Jurors, 7 women and 5 men, are into their second day of deliberation in the Casey Anthony first degree murder trial, having deliberated just under six hours on Monday.
Court proceedings were brief as Chief Judge Belvin Perry greeted the jury, inquired of them as to whether they had heeded his admonition not to discuss the case outside the jury room, and then sent them on their way to continue their deliberations.
Casey Anthony, the 25-year-old mother accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony, by suffocating her with duct tape concealing her nose and mouth, according to the prosecution, walked in wearing a pink shirt and grey slacks. She appeared quite animated as she spoke with one of her attorneys, Dorothy Clay Sims.
Casey’s defense team has refuted the state’s claim, arguing that the toddler drowned accidentally in the family swimming pool, and grandfather George Anthony, covered it up, make it look like a murder. The toddler’s remains were found on Dec. 11, 2008 in woods near the Anthony family home.
On Monday, prosecutor Jeff Ashton told jurors in his closing statement, turning an accidental drowning into a murder strains credulity and that George was a loving father and doting grandfather. Ashton showed jurors George’s suicide note, stating that the had no idea what happened to his granddaughter because the questions in the letter reflect his confusion and told them the videotaped jail conversations he had with Casey make that clear.
“George isn’t this Machiavellian, self-serving monster that counsel has suggested … You cannot read this letter and not see this man was in pain,” Ashton expressed.
Ashton also discussed the science in the case, stating that the duct tape found on the child’s face was applied before decomposition and that’s why the mandible remained attached to the toddler’s skull when the remains were found. DNA was not found on the duct tape because the remains were exposed to the elements for six months before they were found in a swamp close to the Anthony family home.
Lead defense attorney Jose Baez has disputed this claim and renowned pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz testified that the duct tape was applied after decomposition because there was no DNA found on the adhesive side.
Lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick on Monday, in an impassioned rebuttal told jurors that the trash bag found in the trunk of Casey’s car, which her defense has argued was the cause of the smell, said it was placed these as a decoy–an attempt to mask the odor by the defendant.
Drane Burdick reminded jurors of Casey’s numerous lies and suggested that her actions in the 31 days between when she last saw her child alive and when the toddler was reported “missing” were not those of a griefing parent of a child that had died accidentally.
“Everybody grieves differently,” Drane Burdick agreed. “But responses to guilt are oh so predictable. What do guilty people do? They lie.”
Drane Burdick said that a person who is feeling guilt pretends as if nothing is wrong and Casey’s actions “were no way indicative of grief.” She told jurors that at this stage, it was not a question of how Caylee died and where she died. Rather it is a question of who killed Caylee.
“Whose life was better without Caylee?” asked Drane Burdick. “That’s the only question you need to answer in considering why Caylee Marie Anthony was left at the side of the road dead.”
Drane Burdick concluded by projecting two photographs adjacent to each other portraying Casey, laughing and dancing with her friends and boyfriend at a nightclub, alongside another with the tattoo Casey got during the time the toddler was allegedly missing that reads, “Bella Vita,” which translates from Italian to, “Beautiful Life.”
“There’s your answer,” Drane Burdick said gesturing to the photographs on the monitor.
Casey Anthony is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter on a child, along with four counts for providing false information to a law enforcement officer. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death
