3/20/2009 Document Release - Summary Article

WFTV:

Posted: 9:46 am EDT March 20, 2009
Updated: 6:22 pm EDT March 20, 2009

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Casey Anthony bought Caylee's birthday cake with the stolen money and George Anthony took out a credit card out in his wife's name according to allegations made in documents made public Friday.

The hundreds of pages of documents not only shed new light on the case against Casey, but also the Anthony family.

READ DOCUMENTS RELEASED 03/20/09
» Dominic Casey Interview Transcript
» Cameron Campina Interview Transcript
» Charles Crittenden Interview Transcript
» Jeffrey Hopkins Interview Transcript
» Shirley Plesea Interview Transcript
» Timothy Monforte Interview Transcript
» Debbie Bennett Interview Transcript
» Melina Calabrese Interview Transcript
» Crime Scene Report, Evidence Forms
» Cell Phone, Text Records Investigative Report

TEAM COVERAGE: New Documents In Casey Case

Casey Anthony held Caylee in her arms as Caylee blew out her candle shaped like the number two on her second birthday. Friday, in an interview on August 21, 2008 with Casey Anthony's grandmother, Shirley Plesea, it's revealed that Casey used money that she had stolen from her grandmother to buy the birthday cake and other party favors for Caylee's birthday celebration (read Plesea transcript).

Plesea is Cindy Anthony's mother and she told investigators during the August interview that, about a month after Casey's arrest, Casey had stolen $45,000 from her mother Cindy, possibly through taking out credit cards in Cindy's name and that Casey's father George also took out credit cards in Cindy's name.

Former prosecutor and WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said Casey's grandmother's most incriminating statement was telling investigators, "I just wondered if she hated her mom more than she loved her Caylee.

"Casey's grandmother also told investigators back in August that Cindy did in fact say she was close to taking custody of Caylee.

The new records show Casey told a girlfriend that Cindy did not approve of how much Casey was going out, sometimes taking Caylee and often leaving her home with her grandparents.

Sheaffer said prosecutors don't have to prove motive, but it would strengthen the circumstantial case.

"The mother was threatening to take the child away from her," said Shaeffer. "What's the ultimate act that I can do to my mother to hurt her? Take away the one thing that she loves even more than me, her daughter, which is her granddaughter.

"Also among the documents released is the transcript of detectives interviewing the Anthonys' private investigator, Dominic Casey, who was recorded on video looking in the area where Caylee's remains were found one month later (read D. Casey transcript).

The State Attorney's Office also released details from Casey and her ex-boyfriend's cell phone records, more crime scene reports and evidence forms (read them) as well as transcripts with a man whose wallet happened to be found in the remains area and a transcript of an interview with a friend who smoked marijuana with Casey.

The report from the jail security officers who witnessed Casey's reaction on December 11th, when she found out that Caylee's remains likely were found down the street from her house, was released Friday, but all the information was blacked out. The defense wants the jail video from that day and all information sealed as hearing has not yet been scheduled to discuss that.

Casey has been in jail since October, when she was arrested in connection with the disappearance of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. Casey has since been charged with first-degree murder and Caylee's remains were found not far from Casey's parent's home.

A trial date on the first-degree murder charges has not been set and experts believe a start date could be as long as a year away due to the amount of evidence involved in the case.

RELEASED CELL PHONE RECORDS REVEAL NEW DETAILS
An investigative report among the documents released Friday (read cell records report) analyzes the cellular records of Casey Anthony and her boyfriend, Anthony Lazzaro.

Casey Anthony's cell phone records show that on Monday, June 16, the day after Father's Day when Caylee disappeared and investigators believe she may have been murdered, Casey stayed in the area of her parents' home until after 4:00pm, even though her father said she and Caylee left their house around noon when Casey went to work at Universal. He said he left their house shortly afterward to go to work.

After that, Caylee was not seen alive again.

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer expects prosecutors to focus on the afternoon of June 16 as the time Caylee could have been murdered.

"It's the most private place she can be, where she knows that she's not going to be interrupted. Her father is gone to his job her mother is gone to her job. And everyone thinks that she is somewhere other than in that house," said Sheaffer.

Late that Monday afternoon, Casey apparently headed to her boyfriend Tony Lazzaro's apartment.

They were seen at a Blockbuster in that area near Semoran and University boulevards that evening and she spent that night at his apartment.It appears Casey went home the next afternoon for about a half hour. Then, as Eyewitness News first reported last year, she headed toward a remote area by the airport and then toward another remote area near UCF late that afternoon. Eventually, Casey went to Lazzaro's apartment again that Tuesday night, where she stayed until at least midnight on June 18, but her whereabouts the rest of that day are not shown in the cell phone records.

The Thursday after Caylee is believed to have been murdered, three days after she disappeared, Casey's cell phone shows she was driving around the area of Blanchard Park and Little Econ Park in the mid-afternoon after she had left her boyfriend's apartment.

Just over a week later, Casey sent a text message that reads, "There was definitely part of a dead animal plastered to the frame of my car." The investigative report comments that text "was believed to possibly be a pre-emptive explanation to the foul smell of decomposing tissue."

CASEY'S FRIEND: SHE SMOKED POT
Cameron Campina, who was friends with Casey, spoke with investigators on October 6, 2008 (read Campina transcript), and, among other things, told them he would supply marijuana and Zanax to friends. Casey would spend time with him, Campina told investigators, smoking marijuana at his apartment and she would cook food for him and her boyfriend Anthony Lazzaro.

"How was she when she smoked weed?" Orange County Sheriff's Office Detective Yuri Melich asked Campina during the interview.

"She seemed to like, almost like, I'm trying to think how to explain it. Like your first time, like almost the first time you ever smoked weed. Uh, she would, she'd get high off of very little. She'd always be laughing, smiling, you know, just having a good time. Just watching TV and movies, cooking, cooking food" Campina told investigators.

OTHER CASEY FRIEND: SHE DIDN'T DO DRUGS
Investigators spoke with another friend of Casey's on October 9, 2008. Melina Calabrese told investigators she was one of Casey's closest friends growing up and that they met in the seventh grade (read Calabrese transcript). They were friends through high school and were friends off and on since then. Calabrese said they never did anything crazy together.

"Okay. Do you know of her using [drugs] or did she ever tell you hey, I experimented; hey, try this; I liked it, I didn't like it; anything like that?" Melich asked.

"No. She was very adamantly against cigarettes and pot," said Calabrese.

CINDY'S CO-WORKER: "EVERYTHING WAS FINE"
Investigators spoke to Charles Crittenden, a co-worker of Cindy Anthony at Gentiva Home Health, on November 24, 2008 (read Crittenden transcript). He told investigators that Cindy never mentioned any problems she was having regarding financial issues at home.

"As far as I knew everything was fine you know," he told investigators.

Crittenden told investigators that Cindy was told by Casey that Caylee was in Tampa.

"And you know some of the bizarre stories sounded really bizarre to us," he said, adding that he believed Cindy was accepting what Casey was telling her.

On November 24, 2008, investigators interviewed Debbie Bennett (read Bennett transcript), who also works at Gentiva Home Health with Cindy Anthony. Bennett said she has known Cindy for around six years and described the day that Casey walked into Gentiva and told her mother she was pregnant. Bennett
did not see the interaction in July 2005, but heard about it. Bennett told investigators that the next day at work Cindy announced she was going to be a grandmother.

MAN EXPLAINS WHY WALLET WAS AT REMAINS SCENE
One of the people interviewed by detectives appears to have no connection to the case except dumb luck. On February 10, 2009, Timothy Monforte was interviewed by investigators after crews searching the remains scene along Suburban Drive in Orange County discovered a wallet and credit card belonging to him (read Monforte transcript). Monforte told investigators that his home, on nearby Lumberton Drive, burned down in 2007 and the wallet and credit card were among items never recovered after the "total loss."

"Do you know Casey Anthony personally or have ever met her," Melich asked Monforte.

"Never met 'em but heard about the story," Monforte replied.

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