Lee Anthony, Casey’s brother, took the stand for the first time today in the murder trial of his sister.
Called by the prosecution, Lee seemed not to recall some of what he had stated in an earlier deposition on July 30, 2009, and attorney Frank George was forced to have him review transcripts from time to time.
Lee testified that on July 3, 2008, he went downtown Orlando to a night club to look for Casey, and to the many telephone calls and text messages he sent, trying to reach her. Although he proposed to Casey that they get together that night, Lee told jurors that she made several excuses, at one point telling him that she was in Jacksonville.
“I knew it was a lie,” Lee testified.
Lee said that he told Casey in one of their conversations that he knew she was in town and was planning to go to the Dragon Room downtown Orlando. He said that he stayed downtown Orlando and left Church Street station after 2:00 a.m.
On July 15, 2008, Lee said when he arrived at the Anthony family home, he noticed the “very potent” smell of the Pontiac Sunfire, as he had to walked pass the vehicle to get inside the home. He said that the windows of the car were down and the smell was “very strong and offensive.”
Lee said when he tried to ask Casey about Caylee’s whereabouts, he said his sister told him the little girl was with a nanny, was already asleep and that she did not want to disturb her. Lee said he offered to go to collect Caylee, but Casey wasn’t interested. He told jurors he continued to reason with Casey and did ask her why she won’t let the family see Caylee.
“Because maybe I am a spiteful bitch,” Lee testified Casey told him, in response to why she won’t bring Caylee to the family.
Lee confirmed that Casey told him she had last seen Caylee at the Sawgrass apartments and that she had not seen her in 31 days. Casey also told him that she had been doing her own search for the child, had staked out the Sawgrass apartments and had gone to places where she thought Caylee might be.
As Lee and Casey spoke outside the earshot of Cindy, he told jurors that she told him Cindy had on numerous occasions said she was an unfit mother, to which she said to him, “Maybe I am.” Lee also testified he had heard his mother refer to Caylee as being a mistake, but perhaps the greatest mistake or best mistake that Casey had ever made.
He told jurors how he went later that night or in the early morning hours of July 16, 2008, to collect Casey’s belongings, including her lap top computer and three bags, from her then boyfriend’s home, Tony Lazzaro.
Prosecutors have charged Casey Anthony with first degree murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter, Caylee. Anthony initially said that the child was kidnapped by a babysitter named Zanny. Her defense in their opening statement said, Caylee accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool on June 16, 2008, and that George Anthony, Casey’s father hid the child’s body and covered up the crime. They also claimed that Casey was sexually abused by both George and her brother, Lee.
Casey, if convicted, could face the death penalty.
