The time had come for the attorneys to present their closing arguments in the State v. Casey Anthony trial, and tensions were running high on Sunday at the Orange County courthouse, after lead defense attorney Jose Baez and prosecutor Jeff Ashton bickered.
Six weeks into the trial for the mother who allegedly murdered her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, the attorneys, the judge and the jury all seemed ready to done, but there was a shocking delay in the afternoon’s proceeding after Baez caught Ashton snickering during the defense’s closing and angrily pointed towards him calling him a “laughing guy” right in the presence of the jury, which led to a side bar after Judge Belvin Perry Jr. sustained Ashton’s immediate objection to Baez comment.
An unhappy Perry stopped the proceeding, excused the jury momentarily, to remind Ashton of the court rules about facial gestures and in order for the attorneys to view the clip portraying Ashton smirking with his hand over his mouth, after being previously warned earlier in the day when Baez confronted Ashton, about facial expressions.
Perry observed the clip and said both attorneys violated the order of the court, and demanded, “No more side bars. Enough is enough,” and added that all conversations would be discussed openly in the court.
Perry explained, “There has been this accusation throughout the trial … I don’t watch you. I assume you are all professional that I don’t have to watch … Maybe I was misinformed when I thought you all were following the law.”
Ashton told Perry that he didn’t wish to review the clip, stating, “I trust your judgment. I don’t have to see it,” but proceeded to doing so anyway.
After seeing the footage, Ashton explained that, he was just “smiling behind his hand,” and was not at all laughing or shaking his head. “I was making sure nothing I said or did was seen by the jury,” he asserted, and followed up with an apology.
Baez also apologized and said that after working with Ashton for three years, he did not wish for his colleague to be held in contempt because of the “serious nature” of the case.
Perry concluded with a warning, “If it happens again, the remedy will be exclusion of that attorney,” and the dispute will be left in the hands of their fellow lawyers.
Baez continued with his closing statements, arguing the state did not provide any proof that Casey murdered her little girl, but that everything pointed to her father, George Anthony, as mentioned in the opening statements.
“He refused to be upfront and honest .. He doesn’t have an ounce of paternal instinct,” said Baez.
He claimed that because of the photograph of Caylee with her hands on the sliding door that leads to the outside of the Anthony home and the series of photographs of her climbing the ladder with assistance of her grandmother, Cindy, into the swimming pool, the jury can conclude that the toddler accidental drowned.
Baez argued to the jury that the state wants them to speculate, saying, “We want you to base your verdict on evidence, not emotion,” and adding that the state did not provide any evidence to make Casey the murderer in the case, but “pasted [her] as a slut, liar and party girl.”
“They want to give the ‘who’ without the how, where and the why,” argued Baez.
Prior to the defense’s closing, the state of Florida provided their initial statement via assistant state attorney Ashton, who started by elaborating on parenthood as he showed the last photograph of Caylee taken, on June 16, 2008, and a home video of Casey playing with the victim.
“It’s easy to be a parent when you’re playing with your child,” stated Ashton. “But we all know being a parent is so much more than playing. Being a parent is about sacrifice.”
The state alleges Casey had a choice to sacrifice between her normal life, where she partied with friends and boyfriends, or motherhood and the responsibilities of taking care of Caylee. “The choice she made was her daughter,” he said, claiming Casey sacrificed her daughter for a life of freedom that she so greatly wanted.
He informed jurors that she did so by placing duct tape over the child’s nose and mouth, suffocating her in order to keep her silenced from her grandparents ever questioning their whereabouts. Ashton claimed Casey’s MySpace password, timer55, was a countdown from June 16, 2008 until Caylee’s birthday, the amount of days Casey could stall her mother with lies.
“When Casey wants to do what Casey wants to do, she finds a way,” said Ashton, referring to her as smart and bright given how she constructed her stories and fabrications, which he named “Casey 3.0, a new version” of her lies.
Ashton concluded, “[Caylee] died because she could not breathe because her mom decided the life she wanted was more important.”
Due to the late ending, the state’s rebuttal will begin tomorrow, following which Perry will instruct the jury in the law and deliberations will begin shortly thereafter.
Some court watchers suggest, given the complexity of the case, jurors might well deliberate for at least three days.
If convicted, Casey could face a death sentence.
