports to police that gas cans were stolen. He knew that no police would come to investigate gas cans missing. Who would report gas cans missing? Who? Well the answer is George would. The answer would come to light six months later; Caylee is reported missing on the 15th. On the 17th, Detective Wells comes to the house and asks to look around the backyard. He searches the shed; and George doesn't mention the incident with Casey and the gas cans..."
As Jose continues to implicate George, it's hard to stomach...and hard to believe. He's weaving in everything that George did, everything he said to police and FBI, I am feeling a ill. It's just too unbelievable and sad. If this is really true, why were there searches on the home computer for "neck breaking"? Wouldn't George, as former police detective, already know about how neck breaking was done?
BACK TO JOSE BAEZ'S OPENING STATEMENTS:
"Casey's been in jail two weeks; all you have to do is follow the duct tape. Who put Caylee's remains where they were ultimately found. Ms Drane Burdick told you that the only one who had access to this duct tape was Casey Anthony. But that's not true. A picture tells a thousand words. George had access to this duct tape, when he used it to post posters of a missing Caylee at the command center.That's why these gas cans become such a critical piece of evidence. You cannot deny it. You can see it, you can feel it, this is evidence."
The prosecution objected during Jose's opening statements, but was overruled by Judge Perry.
Jose continues: "George Anthony also met a younger woman by the name of Crystal Holloway, they started dating, started an affair. He started visiting her, and on one day before Caylee was found, George started to break down and cry. She asked him what happened to Caylee and he answered it was an accident and it snowballed out of control. This was before Caylee was found. George Anthony carried around this guilt for many months, and on January 22nd 2009, he tried to take his own life. Luckily he was unsuccessful, but there was no concrete answers as to why he had all this information but never answered what happened. We will never say that George Anthony had anything to do with Caylee's death. And the reason's simple, it's not true. It was an accident that snowballed out of control. This is not a murder case, not a manslaughter case; It's a tragic accident that happened to some very disturbed people with unresolved trauma. The fact of the matter is that it's an all to common tragedy.
I'm going to talk to you briefly about Roy Kronk. Mr. Kronk is the person who found Caylee's remains on Suburban Drive. Mr. Kronk is a morrally bankrupt individual who took Caylee's body and hid her. There was a $225,000 reward on this case, but this was for a live Caylee. Mr. Kronk didn't read the fine print and thought he had a lottery ticket. Caylee's remains were found in the closest wooded area nearest the home of Casey Anthony. Caylee Anthony was found within 20 feet of the side of the road, and was missing for six months. (Jose takes out a tape measure to showcase how close 20 feet is for the jurors). This is how far Caylee was found from the street. For six months, thousands of people looking for Caylee, every character with an agenda was looking. We had psychic dogs, bounty hunters, police officers... Two people called 911 because they heard of a child screaming in the woods. Police investigated; Texas Equisearch searched this area. Police also searched this area, but there's no reports of this. But yet, on December 11th when Caylee was found, and that the police said that this area was probably under water. What turns out that that place was under water for only ten days; the rest of the time it was dry."
"Now Mr. Kronk is a meter reader and he stopped on Suburban Drive with two of his coworkers. One of Mr. Kronk's coworkers says that this would be a good place to dump a body. Mr. Kronk says that he thinks he sees a skull, but they got distracted by a dead snake. But Mr. Kronk doesn't say 'forget the snake, come look at this skull'. Then Mr. Kronk calls the police about his seeing the skull. Officers respond but they don't find anything. He calls again on another day, about seeing a gray vinyl bag with a possible skull." Jose continues with the Roy Kronk sighting, and Jose says that Kronk changes his story from seeing a skull to seeing a bag. Then months go by and then Kronk calls his son up and his son will come here and testify and my dad called me and told me that he found Caylee's remains and said watch for me on TV cuz I'm going to be rich and famous. Mr. Kronk's car breaks down and his car repair costs are over $1,000; then he has to urinate and finds Caylee's remains."
"Reasonable doubt is not sprinkled throughout this case; reasonable doubt lives here throughout the entire case. You will not be able to trust a thing having to do with Mr. Kronk because he had control of Caylee's remains for obviously several months. When he found her, we do not know nor will we ever know; and the reason for that is that the police never investigated him. This was their three legged pony and they were going to ride him to the finish line no matter what. Mr. Kronk says that on the 11th he goes to urinate and he finds a plastic bag, he hits it and hears a thud; he lifts it up and a skull rolls out. Someone the skull made it back into the bag. The police then ask him 'Is there anything else you want to tell us?' and he never mentions that 'Yeah, I called you four months ago; three times'; He doesn't say a word. Now he may come up here and lie, and say yes I told them. In fact he does; he says later on, 'I did tell the police, but they told me to keep quiet about that; you don't want to say anything about that' (now the police are lying)."
Jose continues about how Kronk asks about if he'll still get the reward considering Caylee's dead. "Mr. Kronk's boss will testify that Mr. Kronk was leaning against the truck and said 'Alex, I just won the lottery'. The police want Mr. Kronk to stay quiet; they don't want the media to get to him. But his response is that he has to eat too. Then Orange County paid for a lawyer for Mr. Kronk. The very first interview that Mr. Kronk had was with Good Morning America where he licenses a photograph of a snake for $15,000. He gets his reward, he becomes famous, but there's one thing for certain, you can't ignore any of this; not at all."
"Despite all the stupid things that Casey did, there's not any evidence that links Casey to Caylee's body. She's dumb enough to leave her on the corner, but is smart enough to outsmart the FBI, Orange County PD, the Secret Service. There was a snake autopsy. They searched for everything they could; they had already made an arrest; Casey was arrested within 24 hours of this; they jumped the gun, we'll worry about the evidence later. This is how they ask you to take someone's life. They don't even investigate Roy Kronk; They never asked for Roy Kronk's phone records. He objected to when we, the defense, asked for his cell records. They did nothing to investigate this man. We found his son, who said "my dad told me I'm going to be rich". There are certain questions they don't want answered. They want to focus on Casey's behavior, she didn't act right. They don't ask why she didn't act right."
Jose continuing: "Now, I'll talk briefly about the investigation. Casey was seen this day at IKEA (WTF? IKEA? I thought it was Target), Casey was seen on this day at Blockbuster. Caylee's body was placed in the wooded area by Mr. Kronk, so she could be found."
"Now, about Suburban Drive, you'll hear testimonies from people who may say that that place was possibly underwater, and maybe you'll believe that. But you'll see video from a psychic dog handler, who says she's having a "feeling" and the area was dry. You'll also hear from two private detectives, who were working for Casey's parents, and this may be a coincidence, maybe. One of the detectives was Dominic Casey, who will tell you he was on the phone with a psychic, who was introduced to Dominic by Cindy Anthony. You will clearly see that the area there is dry."
Jose then shifts over to... "Now about the car...
As I told you, this car is the subject of much debate. You will hear evidence that has never been heard in any other case before. The hair has never been heard in the state of Florida. As well as a dog, the dog's handler, and what his dog allegedly reacted to. One of the important things is the smell of this car. What you don't, and should know, are that June 16th Caylee drowned. On the 20th of June, Casey ran out of gas. It's the state's contention that Caylee was in the car until the 20th of June. And Casey calls her boyfriend Tony Lazzaro, and Tony's testimony will go unimpeached. He refused to talk to us. He wore a wire when he spoke to Lee Anthony. He did everything law enforcement asked. He and Casey go to Casey's car, Casey opens the trunk and puts the cans in the trunk. Four days with a decomposing body in the trunk, it should reek with the stench of decomposing body. If she had a dead body in the trunk, she should have put the cans in the backseat. But the police didn't like his testimony, but Tony doesn't smell a thing and was right next to the car. On the 24th is when George files that famous police report of when Casey slams the trunk and didn't let him near her trunk. Now, there's a dumpster in front of Tony Lazarro's apartment complex, people who live there must throw out their trash there and Casey threw out garbage there." Jose shows the garbage bag contents to the jury and says that the police dried out the trash, which destroys the smell that used to be there. That's the trash that was in the trunk of the car for over three weeks. The car is towed. It's in the tow yard for three weeks. The Anthony family should have gotten the notice of the car on the 7th or the 8th. But they waited until the 15th to get it. Why? They will tell you they didn't see the notice. When George arrives at the tow yard, he tells anyone who will listen to him that his granddaughter is missing. Then he wants a witness to open the trunk. As he approaches the car, he smells a decomposing body, but he doesn't try to phone Casey to find out if she's ok. Why? Because he wants to distance himself from it. But how did he know to bring gas cans with him to the tow yard if he didn't speak to Casey about why the car was towed. He'll say it's a lucky guess..."
"Now, one of the interesting things that will happen is that you will hear that Cindy also went to work. People at her work asked her about the car, and the bad smell associated with the car. She goes back to her desk and starts to work. One of her coworkers gets the supervisor and makes her go home. This is how Casey learned to deal with her problems. So Cindy calls and finds Amy Heizenga, and she finds Casey."
Then Jose says to "listen to the 911 tape when Cindy yells to George and says 'She's missing, Zanny has her' and George says nothing. Listen to that."
"George was getting money from Crystal Holloway, pretending to be working, but you won't hear of him faking having a job. No, you'll hear how Casey is the one who didn't have a job."
Jose continued that the prosecution told about finding a hair with a possible death band on it. Jose: "But why didn't they find any other hairs. And the dog that alerted is retired. And that one day the dog alerted one day and then didn't alert when he came back on the next day. They never did any lineup of cars, to see if the dog hits on the right car. There should be confirmatory tests that should have been done. They took this dog out to Suburban Drive, where there were still missing bones, this dog didn't alert on anything. Unfortunately Jose cannot interview a dog. Then the prosecution will bring in a test that has never been testified to in a court of law. The prosecution is getting desperate. Air samples is a desperate action by the prosecution. The scientist hopes to make millions on this machine for air samples. He wants to put electronic leashes on flies to find dead bodies. He's an interesting individual."
As the camera looks into the spectators, some appear bored to death, yawning, as Jose continues: "He said that they did tests on Casey's clothing and shoes and see if there was any evidence of her having been on Suburban Drive and found nothing. They took the duct tape and had no fingerprints. One of the easiest way to lift fingerprints and found nothing. No DNA. Yes, the duct tape had deteriorated, but they (the prosecution) didn't find anything. The only DNA found was from a FBI analyst. They contaminated the duct tape. They also found DNA of an unknown individual, but it did exclude Casey and Caylee. It could be contamination or could not be. There is no forensic evidence to connect Casey to the duct tape. They did all sorts of tests that all came back negative. They only thing they try to tie Caylee is to the car. At best is that it could tie Caylee as being transported in the car."
"At the end of this case, when you go back home and you're back in Clearwater and you're sitting around the dinner table, and someone asks you why you didn't find Casey guilty. It all boils down to one thing, they couldn't prove this was a murder; they couldn't prove this was a manslaughter case; no evidence of child abuse. You will see thru the entire case, that the prosecution in a murder case is supposed to prove their case beyond and to the conclusion of every reasonable doubt. Well if the A) is George Anthony saying that he last saw Caylee, you can't trust that. If you can't trust George Anthony and they don't know how she died, cuz the medical examinar said that it was a homicide but they don't know how she died. And Mr. Kronk represents Z), you all swore to hold the state to its burden, there's reasonable doubt. The fact remains this is not a murder case, not a manslaughter case, and there is no evidence of any child abuse. After you hear the evidence, we're going to ask you to render a verdict of not guilty. It's not no where near as important as Casey Anthony. They didn't breast feed Caylee as Casey did. They weren't there when she first walked. Now you can never bring Caylee back to Casey, but you can help end this nightmare for Casey."
Jose concludes by saying: "I'll ask you all, individually and collectively, to render a verdict of Not Guilty. Thank you."(Casey wipes her tears away). And with that, Jose Baez ends his opening statements. Court goes into recess.
TV REPORTERS REACTIONS:
OMG says the TV reporter. Jose Baez just took this trial and turned it on its head. This is the case of two different cases. The prosecution case is murder. The defense is accidentely drowning, a coverup by sexually abusing father and money hungry meter reader. Jose Baez did a job in there. Now he's got a job ahead of him. How do you prove the abuse? It's a test of credibility. I don't see George getting on the stand to admit this? They need Casey Anthony to testify this. But they need George Anthony to take the stand and either deny it or take the fifth.
Jose threw the father under the bus; the brother too? It's going to be a battle of the experts. What about the root growth. Wow!
OK...now I get it. It's a conspiracy against Casey. George made her do it. Kronk hid the body. And Casey is damaged and didn't have control and is just as much a victim as Caylee was.
(MY Opinion: I just had an epiphany! It's been bugging me that Casey Anthony looked like such a victim of child abuse as Jose Baez was telling the jurors how her father sexually abused her. It looked so REAL, didn't it. I mean, even experts like Dr. Drew, were saying how she MUST have been sexually abused. Just look at her reaction during opening statements; you can't fake that crying. WELL, I just realized that Casey CAN and HAS before. Remember when her brother Lee was saying that when Casey first told him that Caylee had been kidnapped, he said that she was sitting on her bed and crying. She was crying so convincingly that both her brother and her mother believed it. THAT's why I couldn't logically believe what my emotional eyes were seeing as Casey cried during Jose Baez's opening statements. In her own words, she is "a good liar").
GEORGE ANTHONY TAKES THE STAND FOR PROSECUTION:
Prosecution: Have you ever sexually molested Casey Anthony?
George: No sir.
Have you ever committed any sexually inappropriate acts, with or in the presence of your daughter, Casey Marie Anthony?"
George: "No sir"
Prosecution: Were you present in your home when Caylee Anthony died?
George: "No; and when I heard that today, it hurt really bad (Casey shakes her head). Because if I had known that anything had happened to Caylee, we wouldn't be here tonight.
Prosecution: When you were a law enforcement officer, were you trained in CPR.
George: Yes sir.
Prosecution: Is there any extent that you wouldn't have gone to to save Caylee's life? George: "I would have done anything possible to save my granddaughter, if what was stated prior would have happened. I would have done anything to save my granddaughter".
Prosecution: "Did you dispose of the body of your granddaughter?"
George: No I did not.
Prosecution: Did you obtain duct tape and place it over the nose and mouth of Caylee Anthony.
George: No I did not.
Prosecution: Did you have any role or any knowledge that Caylee Marie Anthony died on June 16th 2008, prior to recent revelations.
George: No sir, I never had any duct tape, I never knew of anything that happened to Caylee until our lives started to unfold on July 15th 2008 and when Caylee was found on December 11th.
DEFENSE CROSS-EXAMINES GEORGE ANTHONY:
Baez is asking George about whether he asked who the father of Caylee was. And was he present when Caylee was born (yes, but he didn't assist with the delivery). Baez kept questioning, and was objected by prosecution (sustained), about why he didn't ask earlier about who the father was.
Baez keeps asking questions and keeps being objected to by the prosecution and Judge Perry keeps saying "Sustained". Over and over and over again. Questions like "And you remember what Caylee was wearing the last time you saw her" "But you can't remember what your wife was wearing", "You knew Casey was going to steal gas cans from your shed"... George didn't answer any of these questions since they were all objected to by prosecution and sustained by the judge. There were at least 8-10 bad questions like this by Baez that were not to be answered by George. I am loving how the prosecution is protecting George from possible badgering by Jose Baez. Oops, there's another objection...sustained by prosecution. Mainly for "Exceeding scope of questioning". Side bar called by prosecution. More questioning..more objections...more sustaining by judge. At one point Jose Baez asked for sidebar, Judge Perry said no. Jose continues, but keeps having problems with his lines of questioning.
Note...I'm done with my transcripting attempts of the trial. Links to trial testimonies are available at www.wftv.com & http://www.wftv.com/caseyanthony/index.html
Thanks for letting me know what happened during the trial today. Mr. Baez is nuts. What kind of defense attorney is he?!?
ReplyDelete