Trial Coverage and Discussion Only ~ Day 31 ~ June 29, 2011

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BILL SHEAFFER: Day 42 Analysis

GEORGE CRIES: See Images | Raw Video

RAW VIDEO: Casey Agrees With Mistrial Motion

IN COURT: Casey, Parents, Attorneys

FACES OF CASEY: Most Recent To Oldest

EVIDENCE ARCHIVE: Casey Anthony Case

CASEY COVERAGE On Twitter | On Facebook

http://www.wftv.com/news/28391868/detail.html

Day 31 witnesses


Cindy Anthony

Casey's mother was ready to take the stand the moment she walked into the courtroom. Instead of taking her seat, she stood by the door, waiting until defense attorney Jose Baez called her name.

Baez initially tried to ask Cindy about her son, Lee, going into Casey's bedroom at night and inappropriately touching her. Lee was not in the courtroom Wednesday morning.

The state objected, saying that line of questioning was irrelevant. Judge Perry agreed.

NOTE: Baez had questioned Jesse Grund, Casey's ex-fiance, after the jury left on Day 30 about what she told him about Lee touching her.

On her seventh time on the stand, the most of any witness in the trial as of Wednesday morning, Cindy acknowledged that six months earlier, she testified that she thought Caylee was still alive.

Even after her remains were identified, even after having those remains cremated, and even after holding a memorial for her granddaughter, Cindy said she believed there was a chance.

When Baez asked about the memorial for Caylee, he said it was held in January 2009. Cindy quickly correcting him, saying it was in February.

Jump to: Photo gallery from Caylee Anthony memorial service, Feb. 10, 2009.

Cindy was then asked about her husband, George, "blowing up" at the media regarding a theory that Caylee drowned before her remains were found. Again, Cindy fired back, saying that was the media's theory, not hers or her family's. At that time, she believed Caylee was alive and missing.

During cross-examination, Cindy also acknowledged that when she told her daughter about the theory from the media that Caylee drowned, Casey responded, "Surprise, surprise."

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George Anthony

Next, Baez began grilling Casey's father about previous statements he made, asking him: "How did you know your granddaughter would be found in the woods?"

The defense tried to show inconsistencies in George's testimony as it related to him recalling the smell of decomposition as a law enforcement officer.

George said Baez's answer was taken out of context. He explained while he was an officer in Ohio, he had smelled decomposition on occasions in the woods, in a house and in a car.

"My experience in law enforcement gives me the opportunity to know what it is," said George. "How dare you tell me I did something different than what I did?"

George did acknowledge comparing the smell of the white Pontiac Sunfire to that of human decomposition when he picked it up from the tow yard.

He began to appear upset, using a tissue to dab his eyes as he said he was grateful that he did not find Casey or Caylee dead in the car. At one point, George told Baez, "You're trying to take the joy of my life away from me, and you can't do it anymore."

When asked about what he said to detectives about Casey, George replied: "Something happened to Caylee, and Casey was last with her. One and one add up to two in my mind."

He said he may have said negative things about his daughter, but at the time, George was just trying to get information from Casey about where Caylee was.

George then accused Baez of trying to spin things he may have said, but "as a father and a grandfather, I have a right to be upset."

The day after Casey was arrested, Baez noted that George was nice to her instead of "throwing her under the bus." George said he was just trying to keep his daughter upbeat while she was in jail.

Baez then tried to ask about George's grand jury testimony. That testimony, however, has been sealed, and the state objected, not wanting to elicit any statements from George about what he said that day.

George also acknowledged going to the media and maintaining Casey's innocence in August 2009.

"Possibly," George said. "I didn't want to believe my daughter could be responsible for taking the life of my granddaughter."

Baez then stunned George when he asked about his suicide attempt in January 2009.

"Yes, sir. I did," George replied softly as he appeared to fight back tears.

Flashback: George Anthony's suicide attempt in Daytona Beach

When Baez started asking about the Anthonys' appearances on various national talk shows, George snapped back.

"Mr. Baez, I have tried to be nice to you, and I have tried to answer the best of my ability," he said. "It had nothing to do with guilt or innocence, or anything like that. We did that, sir, for self-preservation, to bring awareness to what my granddaughter meant to us."

After a short recess, Baez asked George about molesting his daughter. He again denied it, repeatedly saying he would never do anything in that way to harm his daughter.

"In that way?" Baez inquired, though an objection by the state was sustained. He then shifted his questioning back to George's gas cans. He again said he put a piece of duct tape on one of his cans, because a plastic piece was missing when Casey angrily gave them back to him.

During cross-examination, George told prosecutor Jeff Ashton that he held out hope that Caylee was alive from July 15, 2008, to the day she was told the remains were Caylee.

He burst into tears as he finished his answer. The judge asked if he wanted to take a break, but George replied, "No, I need to get through this."

As George broke down on the stand, Casey simply stared at her father.

George's suicide note was exempted from public records during a previous hearing with the family's previous attorney, Brad Conway, in 2009. Ashton, however, provided a copy of it to Judge Perry, who sent the jury out of the courtroom to review it.

With George, Cindy and the jury out of the courtroom, Ashton said the suicide note stated the George got a gun with the intent to go get answers from Casey's friends, and then kill himself.

Baez argued George wrote the letter to appear innocent, but Ashton said it showed that George did not know what happened to his granddaughter.

Judge Perry said he wanted to read some more case law before admitting the content of the letter into evidence, but allowed the state to question George about his suicide attempt.

When the jury returned, George said he purchased the gun in August 2008, with the intent of getting answers from people he believed were involved in Caylee's disappearance. The gun was then confiscated by law enforcement, because Casey was out of jail on bond at the time, under a condition that no firearms be at her home.

Regarding his suicide note, George said it took him hours to write, and wanted his family to know that he wanted to "go be with Caylee." He even admitted that he still has suicidal thoughts at times.

George said he wrote the eight-page letter to his wife, and said he did not want to be in this world anymore, but could not tell her face to face. He admitted if it wasn't for the intervention of law enforcement, he would be dead.

After returning from a lunch recess, Ashton asked George about receiving the first phone call about remains being found near his home.

George said he got the call just as he was boarding a flight home from Los Angeles after an appearance on "Larry King Live." He said at that time, he was just told that the remains of a small child were found.

That night, when the Anthonys arrived in Orlando, George said Orlando police escorted him and Cindy off the plane and to the Ritz Carlton hotel. George said he didn't know who paid for the hotel. Baez asked if it was "Good Morning America," but the state objected on relevance.

George then stepped down, taking a deep breath and looking directly at his daughter while walking back to his seat.

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Brandon Sparks

Next, the defense called the estranged son of Roy Kronk, the man who found Caylee Anthony's remains in December 2008.

Sparks, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard, said he was estranged from his biological father since he was 8 years old, but he does not hold any ill will toward Kronk, and was in contact with him in late 2008.

He recalled his father telling him in November 2008 that he had found Caylee Anthony's skull, and that he was going to be rich and famous and to watch for him on TV. Kronk testified on Tuesday that conversation never took place.

Sparks said he did not think anything of that conversation until Dec. 11, when he learned the remains had been found. In November, he said he thought his father's story was far-fetched, as he had often told him far-fetched things.

During cross-examination, Sparks admitted to prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick that Kronk never told him he had removed the skull and took it home.

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Roy Kronk

Baez called the former meter reader back to testify about his claim that he lifted Caylee's skull off the ground with his meter reader stick.

Kronk said he told that to the first officer on the scene, and that officer told him not to mention it. But he did not intentionally leave it out of a previous statement.

Rather, Kronk said his story changed because as time went on, he was able to calm down and reflect on what happened.

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Edward Turso

The first deputy to arrive at the crime scene on Dec. 11, 2008, was quickly asked if Roy Kronk had told him that he called before. Turso said no.

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Yuri Melich

For his seventh testimony of the trial, Melich said he did not realize Kronk called four times about Caylee's remains until Dec. 17, 2008, six days after his latest call.

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Dr. Sally Karioth

We first heard her name on Day 8, when the defense told Judge Perry it wanted to call a grief expert to testify.

A professor at Florida State University, Karioth was accepted as an expert on grief and trauma, despite heavy questioning of her qualifications by the state. Ashton objected multiple times during Karioth's long answers, claiming she was giving narrative instead of simply an answer.

Karioth told defense attorney Dorothy Clay Sims that not everyone suffers grief in the same way, and she has seen "a plethora of differences" in how people deal with the death of a loved one.

Sims then began describing a hypothetical situation, asking Karioth to assume that a young mother's daughter dies, that the mother had a loving relationship with the child. Would she then go out and party and act as if nothing happened?

Karioth said she has seen both ends of the spectrum: Some mothers will go to the grave every day, and others won't go at all.

Sims then asked the doctor to assume the mother got pregnant at 19 and hid it for eight months, despite living with her mother, who is a nurse. She said to assume the woman's brother was angry with the family, and her father told police he was concerned.

How would she grieve if her child died? Would she spend 31 days shopping, going to bars, getting a tattoo and renting movies?

Karioth's answer: "That's very complex."

In that situation, she said she would have to look at everyone in the family. But Karioth said young adults, in general, are "reluctant grievers." They may not talk about it, and go out and drink too much and spend money they don't have. She called that "retail therapy."

"Denial is a great tool for as long as you can make yourself believe it," said Karioth, saying that type of behavior and what she called "magical thinking" can last for years. She later explained that "magical thinking" is not the same as delusion.

During cross-examination, Ashton asked if being very, very happy or very, very sad are both signs of grief, Karioth said they can be, and she has seen every level in between. The doctor also admitted that an interest in sex can help with grief.

"Everything is consistent with grief?" Ashton asked.

"It falls into categories," Karioth explained.

She then admitted that she had only taken on this case in late May into early June 2011. Indeed, Karioth's name was first mentioned in court on June 2.

Ashton then began giving his own hypothetical, one that sounded very familiar to Linda Drane Burdick's opening statement on Day 1. He asked Karioth to diagnose a woman whose child disappears, and then spends the next 30 days telling everyone she knows different stories about a fictional babysitter.

Is that consistent with grief? Karioth said that sounded like a woman in crisis, a woman who may be trying to fix something, and a woman who needs to get some help.

Ashton then added another hypothetical: What if this mother killed her daughter?

Sims immediately objected, sending the attorneys into a long sidebar and the jury out of the courtroom.

Karioth never got to answer that question, as Ashton moved on when the jury returned. Instead, he asked if denial was also a coping mechanism for guilt. The doctor said yes.

Ashton's final question was about the bond between a mother and her daughter. Karioth said that bond never breaks. With that, she was excused, ending testimony on a day full of high emotions.

http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2011/june/271083/Day-31:-George-Anthony-breaks-down,-jury-hears-from-Kronks-son,-grief-expert