The case against Casey Anthony: Do the pieces add up?

Sarah Lundy and Amy L. Edwards |Sentinel Staff Writers

February 26, 2009

A hair, a laundry bag, some duct tape and a strange odor in the car. Throw in a mother who lied to investigators and showed little concern for weeks that her 2-year-old daughter had disappeared.

Since Casey Anthony became the prime suspect in the disappearance — and eventual death — of her daughter Caylee Marie, prosecutors have released thousands of pages of evidence in their case against her.

But does the case, with its countless morsels of evidence, truly link the 22-year-old Orange County mother to Caylee's remains?

The Orlando Sentinel asked a handful of legal experts about some of the evidence released so far. They predict a difficult case for both sides.

"At this point ... this is a dogfight. This is not a slam-dunk for the state," said Charles Rose, a professor at Stetson University College of Law near St. Petersburg.

Skeletal remains

Anthony was charged with first-degree murder in Caylee's death before the toddler's remains were uncovered. Prosecutors faced the challenge of proving a murder without a body.

That changed when Caylee's remains turned up Dec.11 a few blocks from her home. Prosecutors can show that Caylee was the victim of a homicide. But the medical examiner ruled Caylee's death as homicide by "undetermined means."

For prosecutors trying to prove murder, "that's a huge factor," Orlando attorney Diana Tennis said.

Did Caylee die by accident, or was she intentionally killed?

Anthony contends that Caylee was kidnapped by a nanny and says that she had nothing to do with her disappearance.

Orlando attorney Bill Sheaffer, a legal analyst for WFTV-Channel9, said if the defense were to argue that Caylee died by accident, it would have to admit Anthony was involved in her daughter's death.

"The defense is far away even from making that decision," Sheaffer said.

Crime-scene items

When investigators uncovered Caylee's tiny bones scattered across a patch of woods, they also found a collection of items: a canvas laundry bag that held some of the remains, a piece of duct tape stuck to the child's skull, a Winnie the Pooh blanket and a heart sticker, among others.

At the Anthony home nearby, detectives seized a gasoline can with a piece of duct tape stuck to it — the same brand of tape found on Caylee's skull. They found the same type of laundry bag and a variety of heart stickers. Caylee's grandmother said a Pooh blanket was missing.

The lawyers who spoke to the Sentinel predicted that Anthony's defense team will try to explain away some of the similarities. The Henkel duct tape is a common brand. Whitney Design laundry bags are all over the place — Tennis said she has one at home.

Prosecutors are likely to argue that one or two items might be dismissed as coincidence, but that so many similarities point straight to Casey Anthony.

"They're really going to have to paint a mosaic one piece at a time and hope that the jury can see the complete picture when they're done," Stetson's Rose said. "It's the most challenging type of a case for a prosecutor to try."

Forensic evidence

The results of certain forensic tests — DNA, fingerprints and blood splatter, for example — are accepted as evidence in U.S. courts every day.

But analysis of whether a hair strand came from a dead or live person, or whether components of an air sample prove the presence of something dead — two issues in the Anthony case — are fairly new to the criminal-justice system.

That could be a problem for prosecutors.

Anthony's defense team can use this cutting-edge science to its advantage by asking the judge to disallow it in trial.

Bob Jarvis, who teaches legal ethics and law and popular culture at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, said judges are supposed to keep what some call "junk science" out of the courtroom.

Still, the hair strand and air samples, which came from the trunk of Anthony's car, might not play such a prominent role now that Caylee's remains have been found.

This discovery made Caylee's death more like a typical murder case.

Prosecutors can focus on the body and evidence from the scene.

Results of several forensic tests on items taken in December have not been released yet. But one analysis released last week — that the FBI found no fingerprints on duct tape from the crime scene — was not good news for prosecutors.

"I believe this case is going to be won or lost on forensic testimony and whether the jury believes the state expert or defense's — if the defense can find someone that contradicts the state's forensic evidence," lawyer Sheaffer said.

Lies and misbehavior

Anthony has lied to investigators, her family and friends. Detectives say she made up her story about having a nanny and led them on a wild goose chase to Universal Studios before admitting she didn't work there.

Then there's Anthony's behavior: After Caylee supposedly went missing, Anthony waited a month to tell her family.

The young mother claimed she was doing her own investigation during that time, but text messages and interviews with friends paint Anthony as a party girl, not as a frantic mother missing her daughter.

"The No.1 piece of circumstantial evidence that is going to bury the defense is [Anthony's] behavior when the daughter goes missing. It's not the kind of behavior we have come to expect of a parent who is frantically looking for their child," Jarvis said.

Prosecutors also have charged her with stealing checks from a friend — an arrest that led to the release of store video showing Anthony shopping for herself and her boyfriend — but not for missing Caylee.

Although such information might help prosecutors turn a jury against Anthony, prosecutors may not get to present much of it unless they can convince the judge that Anthony's demeanor is relevant in proving that she killed Caylee, Stetson's Rose said.

Defense lawyers could counter by bringing in an expert to explain that everyone reacts differently to stressful situations, Nova's Jarvis said.

But jurors tend to have an idea of how people should behave in certain situations. Even if the judge reminds jurors that a suspect is considered innocent until proven guilty, "'odd' behavior tends to have a big impact for the prosecution," Jarvis said.

Upcoming legal fights over the accumulated evidence will set the tone for what jurors will see and hear.

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