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Post by beth on May 24, 2011 12:37:44 GMT -5
Opening Statements Begin in Casey Anthony Murder Trial It all began with a phone call to police in July 2008 from the grandmother of 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony, who reported the toddler missing and said her daughter’s car smelled like a "dead body." Now, almost three years later, opening statements are under way Tuesday in the trial of Casey Anthony, a 25-year-old Orlando mother who stands accused of first-degree murder in a case that has captivated the American public. No witnesses saw what happened to Caylee, and only her killer knows exactly how she died. So the jury's decision will likely come down to forensic evidence. Anthony wiped away tears Tuesday as prosecutor Linda Drane-Burdick described the last day Caylee was seen by her grandparents. The prosecutor called Anthony's appearance as a hardworking single mother an illusion. If convicted, Anthony could be sentenced to death. She has pleaded not guilty and claims a baby sitter kidnapped her daughter. Caylee was allegedly last seen by her grandmother, Cindy Anthony, on June 15, 2008, when she said the two visited a nursing home together. The toddler’s body was found six months later in swampy woods not far from the Orlando home she shared with her mother and grandparents – her tiny remains wrapped in a bag with a piece of duct tape found over the mouth of her skull. Cindy Anthony reported the child as possibly missing to an Orange County Police dispatcher on July 15, 2008. Cindy asked that an officer be sent to her home to arrest her daughter for “stealing an auto” and money. “I have someone here that I need to be arrested,” Cindy said in her first 911 call. “I have a possible missing child. I have a 3-year-old that’s been missing for a month.” A second, more distressed phone call followed about an hour later in which Cindy claimed Casey said the girl was taken by a baby sitter. “My daughter finally admitted that the baby sitter stole her,” Cindy said. “I found my daughter’s car today and it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car.” Casey allegedly told investigators that she dropped her daughter off with a baby sitter named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez on June 9, and never saw the two again. She said she didn’t notify police because she had been investigating the disappearance on her own and was scared, according to multiple press accounts. But investigators say Casey fed them a string of lies from the beginning – like claiming she worked at Universal Studios when she didn't. Pictures later surfaced that purportedly showed the young mother partying in the days after she claimed her daughter went missing. Police arrested Casey on July 16, 2008, for child neglect, giving false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. Prosecutors say the evidence in the case against Casey is overwhelming. Court documents released in Nov. 2008, for example, show that someone searched the Internet in the Anthony home for phrases like “neck-breaking,” “shovel,” and “household weapons.” A law enforcement official said air samples showed a human body had once been held inside the trunk of Casey’s car. Traces of chloroform, a substance used to induce unconsciousness, were also detected inside the woman’s car, according to officials. What’s more, Casey allegedly told fellow inmates at the Orange County Jail details about her daughter’s death that only authorities knew. She also said that she sometimes drugged Caylee when she wanted to go out and party, the inmates allege. Caylee's skeletal remains were found by a utility worker in a wooded area about a quarter mile from her home on Dec. 11, 2008. The bones showed no signs of trauma and her death was ruled a "homicide of undetermined means." Casey has pleaded not guilty in the death of her daughter. She also is charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and providing false information to law enforcement. If convicted on murder charges, Casey could face the death penalty. The trial is expected to last from six to eight weeks. Jurors were picked from Pinellas County on the Gulf Coast and transported to Orlando, where they are being sequestered during the trial. www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/24/opening-statements-begin-casey-anthony-murder-trial/
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Post by sadie on May 24, 2011 13:58:57 GMT -5
Just saw on some site that her attorney now says that Caylee drowned in the family pool. Ok........so let's go with she drowned and then freaked out and then hid the body..........why was Caylee found with duct tape around her mouth?
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Post by markindurham on May 24, 2011 15:00:59 GMT -5
Just saw on some site that her attorney now says that Caylee drowned in the family pool. Ok........so let's go with she drowned and the freaked out and then hid the body..........why was Caylee found with duct tape around her mouth? Indeed. From what I can see, this woman seems to be rapidly approaching an appointment with the needle... Poor child
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Post by sadie on May 24, 2011 17:46:19 GMT -5
Ouch.....gets even better........her father seems to have sexually abused her continually....then her brother started.....and it was her parents that hid the baby's body.
She's just a peach, isn't she? Where was this story before?
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Post by beth on May 24, 2011 20:03:04 GMT -5
There is a thread in Deep Thought titledl, "How to spot a psychopath" ... I have the feeling it might allow some insight into the cast of characters here.
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Post by sadie on May 24, 2011 22:31:52 GMT -5
Well....she does meet the criteria doesn't she??? Yikes!
I just don't see how they sell this story.....she has never said a thing about drowning.......a year or so after her arrest then they started the nonsense about the abuse.....first it was both dad and brother molesting her.....now it was just Dad and the brother just touching her.......now Mom didn't put the pool ladder in the right place and mom and dad hid the body and dad planted the duct tape to incriminate her..........I figure next week.....Amanda Knox did it!
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Post by iamjumbo on May 25, 2011 5:18:58 GMT -5
baez has successfully sent this worthless broad to death row. coming off with such insane garbage that EVERYONE knows hasn't an iota of truth to it, right at the beginning of the trial, totally discredits EVERYTHING that he ever says from here on out. this imbecile had to have been at the bottom of his class in law school. the idea is to try to fabricate a story that will explain away the facts. instead, this idiot concocts an outright lie that every first grader knows has absolutely nothing to do with the case. the only rational explanation is that the fool is shooting for an appeal based on incompetent representation
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Post by sadie on May 25, 2011 8:25:27 GMT -5
That's what I was wondering Jim.........he has nothing so he knows she'll get convicted.....but she has grounds for appeals for forever!
Doesn't keep her out of jail.....but I guess keeps a needle out of her arm!
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Post by iamjumbo on May 25, 2011 8:49:24 GMT -5
That's what I was wondering Jim.........he has nothing so he knows she'll get convicted.....but she has grounds for appeals for forever! Doesn't keep her out of jail.....but I guess keeps a needle out of her arm! i can't conceive of any other reason for it. it's bound to alienate the jury. even the least competent appellate attorney should be able to make a case for ineffective counsel out of this bs. of course, an appeals court very well could toss it, since she obviously agreed to have him go this route
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Post by trubble on May 25, 2011 9:25:30 GMT -5
Isn't this the case with every 'psychopathic' murderer? They have no reason to plead guilty, only the insane would do that. They have every reason to spin yarns and prevaricate. They are at rock bottom and have nothing to lose.
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Erasmus
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Post by Erasmus on May 25, 2011 11:50:45 GMT -5
Think it was there when she says she used to drug the kid to go out. No doubt she eventually overdid it and had to find a way out. I have similar suspicions about the McCann case too - either that or their girl woke up, panicked and killed herself in an accident. (I have to add that last obvious phrase, since not doing so once attracted all kinds of pompous mockery at the idea of suicidal toddlers!)
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Post by trubble on May 25, 2011 12:51:38 GMT -5
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Post by trubble on May 25, 2011 12:56:09 GMT -5
An accident would be relatively easy to prove - the forensics would help - but attempting to cover up the accidental death of one's own little girl would require either huge stupidity or psychopathic lack of love/empathy/parental feelings, or both -- it's just as stupid an idea as I can think of, and that's why I find it hard to believe. Have there been documented cases where parents have tried to cover up accidental death by pretending a kidnap happened?
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Erasmus
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Post by Erasmus on May 25, 2011 17:36:56 GMT -5
The duct tape is a bit of a give-away. In general though, people do not behave rationally where accidents for which they can be held responsible are in question. It's even possible that taping her mouth (which has been known in a few school incidents) caused the wretched girl's death. It's understandable but not tolerable that once in a while a mother might get so fed up that she doses the kid with booze or gripe water and gets out before murdering the brat anyway, but she wouldn't be keeping chlorophorm to hand for just rare occasions like that. So this one didn't give a bugger about the kid from the start. If there were broken bones, that would have been mentioned so if she did knock her about, wasn't enough for serious damage.
As for the McCanns, there's any number of speculations, but unless a hotel staff member was involved it seems highly unlikely that a passing paedophile (one of those always lurking behind hedges and round corners or even under beds) just happened to know where to find her, how to get her out without waking the others and when the parents would be away. If something had been set up before, it again looks unlikely that they could suddenly decide the parents were out, so now's the chance to get everything they'd need together and swoop.
It is more likely that she died under some freak circumstance that the parents did not think anybody would ever believe and would still get them done for negligence in a Latin country with far more regard for children than their own, and they just panicked themselves into the obvious thing. Paedophiles are the current witch scare, so invoke the witches/gypsies/paedophiles got her
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2011 18:05:20 GMT -5
I think we are IMO dealing with two entirely different sets of circumstances here.
Casey Anthony is clearly mentally disturbed and has changed her story more than once.
She is now attempting to use the defence that she was a battered woman to excuse the murder of her child.
IMO that simply does not wash.
If she was on trial for the murder of her partner then that MIGHT be a cogent defence.
As it was her child who was killed that defence is entirely irrelevant IMO.
As for the McCanns, I do NOT believe they were guilty of murder OR manslaughter.
I believe they were arrogant and negligent parents but I do NOT believe they killed their child.
IMO it is almost certain that hotel staff must have been involved in some way.
Possibly even the police considering the shambolic nature of the investigation by them following the report of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
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