Trial Coverage and Discussion ONLY ~ Trial; Day 7 ~ JUne 1, 2011

Yuri Melich

Melich was promoted to detective corporal in April 2008. Before that, he was a homicide detective for the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

On arriving at the Anthonys' home:
Melich said he arrived at 3:51 a.m. on July 16, 2008, and began looking over a statement Casey provided earlier that night. In the statement, which Melich read to the jury, Casey said she took Caylee to the nanny's on June 9. The statement also provides a description of Zenaida Gonzalez. Casey said she met her through Jeff Hopkins, and also named several roommates.

Also in the statement, Casey wrote one of the only places she feels "at home" is at the apartment of her then-boyfriend, Tony Lazzaro. She also admitted she has stolen from friends and family in order to find Caylee, and had looked in malls, stores, bars and restaurants for her and Zenaida. Casey also said Zenaida would not explain why Caylee wasn't in Orlando, or if she would ever bring her home.

The prosecution then played audio from an interview Melich conducted with Casey later that day to the jury:

Text (pdf)

Audio (wma)

On driving around with Casey:
After that interview, Melich said he and Casey took a ride to another location where she said she would drop off Caylee with Zenaida. Melich revealed that Ricardo Morales used to live near that location.

"Dick Tracy Orlando":
Baez tried to begin cross-examination by asking Melich if he was also known by the name "Dick Tracy Orlando." The prosecution quickly objected, and Judge Perry had to ask the jury to leave the courtroom while Baez tried to explain the relevance of the question.

According to Baez, "Dick Tracy Orlando" was an online handle Melich used to participate on blogs during the Caylee Anthony investigation. Baez said his online activity showed self-promotion and bias. "Dick Tracy Orlando's" comments included:

A true missing persons investigation is akin to a murder investigation without a body.

Baez said that comment showed Melich thought Caylee was murdered, and he never investigated her disappearance as a possibly accidental death. But prosecutor Jeff Ashton argued that Baez has not yet introduced any evidence that Caylee's death was an accident. So Judge Perry sustained the prosecution's objection.

On Casey's car:
Now prohibited from bringing up Melich's blog involvement, Baez redirected his questioning back to the night Caylee was reported missing.

Melich said he recalled one deputy mention an odor in the Anthonys' car or garage, but he did not investigate the car at that time. He also never called crime scene investigators to look at the car, despite reports of an odor.

On his consideration of Casey:
Melich said when he first arrived on the scene, Casey was not suspect of anything, and he did not consider her as such. At that time, as far as he was concerned, Casey was simply the mother of a missing child, and he was trying to get information from her to help find the child. However, he did admit that when he wrote his report, he thought Casey Anthony's story was suspect.