The State of Florida gave their rebuttal against Casey Anthony’s defense on Monday in her first degree murder trial, allowing the 12-member jury–7 women and 5 men–to begin deliberation.
Casey Anthony is accused by the state of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony, by suffocating her with duct tape concealing her nose and mouth. The defense has refuted this claim, arguing that the toddler drowned accidentally in the family swimming pool, and grandfather George Anthony, covered it up, making it look like a murder. The toddler’s remains were found on Dec. 11, 2008 in woods near the Anthony family home.
Prosecutor Jeff Ashton told jurors, turning an accidental drowning into a murder strains credulity and that George was a loving father and doting grandfather. As shown in his suicide note, he had no idea what happened to his granddaughter because the questions in the letter reflect his confusion, Ashton says, and believes the videotaped jail conversations he had with his daughter make that clear and provide a “window into this relationship.”
“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 this case, to the jury, stating the mandible remained attached to the child’s skull because it was the duct tape that secured it in place, a theory lead defense attorney Jose Baez disputed when he called renowned pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz to the stand. Spitz said the duct tape was applied after decomposition because there was no DNA found on the adhesive side.
“Dr. Spitz’s version of the events is non-credible,” said Ashton, as he outlined the circumstances Spitz and the defense claim that some “unknown person for unknown reasons” took the corpse, put the tape on it and placed the body back, but as jurors found out by other state experts, heat and moisture allow the DNA to vanish.
Ashton also argued that Spitz’s comment about the cranium not being sawed open is not a “violation of protocol,” as stated by their witness Dr. Michael Warren, an anthropology professor at the University of Florida. “Dr. Spitz’s theory … has now been disproved,” Ashton told the jurors.
Air samples were collected from the trunk of Casey’s car by Dr. Arpad Vass, the “unapologetic science geek,” as described by Ashton, who said the interesting thing about Vass is that, “He loves what he does … He loves the challenge of solving.” Vass found a tremendous about of chloroform in samples taken from the trunk of Casey’s vehicle, that he said blew him away with surprise.
Vass also stated the moment he smelled the sample of the trunk odor he knew right away it was human decomposition, which the defense’s witnesses argue was actually from the bag of trash found in the trunk, but Ashton fought back when he said there was no remnants of food left behind in that bag.
“The myth of the garbage has been disproved,” Ashton said. “That smell was not from the garbage, it was from Caylee.”
Lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick followed up with a passionate rebuttal, making comments on the trash bag, as well. “That trash bag,” she began, ” was placed there as a decoy.” She also added that when Casey left her car at the Amscot when she ran out of gas, she backed into the dumpster. “The dumpster was a decoy to keep people away from the car and make them think it’s the source of the odor.”
Throughout Drane Burdick’s closing rebuttal, she outlined Casey’s lies, saying they were given to her parents as a way to “buy time” to be with her boyfriend and friends and classified her as a “pathological liar” which she informed the jurors is not a reaction to grief.
“Everybody grieves differently,” Drane Burdick agreed. “But responses to guilt are oh so predictable. What do guilty people do? They lie.”
She elaborated that a person who is feeling guilty pretends as if nothing is wrong, and that “was no way indicative of grief.”
Drane Burdick presented to jurors once more, a jailhouse video clip of Casey’s parents, George and Cindy, visiting her. In the video, Cindy explains to Casey that people are speculating that Caylee drowned in the pool, to which the defendant’s reply is, “Surprise, surprise,” denying any truth to that theory.
“When Caylee is found dead … surprise, surprise,” said Drane Burdick. “No person would ever make an accidental death look like murder.” The state believes that Casey used the tape to silence the little girl in case she revealed their whereabouts to the rest of the family.
She went on to say that if the child drowned, she would be floating in a pool, not a swamp, which resembles how the mother felt about that child.
“The way these remains were disposed show complete indifference to the child; how the person who disposed of her really felt about her,” Drane Burdick declared. “How Casey Anthony felt about Caylee.”
The prosecutor concluded that while everyone else is searching for the “missing” child, Casey was with her boyfriend having a good time while her daughter is deceased in the woods.
“Whose life was better without Caylee?” asked the prosecutor. “That’s the only question you need to answer in considering why Caylee Marie Anthony was left at the side of the road dead.” She 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.”
Baez requested a motion for a mistrial, following the state’s rebuttal, for improper comments made by the prosecutors, which Judge Belvin Perry Jr. immediately denied.
The jury was given their final instructions and dismissed for deliberation at noon. They are not expected to deliberate beyond 6:00 p.m., which court administration says will be their cut-off time until tomorrow morning.
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, the delinquent could be sentenced to death.
