Casey Anthony Trial: Day 32 The Defense Rests
The Defense has rested its case at the Casey Anthony trial, and the accused killer has decided NOT to testify at her trial.
Listen HERE to the exchange between Casey and Judge Belvin Perry:
FOX Producer Kathleen Reuschle was in the courtroom all day, and has this recap of Day 32’s proceedings:
The defense rested it’s case today just after the jury returned from their lunch recess. Casey Anthony stood at the defense table and answered “Yes sir” and “No sir” to Judge Belvin Perry’s questions verifying she arrived at the decision not to testify all on her own.
George Anthony’s alleged one-time mistress Krystal Holloway took the stand first this morning and told the jury George Anthony sat on her couch in November 2008 (a month before Caylee’s body was found) and tearfully admitted Caylee’s death was an “accident that snowballed out of control.” Defense attorney Jose Baez and Prosecutor Jeffrey Ashton then took turns battling over the words “believed” and “knew” in Holloway’s police statement, both realizing one of her sentences helped the defense while the other helped the prosecution. Ultimately, Holloway said she didn’t ask George to elaborate that day because he was crying. She explained George never said Casey confessed it was an accident, nor did he say he witnessed the accident. The drama came to order when Judge Belvin Perry read a stipulation to the jury instructing them that the woman’s testimony could not be used to assess the guilt or innocence of Casey Anthony, but rather only to impeach and/or to assess the credibility of George Anthony’s testimony. George yesterday had denied the affair ever happened, said the idea was “very funny” and also indicated he would never confide in anyone outside his family.
The defense called private investigator Dominic Casey to the stand and entered into evidence a map he had made on Nov 15, 2008 where he indicated the specific areas on Suburban drive he searched for Caylee’s body. Baez tried to show the jury how odd it was that out of Orlando’s “101 square miles” Casey could search, he happened to look in the direct vicinity Caylee’s body would be found exactly a month later.
The defense played a video showing Henkel brand duct tape on George Anthony’s “Missing Caylee” command tables in August 2008. George Anthony took the stand and testified he “had no idea” where the duct tape came from – or if he or someone else brought it. Baez then made the link that Henkel brand is from Ohio and so is George.
Baez next called Cindy and Lee Anthony to the stand to try to convince the jury someone in the family wrapped Caylee’s body in the same fashion they buried their family pets. The hope was to raise doubt about the intended use of duct tape – in this case used as a packing material and not as a murder weapon. Cindy Anthony told the jury they would wrap a pet that passed away in a towel or blanket, put it in a plastic bag, and place tape “in thirds” – ”to secure the bag so it wouldn’t open.” Lee Anthony told the jury he was present when his dog Cinnamon was buried in the back yard in a black plastic bag and he said, “I recall duct tape being used.”
After the defense rested their case J Cheney Mason argued the State made a discovery violation when they handed over Cindy Anthony’s work computer activity records today to use in their rebuttal case. The Judge decided no such violation occurred but agreed to give the Defense more time to review the records to prepare their cross-examination. Cindy Anthony testified it was she who was searching for chloroform on the Anthony family desktop computer in March 2008- not Casey. The state said they never anticipated Cindy would say her work time cards were wrong on the stand – the item they had been relying on to prove Cindy couldn’t have made the searches – since she was at work. Instead they were now forced to get an investigative subpoena to pull her work terminal activity to further prove she was there and not at home.
The state also indicated they wanted jurors to be able to pass around and smell the carpet cuttings from Casey’s spare tire cover housed in a cylinder can. But Judge Perry said he would not allow it because it would in effect make witnesses out of the jury – asking them to assess what is or is not the smell of human decomposition and would violate Casey Anthony’s due process rights.
The state then entered into evidence photos taken from Casey’s dresser by crime scene technician Alina Burroughs – and finally allowed jurors to read George Anthony’s 8-page suicide note to his wife Cindy. In it, George wrote he was sorry he’s never been a “man any of you could count on.” Jurors leaned forward in their seats and squinted at their monitors working to decipher the cursive writing that deteriorated with each page turn, ending with “I love you cynthia marie / Caylee here I come / Lee, I am sorry / Casey -“
A big day for the Anthony family it was also a big day for TGI Friday’s worker Matthew Bartlett who was given a criminal contempt charge, 6 days in Orange County Jail and a $400 fine for flipping the bird to prosecutor Jeffrey Ashton today in the presence of the jury.
