Casey Anthony Trial Day 33: Is Cindy lying to protect her daughter?
After six weeks of testimony, the high-profile Casey Anthony's trial is expected to end next week with both the prosecutor and the defense lawyers set to submit their closing arguments on Sunday.
On Friday morning, another indefinite recess took place. When the trial resumed, the prosecutors showed their final evidence, which mostly focused on Casey's mother Cindy's previous testimony about how she had googled chloroform on the computer in the Anthony's family home.
Cindy testified surprisingly on June 23 that she had searched chloroform on the family's home computer in March 2008, a few months before Caylee died.
Her testimony is very crucial because Casey had allegedly made her daughter unconscious with chloroform before suffocating her with duct tape. Chloroform is an anesthetic that can make people fall unconscious or even kill them. The chemical also is found during decomposition of human body. The prosecutor's expert witnesses had testified that the trunk of Casey's car had evidence of high chloroform level.
On Friday, prosecutors showed the pay records from Cindy's then-employerJohn Camperlengo, general counsel of Gentiva, the home health care company that Cindy worked for in March 2008.
According to computer forensic experts, the internet was searched between 1:43 p.m. and 1:55 p.m. on March 17 and between 2:16 p.m. and 2:28 p.m. on March 21. At that time, however, Cindy's work record showed she was at work.
When asked how could Cindy work at the company and meanwhile google at home, Cindy replied that as she often worked overtime without pay, sometimes she could leave earlier and still her pay records would show that she had worked a full day.
The computer, which Cindy had used in the company, showed that it was logged in to update the data from 1:41 p.m. until 2:22 p.m. on March 17, and from 2:22 p.m. to 4:06 p.m. on March 21.
Camperlengo said the records was accurate, which can be inferred that Cindy was at work during that time.
On June 23, Cindy said she wanted to search information on chlorophyll, for her dog might have been sickened by bamboo leaves in the yard. The search led her to chloroform.
However, a computer forensic expert said after he had examined the search history on the computer in Anthony's family, he found no search records related to chlorophyll, bamboo or other subjects as Cindy said.
Autopsy witnesses took the stand for only several minutes on Friday afternoon.
One of them testified that it was not a violation of normal protocol to opt against cutting open a skull when performing an autopsy on a child, which is opposite to what a defense expert witness said. Forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz had testified that the prosecution's chief medical examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia did a shoddy autopsy as she didn't cut open Caylee's skull, which is the basic autopsy procedure.
There will be a recess on Saturday. The closing arguments as well as jury deliberation could begin as early as Sunday night.
About Casey Anthony Trial:
Two-year old Caylee was last seen alive on June 16 and it was only on July 15 that she was reported missing by her mother Casey Anthony to the police. Cindy, Casey's mother had also alerted the police by calling a 911 dispatcher and saying that she had smelled a dead body in the trunk of Casey's car that was spotted in an impound lot. The car was later towed by authorities for forensic analysis.
Initially, Casey told the police that a babysitter called Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez (Zanny the nanny) had abducted Caylee. Investigations showed Casey was lying as the babysitter Zanny was fictitious. Five months later, in December 2008,
Caylee's decomposed skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near the Anthony home by a meter reader who was relieving himself.
The prosecutors say Casey chloroformed Caylee and then put duct tape over her nose and mouth, suffocating the girl.
Casey's lawyers claim Caylee was not murdered. They say the toddler accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and George, Casey's father, helped her keep the death a secret. George has denied the claim.
Casey has been charged with seven counts, including first degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading the police in the death of Caylee. If she is convicted of first degree, she could be sentenced to death by the seven-woman, five-man jury. The trial is expected to take 1 more week before a verdict is reached.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.