Jacqui Goddard
24th May 2011
Casey Anthony sobbed in court today as her defence attorney revealed for the first time her two-year-old daughter drowned in a swimming pool.
For the first time, prosecutors said Caylee Anthony died from three pieces of duct tape being placed over her mouth and nose while a defence attorney for the mother claimed the toddler drowned in the family pool and the little girl's grandfather covered up the accident.
Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with first-degree murder. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death.
An autopsy was never able to conclude a cause of death for Caylee.
Casey Anthony waited a month before telling her mother that Caylee had disappeared during the summer of 2008, and that was only after her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, had recovered a car Casey had been driving, prosecutors said. The vehicle, which the grandparents picked up from a towing lot, had a foul odor inside.Defence attorney Jose Baez said: 'She what she's been doing all her life - hiding her pain, going into a dark corner and pretending that she doesn't live in the situation in which she's living.
'She went back to that deep, dark, ugly place called Denial to pretend that there was nothing wrong.'
Caylee, who loved to swim at her grandparents' Florida home, where she lived, had wandered out of the house while her mother and her grandfather were at home that day, Mr Baez said.
'Everyone wants to know what happened. How in the world can a mother wait 31 days before reporting where her child is....Well, the answer is relatively simple.'
The court heard: 'She (Caylee) never was missing. Caylee Anthony died on June 16, 2008, when she drowned in her family's swimming pool.
'Casey was home with Caylee and so was her father. George Anthony came in and began yelling at her 'Where's Caylee, where's Caylee?' They searched in the house, they searched in the bedroom, they searched under the bed, in the closets, in the garage, then they went outside,' said Mr Baez.
'As soon as Casey came around the corner...she saw George Anthony holding Caylee in his arms. She immediately grabbed Caylee and began to cry and cry and cry.'
Anthony is accused of first-degree murder and faces death by legal injection if convicted.
Throughout the case - which has gripped Florida since 2008 - her parents wavered between loyalty to their daughter and grief over their missing grand-daughter.
Baez also claimed that Casey's brother made advances toward her and was given a paternity test to see if he was Caylee's father. All those secrets eventually led to the cover up of Caylee's drowning, Baez said.
'You will hear about a family that is dysfunctional,' Baez said. 'Ugly things. Secret things.'
Caylee's remains were found in December 2008. She was first reported missing in July 2008, about a month after she was last seen alive.
Casey Anthony has pleaded not guilty and previously said a babysitter kidnapped Caylee.
Her defence has requested that video footage of the 24-year-old mother, filmed as she discovered that her daughter's body was found, be barred from the trial.
She was in custody at the time the footage was taken and her attorney said the video was taken without her knowledge.
There have also been fierce legal arguments about the unprecedented step of including a sample of air as evidence.
Mr Baez also blamed the police department for botching the investigation, alleging they wanted to feed a media frenzy about a mother killing her child instead of investigating a mundane drowning.
Later on George Anthony denied that he had ever sexually abused his daughter, or that he had found his grand-daughter drowned in the family swimming pool.
On the day in question, June 16, 2008, he had kissed and hugged both Caylee and Casey goodbye as they left the house as usual - Casey supposedly to go to work, and Caylee to stay with a babysitter.
Asked if any of the allegations that Mr Baez had made about him in court were true, Mr Anthony stated firmly: 'No sir.'
He added that as a former law enforcement officer, he had been trained in resuscitation and 'would have done everything humanly possible to save my grand-daughter' if he had really found her in the pool as Mr Baez claimed.
'I never knew of anything that happened to Caylee until our lives started to unfold on July 15,' he said.
Earlier in the day as the prosecution set out their case as Anthony sobbed and shook her head.
The jury heard how she 'lived the good life' while her daughter's remains lay in a swamp.
She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and drew sharp breaths as a jury in Orlando heard how the seemingly happy childhood of her daughter, Caylee Marie, ended in horror, her remains tossed away like garbage, while her mother continued to party and lie about her whereabouts.
'It’s time to tell the story of little Caylee Marie,' said prosecutor Linda Drane-Burdick, opening the trial today nearly three years after the little girl’s disappearance.
Today, parents Cindy and George Anthony, of Orlando, sat at the back of the courtroom as Mrs Drane-Burdick told how they had doted on their grand-daughter, who was born in August 2005 and lived with them along with Anthony.
She said: 'They filled her room with toys and stuffed animals. Caylee’s room was decorated with every imaginable Winnie the Pooh item available.
'In the back yard of George and Cindy Anthony’s home was every little girl’s dream, a playhouse complete with a mailbox and her name.'
For one month, Anthony’s mother Cindy, a nurse, grew more and more anxious about Caylee after Anthony allegedly gave excuse after excuse over where she was.
It was reported that Anthony told her mother that the toddler was with a fictitious nanny named Zanny, despite Caylee never previously having spent a single night away from her grandparents.
She then claimed that she was staying with various friends, enjoying days out at SeaWorld in Orlando and Busch gardens in Tampa.
Anthony’s mother finally called police on July 15 to report her fears for her missing grand-daughter and voice her suspicions at her daughter’s series of stories.
Police later discovered that for most of that time, Anthony had been staying with her boyfriend at his apartment and that Caylee was not with her.
CCTV footage showed her out shopping for clothes, going clubbing, and enjoying a July 4 fireworks show. She also visited a tattoo parlour several times.
Three days after Caylee was last seen alive, Anthony drove to her parents’ home while they were out, backed the car into the garage and then asked the neighbour if she could borrow a shovel.
A ‘very distinctive odour of decomposition' was later found in the boot of her car, along with a hair that, under forensic examination, showed scientific characteristics of having come from a decomposed human body, and a high concentration of chloroform,' the court heard.
A forensic examination of her parents’ computer showed that on various days in March – prior to Caylee’s disappearance and while George and Cindy Anthony were out at work - Google searches had been conducted using keywords such as 'making weapons out of household products', 'chloroform', 'shovel' and 'neck breaking.'
'There can have been no other user making those searches than Casey Anthony,' said Ms Drane-Burdick, spelling out in heartbreaking detail how the child’s skull and bone remnants were finally discovered by a utility worker on December 11, 2008, close to the family home, in a swamp.
She was 'wrapped in a Winnie the Pooh blanket, stuffed in a garbage sack, shoved in a laundry bag and thrown into a swamp like she was just another piece of garbage.'
Roots of plants had entwined themselves in her hair.
For ten days, crime scene personnel painstakingly worked on their hands and knees 'collecting the remains of caylee Anthony to make sure, make certain, that she would no longer suffer the indignity of lying in a land swamp,' said Ms Drane-Burdick, as Anthony listened grim-faced, clenching her jaw and swivelling back and forth in her courtroom chair.
'Duct tape covered the nose and mouth of that tiny human skull,' the prosecutor revealed.
'The duct tape was placed on there prior to decomposition…indicating that Caylee’s killer never intended that it be removed,' she added.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390517/Caylee-drowned-swimming-pool-Shock-revelation-defence-grisly-Casey-Anthony-trial.html#ixzz1NMEdfuOI
24th May 2011
Casey Anthony sobbed in court today as her defence attorney revealed for the first time her two-year-old daughter drowned in a swimming pool.
For the first time, prosecutors said Caylee Anthony died from three pieces of duct tape being placed over her mouth and nose while a defence attorney for the mother claimed the toddler drowned in the family pool and the little girl's grandfather covered up the accident.
Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with first-degree murder. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death.
An autopsy was never able to conclude a cause of death for Caylee.
Tearful: Casey Anthony cries during the opening statements of her murder trial at the Orange County Courthouse today
Cindy Anthony, holding a teddy bear, and her husband, George Anthony, leave the courtroom after listening to the first part of the state's opening arguments
Casey Anthony waited a month before telling her mother that Caylee had disappeared during the summer of 2008, and that was only after her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, had recovered a car Casey had been driving, prosecutors said. The vehicle, which the grandparents picked up from a towing lot, had a foul odor inside.Defence attorney Jose Baez said: 'She what she's been doing all her life - hiding her pain, going into a dark corner and pretending that she doesn't live in the situation in which she's living.
'She went back to that deep, dark, ugly place called Denial to pretend that there was nothing wrong.'
The remains Caylee Marie Anthony, 2 were found in woods by the side of a road with traces of duct tape on her face
Caylee, who loved to swim at her grandparents' Florida home, where she lived, had wandered out of the house while her mother and her grandfather were at home that day, Mr Baez said.
'Everyone wants to know what happened. How in the world can a mother wait 31 days before reporting where her child is....Well, the answer is relatively simple.'
CONTESTED EVIDENCE: THE FIGHT TO INCLUDE 'AIR SAMPLE' AS PROOF
For the first time in a U.S. court, prosecutors in the Casey Anthony case want to include an air sample as evidence.
But in Florida courts, new types of evidence are admissible only if a judge is convinced the technique is generally accepted by the scientific community.
Prosecutors want to admit the sample which was collected from the boot of the defendant’s car, canned, and tested by a human decomposition expert.
Dr Arpad Vass, who analysed the sample, testified that when he opened the can he recognised ‘the smell of human decomposition’.
But in Florida courts, new types of evidence are admissible only if a judge is convinced the technique is generally accepted by the scientific community.
Prosecutors want to admit the sample which was collected from the boot of the defendant’s car, canned, and tested by a human decomposition expert.
Dr Arpad Vass, who analysed the sample, testified that when he opened the can he recognised ‘the smell of human decomposition’.
'Casey was home with Caylee and so was her father. George Anthony came in and began yelling at her 'Where's Caylee, where's Caylee?' They searched in the house, they searched in the bedroom, they searched under the bed, in the closets, in the garage, then they went outside,' said Mr Baez.
'As soon as Casey came around the corner...she saw George Anthony holding Caylee in his arms. She immediately grabbed Caylee and began to cry and cry and cry.'
Anthony is accused of first-degree murder and faces death by legal injection if convicted.
Throughout the case - which has gripped Florida since 2008 - her parents wavered between loyalty to their daughter and grief over their missing grand-daughter.
Baez also claimed that Casey's brother made advances toward her and was given a paternity test to see if he was Caylee's father. All those secrets eventually led to the cover up of Caylee's drowning, Baez said.
'You will hear about a family that is dysfunctional,' Baez said. 'Ugly things. Secret things.'
Casey Anthony held tissue to her face and cried during opening statements, as she had in pretrial hearings
Caylee's remains were found in December 2008. She was first reported missing in July 2008, about a month after she was last seen alive.
Casey Anthony has pleaded not guilty and previously said a babysitter kidnapped Caylee.
Her defence has requested that video footage of the 24-year-old mother, filmed as she discovered that her daughter's body was found, be barred from the trial.
She was in custody at the time the footage was taken and her attorney said the video was taken without her knowledge.
There have also been fierce legal arguments about the unprecedented step of including a sample of air as evidence.
Mr Baez also blamed the police department for botching the investigation, alleging they wanted to feed a media frenzy about a mother killing her child instead of investigating a mundane drowning.
Cindy Anthony wears a bracelet in memory of her granddaughter at the Orange County Courthouse today
Members of the public line up for seats outside the Orange County courtroom to hear opening statements in the Casey Anthony murder trial in Orlando, Florida today
Later on George Anthony denied that he had ever sexually abused his daughter, or that he had found his grand-daughter drowned in the family swimming pool.
On the day in question, June 16, 2008, he had kissed and hugged both Caylee and Casey goodbye as they left the house as usual - Casey supposedly to go to work, and Caylee to stay with a babysitter.
Asked if any of the allegations that Mr Baez had made about him in court were true, Mr Anthony stated firmly: 'No sir.'
He added that as a former law enforcement officer, he had been trained in resuscitation and 'would have done everything humanly possible to save my grand-daughter' if he had really found her in the pool as Mr Baez claimed.
'I never knew of anything that happened to Caylee until our lives started to unfold on July 15,' he said.
Earlier in the day as the prosecution set out their case as Anthony sobbed and shook her head.
The jury heard how she 'lived the good life' while her daughter's remains lay in a swamp.
She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and drew sharp breaths as a jury in Orlando heard how the seemingly happy childhood of her daughter, Caylee Marie, ended in horror, her remains tossed away like garbage, while her mother continued to party and lie about her whereabouts.
'It’s time to tell the story of little Caylee Marie,' said prosecutor Linda Drane-Burdick, opening the trial today nearly three years after the little girl’s disappearance.
Today, parents Cindy and George Anthony, of Orlando, sat at the back of the courtroom as Mrs Drane-Burdick told how they had doted on their grand-daughter, who was born in August 2005 and lived with them along with Anthony.
She said: 'They filled her room with toys and stuffed animals. Caylee’s room was decorated with every imaginable Winnie the Pooh item available.
'In the back yard of George and Cindy Anthony’s home was every little girl’s dream, a playhouse complete with a mailbox and her name.'
For one month, Anthony¿s mother Cindy, a nurse, grew more and more anxious about Caylee after Anthony allegedly gave excuse after excuse over where she was.
For one month, Anthony’s mother Cindy, a nurse, grew more and more anxious about Caylee after Anthony allegedly gave excuse after excuse over where she was.
It was reported that Anthony told her mother that the toddler was with a fictitious nanny named Zanny, despite Caylee never previously having spent a single night away from her grandparents.
She then claimed that she was staying with various friends, enjoying days out at SeaWorld in Orlando and Busch gardens in Tampa.
Anthony’s mother finally called police on July 15 to report her fears for her missing grand-daughter and voice her suspicions at her daughter’s series of stories.
George Anthony (L) escorts his wife Cindy Anthony into the Orange County Courthouse for opening statements in their daughter Casey Anthony's trial
Police later discovered that for most of that time, Anthony had been staying with her boyfriend at his apartment and that Caylee was not with her.
CCTV footage showed her out shopping for clothes, going clubbing, and enjoying a July 4 fireworks show. She also visited a tattoo parlour several times.
Three days after Caylee was last seen alive, Anthony drove to her parents’ home while they were out, backed the car into the garage and then asked the neighbour if she could borrow a shovel.
A ‘very distinctive odour of decomposition' was later found in the boot of her car, along with a hair that, under forensic examination, showed scientific characteristics of having come from a decomposed human body, and a high concentration of chloroform,' the court heard.
A forensic examination of her parents’ computer showed that on various days in March – prior to Caylee’s disappearance and while George and Cindy Anthony were out at work - Google searches had been conducted using keywords such as 'making weapons out of household products', 'chloroform', 'shovel' and 'neck breaking.'
'There can have been no other user making those searches than Casey Anthony,' said Ms Drane-Burdick, spelling out in heartbreaking detail how the child’s skull and bone remnants were finally discovered by a utility worker on December 11, 2008, close to the family home, in a swamp.
Casey Anthony sits in court with defense team members Dorothy Clay Sims, right,
She was 'wrapped in a Winnie the Pooh blanket, stuffed in a garbage sack, shoved in a laundry bag and thrown into a swamp like she was just another piece of garbage.'
Roots of plants had entwined themselves in her hair.
For ten days, crime scene personnel painstakingly worked on their hands and knees 'collecting the remains of caylee Anthony to make sure, make certain, that she would no longer suffer the indignity of lying in a land swamp,' said Ms Drane-Burdick, as Anthony listened grim-faced, clenching her jaw and swivelling back and forth in her courtroom chair.
'Duct tape covered the nose and mouth of that tiny human skull,' the prosecutor revealed.
'The duct tape was placed on there prior to decomposition…indicating that Caylee’s killer never intended that it be removed,' she added.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390517/Caylee-drowned-swimming-pool-Shock-revelation-defence-grisly-Casey-Anthony-trial.html#ixzz1NMEdfuOI
No comments:
Post a Comment