Judge Belvin Perry ruled on Thursday that the calls Cindy Anthony made to Orange County Sheriff’s deputies on July 15, 2008, after she discovered that her granddaughter was missing for 31 days, could be introduced as evidence by the state in the case against Casey Anthony. The defense had filed a motion to keep these calls out of evidence so they would not heard by a jury.
Cindy Anthony had made three 911 calls to deputies in an effort to put pressure on her daughter Casey to tell her where Caylee was in fact located. The most significant of the calls was the last one made on July 15, 2008 around 9:41 pm.
“There’s something wrong”, Cindy Anthony frantically said in her third call to the 911 operator. “I found my daughter’s car today and it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car.”
The defense wanted this particular 911 call of Cindy Anthony’s kept out of the upcoming trial. They argued that it is “hearsay”.
But Perry, in denying the defense’s motion said that the third call of Cindy’s “falls squarely within the description of an excitable utterance”. He said that upon Mrs. Anthony hearing that her granddaughter was missing, picked up the phone and called 911 and made the statement that she did. According to Perry, Mrs. Anthony did not have time to reflect on what she was saying, as she had just learned that Casey had not seen Caylee for 31 days. Further Perry said, the call was also made at a time when Mrs. Anthony was under stress of excitement and no one knew where her granddaughter was located.
The judge cited several cases in support of his ruling.
Perry also ruled that the two earlier calls made by Cindy Anthony, the first at 8:08 pm and the second at 8:44 pm on July 15, 2008, could also be introduced as evidence by the prosecution, saying that they were the frantic efforts of a grandmother trying to determine the whereabouts of her grandchild as she was getting no help from talking to her daughter, Casey.
In Cindy Anthony’s earlier calls to deputies, she had said that Casey had stolen the car and money.
Casey Anthony is charged with first degree murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter, Caylee. She has maintained her innocence and has said that her daughter was was kidnapped by a baby sitter. She is in the Orange County Jail awaiting trial which is expected to commence on May 9, 2011.
