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Nancy Grace
Casey Anthony Defense Claims Accidental Death
Aired May 24, 2011 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight in the case of 2-year-old Florida girl, Caylee. Six months of searching culminate when skeletal remains found in a heavily wooded area just 15 houses from the Anthony home confirmed to be Caylee. A utility meter reader stumbles on a tiny human skeleton, including a skull covered in light-colored hair, the killer duct- taping, placing a heart-shaped sticker directly over the mouth, then triple bagging little Caylee like she`s trash. The murder trial of tot mom Casey Anthony under way.
Bombshell tonight. Tot mom`s lawyer tells a stunned courtroom she has nothing to do with Caylee`s death and disappearance, blaming her own father, claiming George Anthony is the culprit. That`s right, in a huge gamble (ph), tot mom says her father, former police detective George Anthony, shows up holding 2-year-old Caylee`s dead body in his arms and that he and he alone disposes of little Caylee, that he never called 911, didn`t call police, didn`t call an ambulance, but instead that her father hides his beloved Caylee`s body to let it rot.
Tot mom then claims George sexually molested her since age 8, often sending her to grade school after forcing her into oral sex. But George Anthony`s not alone Tot mom also alludes her brother, Lee, molested her, too.
George Anthony taking the stand as state`s witness number one for heart-wrenching testimony, describing the last time he ever sees little Caylee alive, and then under oath denies tot mom`s stunning claims, claims he denies with tears in his eyes, clutching a Bible throughout court today. Can you tell me, just how much pain can one man take?
Courtroom watchers agree tot mom`s accident defense takes a wild, bizarre twist, gone off the rails, and at the same time serves up her own father to take the blame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a murder case. This is a tragic accident that happened to some very disturbed people, people with significant issues.
Caylee Anthony died on June 16, 2008, when she drowned in her family`s swimming pool. They have an aboveground pool with a ladder.
As soon as Casey came around this corner and went back, she saw George Anthony holding Caylee in his arms. She immediately grabbed Caylee and began to cry. And shortly thereafter, George began to yell at her, Look what you`ve done! Your mother will never forgive you, and you will go to jail for child neglect for the rest of your frickin` life!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you present in your home when Caylee Anthony died?
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY`S FATHER: No. When I heard that today, it hurt really bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you dispose of the body of your granddaughter?
GEORGE ANTHONY: No, I did not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It all began when Casey was 8 years old and her father came into her room and began to touch her inappropriately. She could be 13 years old, have her father`s penis in her mouth, and then go to school and play with the other kids as if nothing ever happened. Anything Casey could do to protect her child, she did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever sexually molested your daughter, Casey Anthony?
GEORGE ANTHONY: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever committed any sexually inappropriate act with or in the presence of your daughter, Casey Anthony?
GEORGE ANTHONY: No, sir.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Tot mom`s lawyer tells a stunned courtroom she has absolutely nothing to do with 2-year-old Caylee`s death and disappearance, but instead her own father, George Anthony, is the culprit. That`s right, in a huge gamble, tot mom claims her father, former police detective George Anthony, shows up holding 2-year-old Caylee`s dead body in his arms, and that he and he alone disposes of Caylee`s body, then hides his beloved Caylee to let her body rot.
Courtroom watchers agree tot mom`s accident defense has taken on a wild and bizarre twist, gone off the rails, and at the same time, she serves up her own father to take the blame.
We are live here outside of the Orlando courthouse. What a day in the courtroom, George Anthony taking the stand as state`s witness number one. Rarely did tot mom meet his gaze. And how could she? George Anthony clutching a Bible throughout opening statements, Cindy Anthony, Caylee`s grandmother, holding a little teddy bear that apparently belonged to little Caylee until sheriff`s bailiffs made her put it away. And then George Anthony takes the stand.
We are taking your calls live. Straight out to Jean Casarez in court with me the entire day. Jean, tell us what happened.
JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": Nancy, the defense took this case and turned it on its head in the opening statement. They made Casey Anthony the victim, the victim of an abusive father and the victim of threats that she would go to prison for life because of child neglect because of what she had done, allowing her child to drown.
GRACE: You know, Jean Casarez, the allegations that George Anthony is somehow responsible for this -- what does she claim, that she just looked up, that Cindy Anthony leaves for work that morning, that sometime in the wee hours of the morning that Caylee must have gone out to the family pool, an aboveground pool in the back yard, get into the pool. They also allude that Cindy Anthony is responsible for leaving the ladder down so Caylee could get in and out of the pool on her own, which was verboten, that the child (ph) dives in the pool, apparently shows up in the house, holding the dead, dripping dead body, and then threatens tot mom she`s going jail for neglect.
And then it gets very vague there, Jean Casarez, that George Anthony agrees to help tot mom at tot mom`s request, but then they don`t explain what he did or what happened to the body.
CASAREZ: There is no explanation beyond that until Roy Kronk, the meter reader, who moves the body from wherever it may have been. But Nancy, according to prosecution, there`s a very slim timeline. George Anthony testified he saw his daughter and granddaughter at 12:50 PM Monday, the 16th of June. He went to work at 3:00 o`clock.
GRACE: And on cross-examination of George Anthony, the defense thinks they scored a lot of points by arguing with him about how he can remember what she wore. Were there later photos of her? I mean, how did he remember what she was wearing that day? I assume he had to ultimately tell police what he recalled.
CASAREZ: I think it was the last time he saw his granddaughter. That was forever in his mind. He was normally asleep when Cindy would go to work at 7:00 o`clock in the morning. He wouldn`t even know what she was wearing to work.
GRACE: And through it all, George Anthony sat there stoically, and then takes the stand.
To Steve Helling, staff writer, "People" magazine. What was the jury`s response to all of this?
STEVE HELLING, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Well, you could have heard a pin drop. And the jury was watching everything, just -- just -- just engrossed in everything that was going on. You know, I`m not sure that they were buying everything that Jose Baez was selling, but they were sure paying attention. And they would look over to George and they would look back at Jose. And it`ll be interesting to see what they really think of it. But I can tell you right now they could not take their eyes off of either of them.
GRACE: Out to Robyn Walensky, WDBO, joining us, also in court today. Robyn, so let me get this straight. I`m supposed to believe -- and I was very concerned that they were going to come up with a defense that really struck a chord and that, Hey, had this all been a tragic accident? I was thinking about it last night when we got wind that that what the defense was going to be.
But now they`ve really gone off the rails. They can`t steer it down the middle of the road with an accident defense, they had to go too far by claiming George Anthony is responsible. That`s a whole `nother animal than saying, Hey, I was with Caylee, she drowned, I panicked, I hid the body. That`s what happened. I set it up to look like an abduction and murder. We thought that`s where they were going with accident. But no, they`re claiming George Anthony injected himself in this, and on top of that, that he`s a child molester.
But -- and I -- looking at it, Robyn -- think it through. They want notice believe that for all these months, George Anthony let his wife, Cindy Anthony, suffer, believing that Caylee was still alive, that I`m supposed to believe George out of his own pocket paid for that big sign he got and he drove it for thousands of miles, saying, Help me find Caylee, that I`m supposed to believe that George Anthony would wake up in the middle of the night and drive hours to a tent (ph) location to try to find and watch surveillance video in a store and sit outside the store in a parked car, waiting for the store to let him look at surveillance video, to travel to New York, Puerto Rico, all over, trying to find his daughter (SIC), if he knew she was dead?
ROBYN WALENSKY, WDBO: Nancy, it is quite the fiction book, possibly. I`m telling you, I was riveted to this. The one nugget that I have for you about George is the fact that -- let`s not forget he is a former police detective himself. This man is trained in CPR. If his little 2-year-old granddaughter was drowning in the pool, wouldn`t he give her CPR, mouth-to- mouth, save her? That would be his number one priority. That`s what the man is trained to do. Nancy, it makes no sense.
GRACE: Joining me right now exclusively, the attorney for George and Cindy Anthony, Mark Lippman. Mark, listen, I know where you`re coming from. I know they want to defend their daughter, Casey Anthony. I know that they love her and have believed in her innocence. But I just can`t go along with laying George Anthony up on an altar to let him get crucified to take the blame. He did not molest her!
MARK LIPPMAN, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE AND CINDY ANTHONY: No. The allegations today were just totally off the wall. We`ve expected this for about six weeks now, that they were going to come down this road. We`ve anticipated that they were going to come down this road, but certainly, to hear it said in court the way it was said and the additional facts that Jose was adding in there, or statements -- they weren`t even facts, it was all just fiction. His whole opening was fiction, and there`s nowhere to go with it.
GRACE: And Mark, is there any way -- there`s no way that George Anthony would take Caylee and throw her body into a wooded area and let her rot. I don`t believe it!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Caylee Anthony died on June 16, 2008, when she drowned in her family`s swimming pool.
CINDY ANTHONY, CASEY`S MOTHER: Caylee loved the water. She was becoming a good swimmer. Her and I used to spend a lot of time together in the pool, and I`m going to miss those days.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) already told you that the only one who had access to this duct tape was Casey Anthony. Well, that`s not true. A picture tells a thousand words.
MALE: He was at that command center. He was home on the 16th. All you have to do is follow the duct tape, and it would point to you where Caylee`s remains -- where ultimately ended up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m a meter reader with Orange County, and I had the route today that included the Anthonys` home. IO noticed something that looked white, and there was -- I don`t know what it is. I`m not telling you it`s, you know, Caylee or anything of that nature.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will not be able to trust a thing having to do with Mr. Kronk because he had control of Caylee`s remains for, obviously, several months.
GEORGE ANTHONY: If I would have known something would have happened to Caylee, we wouldn`t be here today.
I miss you, sweetie.
CASEY ANTHONY, CAYLEE`S MOTHER: I know that. I miss you, too.
GEORGE ANTHONY: I wish I could have been a better dad, a better grandpa, you know?
CASEY ANTHONY: You`ve been a great dad and you`ve been the best grandfather. Don`t for a second think otherwise.
GEORGE ANTHONY: Well, you know...
CASEY ANTHONY: You and Mom have been the best grandparents. Caylee has been so lucky.
GEORGE ANTHONY: OK, well...
CASEY ANTHONY: (INAUDIBLE) so lucky to have both of you. I can`t even put into words how glad I am that she`s had both of you -- and that she still has both of you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Well, she put it into words today in court, claiming as her defense that she sees George Anthony, her father, a former police detective, standing there with Caylee`s body, dead from being in the pool, and that George Anthony takes it upon himself to go hide Caylee`s body, letting it decompose in an old pet cemetery in a wooded area 15 houses from the Anthony home. I say no way!
And not only that, the state claims, do they not -- to Natisha Lance, you were in court, you heard it just like me -- that the duct tape placed on Caylee`s mouth and nose is the murder weapon, that it was placed on her pre-mortem, in life. It wasn`t staged to look like a murder. That completely defeats the accident in the pool theory.
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: You`re absolutely right, Nancy. That is what the prosecution was saying today, that these three pieces of duct tape were placed on Caylee`s mouth pre-mortem. And they were placed on -- they know this to be the case because the jawbone was still in place, and also, the duct tape was in Caylee`s hair, which meant that it was put there on purpose and that this was -- that the duct tape could have been used as a murder weapon.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, former prosecutor, legal analyst, WFTV, in court today, Bill Sheaffer, Raymond Giudice, renowned defense attorney, Atlanta, Rebecca Nitkin (ph), defense attorney, Washington.
All right, Ray Giudice, weigh in.
RAYMOND GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, look, Nancy, up against a powerful state`s case with all this scientific evidence, Baez had to swing for the fences. The big problem is...
GRACE: To lie?
GIUDICE: ... how does he deliver? How does he deliver without putting Casey on the stand? There`s almost no way to verify, especially these sexual abuse allegations.
GRACE: Please don`t start with, What do they have to do to prove this big, fat lie? Bill Sheaffer, I don`t think this compares to a home run by, say, number 7, the Mick, or you know, Hank Aaron. No, no, no. This is not a home run. This is a lie. And I think they might have had a chance with the jury if they had claimed accident, that she died in the pool and they staged it to look -- tot mom staged it to look like a murder. But to drag George Anthony into it? No, that`s not going to fly, Sheaffer.
BILL SHEAFFER, LEGAL ANALYST, WFTV: You`re absolutely right, it`s not going to fly. It was an audacious opening. I don`t care how much lipstick a defense lawyer tries to put on this pig, it`s still a pig. And what has happened now is Jose Baez is behind the credibility scorecard. Once you lose that credibility as a defense attorney, you can`t make it up. This is not like a basketball game, where you can get behind in the credibility count and throw a 3-pointer at the end of the game and win. It`s over.
GRACE: And in addition to Mark Lippman, the Anthony family attorney, with us, Rebecca Nitkin, Washington, D.C. Rebecca, another question. If Caylee was already dead from the pool, as Jose Baez and tot mom claim, why put masking tape over her mouth and nose? Why kill her twice? That doesn`t even make sense, Rebecca.
REBECCA NITKIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, they can`t prove how she died, and I think that`s why the defense was able to come up with the argument that they did. They stepped backwards, and they had to get around all of the lies. So they worked their way backwards, and that`s how they came up with the sex abuse defense.
GRACE: You know, Mark Lippman, she`s right. We don`t have a cause of death. But the state can prove that Caylee was alive at the time that duct tape was placed on her mouth and nose. If she had died in the pool, why the duct tape, Mark Lippman?
LIPPMAN: They are trying to go for anything they can go with as far as creating some sort of reasonable doubt. And if they can do with it the pool, they can do it with the duct tape, whatever it takes for the jury, that`s what they`re going for.
GRACE: And they`ll drag George Anthony down into hell with them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We are live here outside the Orlando courthouse, where tot mom`s defense drops a bombshell today, claiming not only did her father molest her, alluding her brother also was in on the act molesting her, but that he`s the one that disposed of little Caylee`s body, George Anthony.
Jean Casarez, you were in court. What were George and Cindy`s reaction to this?
CASAREZ: You know, they were stoic in court when the reaction -- when the questioning, the opening statements. But the judge had told them, If we see any facial expressions or emit any emotions, you`re going to be ejected from court because the defense didn`t want them in trial at all. But the judge said, Yes, you can stay in the trial, you can stay in court, but you cannot show any type of emotion.
GRACE: What else did you observe, Jean?
CASAREZ: You know, the computer searches, Nancy, on the family computer in the home, how to make chloroform -- chloroform, how to make household weapons, and a shovel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAEZ: You will be the first people to know exactly what happened to Caylee Marie Anthony.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ll take this as far as I need to to prove my innocence which, I guess, is my point in all of this.
BAEZ: Caylee Anthony died on June 16, 2008, when she drowned in her family`s swimming pool.
She forced herself to live in a world that she wanted to. This is Casey, seven months pregnant. Oh, no, she`s just retaining water. This is bizarre. This is the life of Casey Anthony.
GEORGE ANTHONY, CAYLEE ANTHONY`S GRANDFATHER: Extremely excited to be grandfather.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George did not ever tell River Cruz that he knew what happened and that this was an accident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bottom line is that George made this statement that the child was dead one month before the body was found.
BAEZ: Nor will we ever say that George Anthony killed Caylee. Or that he had something to do with her death.
This is how this family lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls out to Jeanette in Florida. Hi, Jeanette.
JEANETTE, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hi, Miss Nancy. First, may I say you are an archangel for the voiceless. God bless you.
GRACE: Thank you.
JEANETTE: My question is the way poor George Anthony sit back there in the gallery when all those nasty, horrible things were said about him. Do you see that horrible look -- hurt look on his face? I mean, I don`t understand. What`s going on with it?
GRACE: Let`s go to his attorney, Mark Lippman. Lippman has an excellent reputation in his jurisdiction and beyond. He is the attorney for the Anthony family.
What about it, mark? I mean, you said that they expected this. They felt that they were going to be the scapegoats. But did they really believe tot mom was going to go this far and claim George Anthony sexually molested her? Sending her off to grade school after forcing her to perform oral sex as a child? That`s beyond anything they could have expected. And here they are going to the jail, trying to leave her money the weekend before trial starts?
MARK LIPPMAN, ATTORNEY FOR THE ANTHONY FAMILY: Nancy, this whole theory started, as far as we`re concerned, probably back in February where they started creating this, when the psych evals came out. And from there we`ve known approximately about six weeks ago that the defense was going to go down this road. And that came directly from Jose`s mouth where we found out about six weeks ago how Caylee, according to them, passed.
At this point, even that`s suspect. Don`t know from what Jose was saying today if we can believe anything that comes out of his mouth.
Certainly, everything he said about George was a complete and utter lie, and I am, for one, very proud of my client for being able to sit there as he did and just be able to take what was said about him without showing the reaction that I felt myself on his behalf.
So, I just wanted to make sure he understood that he did what he needed to do today and what was said by the defense was just unfathomable.
GRACE: But, Mark, my question is I know that they knew this was coming, but they still are standing by tot mom, even though she`s making these horrific claims against them.
LIPPMAN: Yes, the dichotomy here of losing your daughter and losing your granddaughter. And no matter what, a parent is parent. And they will -- they want the defense to do their job to the best of their ability just as they want the state to do their job. Ultimately, what they`re looking for is the truth and if -- whatever way it goes is the way they`re going to follow it.
GRACE: Out to the lawyers, Bill Sheaffer, Raymond Giudice, Rebecca Nitkin. To Raymond Giudice, you know, when we realized last night for sure that the defense was going to definitely be an accidental drowning and then a cover-up, I assumed that the most logical defense -- that`s what they were going to do would be that tot mom went into the phone, that she came back out, Caylee was dead, she panicked, she didn`t want to tell her parents, so she hid the body and set it up to look like a murder.
But oh, no, no, no. They`ve gone completely off the rails. Because that may have worked with some of the jurors. It sounds a little freaky but believable, but this is unreasonable. This claim is unreasonable, Raymond.
RAYMOND GIUDICE, ATTORNEY: Well, I agree with you. I always thought accident would be a good argument. In fact, I thought they might have even pled to some kind of manslaughter many years ago early in the case. But what they`re doing also, Nancy, is setting up some mitigating evidence, some mitigation argument for the capital part of this case. If she`s convicted and they have laid the seeds in some of those jurors` heads that she might have been molested, that Casey may have been sexually assaulted by George, that may keep her out of the death chair -- the death penalty.
GRACE: You know, another thing they claimed, Jean Casarez, they kept saying, well, this wasn`t investigated fully. This wasn`t investigated correctly. For instance, about who`s the father? Who`s Caylee`s father? You know, they`ve all been alluding that it was either George or Lee Anthony. Well, hello, DNA tests say they were not the father. And why does tot mom need an investigation -- a police investigation to tell her who was Caylee`s father? Why do we need a police investigation for that?
JEAN CASAREZ: Well, I think it was just to further the defense claim of sexual abuse by both George and Lee Anthony, but the defense really went down that road. But, Nancy, I studied the jurors and it`s early on, I know, but, you know, I see a lot of different life experiences and I see life experiences that would go down the road of abuse in family that could allow someone to hang their hat to not want to convict her.
GRACE: To Steve Helling, didn`t they also try to attack the state`s expert, Vass -- Arpad Vass, the highly renowned scientist that did the air sample test in tot mom`s trunk?
STEVE HELLING: Exactly. You know, one thing that they decided to do was to basically go after everybody that they could go after. And when they went after him, they said, you know, he`s kind of an inventor, he could probably make some money off of this. This hasn`t been used in court before. You know, they threw everything that they could. And you know, you can tell that they`re just trying to get one juror -- just one juror to say, well, maybe that`s reasonable.
So, I`m not surprised that he attacked him. I won`t be surprised if they attack anybody to be perfectly honest.
GRACE: Well, hold on. To Dr. Michael Arnall, board certified forensic pathologist, joining us out of Denver. Dr. Arnall, thank you for being with us. Vass is at Oakridge Laboratories. I trained at Oakridge for a period of time in scientific testing. And Oakridge has an incredible reputation. I`ve got Vass`s resume -- his CV in my hand, but you know about him. What do you know, Doctor?
DR. MICHAEL ARNALL, BOARD CERTIFIED FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Vass has been doing this research for 20 years. He`s at a highly respected institution. He`s done a lot of the similar research on this material. I don`t believe they`re going to be able to challenge his credibility.
GRACE: Let`s see here. Instruction at the National Forensic Academy, research scientist, it goes and goes and on, Forensic Anthropology Center, Department of Microbiology. His resume is thick as a notebook. The studies and the research he has done for years and years. How are they poking fun -- they made fun of him like he`s some mad scientist out of "Back to the Future." He`s anything but that. Dr. Arnall, I don`t understand it.
ARNALL: They`re not going to be able to challenge his credibility. It was probably a mistake to even try to do so. He has presented papers on these topics for decades instead of years. And it doesn`t sound as though it was well thought out to attack his credibility in particular.
GRACE: I`m going to look at his dissertation for his Ph.D. "Time Since Death Determination of Human Cadavers". At the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, he did Antarctic exploration. It just -- it is really beyond reproach. I don`t think they`re going to get anywhere with that, Ellie Jostad. What more do you know about him?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: The facility that he is part of is more commonly known -- the proper name is The Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee, but most people know it as the body farm. And what they do there is they study how human bodies decompose. That is their specialty. That`s his area of research and that`s what he`s going to testify to for the state.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAEZ: Casey was raised to lie. This child at eight years old learned to lie immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASEY ANTHONY, CAYLEE ANTHONY`S MOTHER: Oh, man, I don`t want to start crying.
LINDA DRANE BURDICK, PROSECUTION ATTORNEY: An overwhelming smell.
CINDY ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY`S MOTHER: It smells like there`s been a dead body in the damn car.
G. ANTHONY: And there was an overpowering smell.
BAEZ: Mr. Kronk is the person who found Caylee`s remains.
ROY KRONK: A human skull dropped out with hair around it and duct tape across the mouth.
BAEZ: Fifteen thousand dollars and an exclusive interview. You will not be able to trust a thing having to do with Mr. Kronk.
G. ANTHONY: This might be a tough thing to answer.
CASEY ANTHONY: No, go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever sexually molested your daughter Casey Anthony?
G. ANTHONY: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE:: We are what we are because of who brought us into this world. You can never bring Caylee back, Casey, but you can help end this nightmare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Cherokee in Georgia. Hi, Cherokee, what`s your question?
CHEROKEE, CALLER IN GEORGE: Hi. I just want to know if she was molested at the age of eight, why did she leave her child with her dad and her parents if she was molested.
GRACE: You know what? That -- that is one heck of a point. To Dr. Leslie Olson, psychotherapist, Cherokee is dead on. If he molested her, why would she leave Caylee alone with him?
LESLIE OLSON, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: It`s a great point. I don`t think he did molester her, and the videotape that you showed when she was in jail, when she had no motivation to lie, saying he was a great parent, great grandparent contradicts this defense. And if you notice the clip you showed earlier when he`s shaking his head no that he didn`t molest her and you showed her shaking her head, it matches exactly. I think she`s subconsciously saying no, he didn`t molest her. She`s agreeing with him despite her defense. He did not molest her, I`ll bet my money on it.
GRACE: You know, Leslie, according to my sources, they firmly believe or believed that tot mom was innocent. Could they still believe that in some way -- could they believe that even after what they heard today?
OLSON: You know, facing the loss of their daughter in addition to their granddaughter, I think they would like to hope that she`ll get off whether they think she did it or not. They`re in a terrible spot and there`s no win for them no matter what happens.
So, it`s still their daughter even though she`s rebelling them. If they push this case and go into attacking him and distracting the jury too far, they will lose her and she will lose any backing she has from them by the time the trial is over. They`ll have no choice. It`s too devastating.
GRACE: To Susan Constantine, body language expert, you have been observing everyone in court. What are your observations, Susan?
SUSAN CONSTANTINE, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT: Well, one of the things that I wanted to bring up was when George was on the stand and he was put into the hot seat, it really was more of an investigation about his relationship with Casey. And you notice that he had a lot of flooding of emotions that were going through him. He paused, he hesitated, you know, he seemed as if he was just -- the disbelief and the shock of this betrayal was overwhelming to him.
But what I want to bring a point to is that those non-verbal gestures can be caused from what we call an Othello error. And that is when someone is in a place or in a hot seat and they have the fear of being disbelieved, you`re going to see almost suspicious behavior when he`s absolutely truthful.
GRACE: I didn`t notice any suspicious behavior on his part. Did you observe something that you thought was unusual?
CONSTANTINE: Well, people will say that when somebody hesitates with their words or they stop and think about what they`re trying to say, that that would become somewhat deceptive. And what I`m sharing with you is that I`m trying to answer a question here because I`ve had people ask me this question, why did he do that? He appeared as if he wasn`t being somewhat truthful. And what I`m sharing is that can be caused from the Othello error -- the fear of being disbelieved.
GRACE: You know what, the way I took it was he was so hurt by these allegations and he and Cindy Anthony have been warned over and over and over. Remember, the defense -- tot mom wanted to take them out of the courtroom. She didn`t want her own parents in court with her. And the judge said, oh, yes, they can sit in court. They are the victims in this case. It was their granddaughter that was murdered. So they get to sit in court. But he warned them, don`t have an outburst, don`t cry, don`t make faces, don`t react or I`ll throw you out of court.
So, that`s the fix that they`re in. So, here`s George Anthony in front of God and everybody being accused of molesting his daughter and leaving his granddaughter -- which by all accounts was the love of his life -- leaving her body out to rot in a pet cemetery, in the woods. I just -- I think that he overwhelmed.
To Jean Casarez, you mentioned a shovel, household weapons, chloroform as those computer searches. You know, I went back over all of my notes of opening statements, I never heard the defense explain any of that.
CASAREZ: No. And you know, Nancy, I forgot one or you forgot one -- neck breaking was also a computer search that was done.
GRACE: Oh, yes. Yes, it`s just kind of like there`s big gaps, Bill Sheaffer, you`re a former prosecutor. There are big gaps in their story, Bill, as Jean is point out these various fine points of the case. But they are interval, they are critical to both the state and the defense. These computer searches -- never heard an explanation. Then, they`re telling a story about what happened when Caylee goes missing and you get to the point where George says, according to them he`ll help with the cover-up, but then they just skip on to the next point. They leave out the critical elements to explain their innocence, Bill.
BILL SHEAFFER, ATTORNEY: They absolutely did and it`s just as important to note what Mr. Baez didn`t address as to what he did. There`s two things that I`ve taken away from today`s testimony. One, I have a newfound respect for George Anthony and, sir, for whatever it`s worth, I respect you. Secondly, I never thought this was a death case. I now believe they have a shot. This is a death case.
GRACE: You know what, Sheaffer, I`ve got to agree with you. When I saw tot mom sitting in the courtroom and I saw her in person for the first time, not on TV, sitting there looking pitiful, all pale and frail with her hair back in a ponytail like a schoolteacher or a cheerleader. I thought, you know what, somebody on this jury is going to fall for this and someone is going to vote for an acquittal or at least a lesser.
But now that she has served up her own father, crucified him, implicated him in the cover-up of Caylee`s death, saying he left his granddaughter out in a field to rot. Sheaffer, I think you`re right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s no denying this. This is a pregnant girl, but yet the entire family wanted to keep it quiet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever see Caylee again?
G. ANTHONY: I`ve never seen Caylee since June 16th. I haven`t seen her since.
BAEZ: We are not, nor will we ever, say that George Anthony killed Caylee or that he had something to do with her death. It was an accident.
G. ANTHONY: I would have done everything possible, anything possible to save my granddaughter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. We are live here outside the Orlando Courthouse bringing you the very latest today. Day one in the trial on Casey Anthony, tot mom, and what a day it was in the courtroom just behind me. Tot mom`s defense claiming that George Anthony is responsible for the disposal of his beloved granddaughter`s body. Also, that he molested her as did her brother, Lee. But to top it all off, she also claims that meter reader, Roy Kronk, had Caylee`s body and hid it for months on end. What did she claim, Jean Cazarez, that he hid the body? Where? In his garage?
CAZAREZ: Didn`t say where. Don`t know where he found the remains, but he kept them for several months and his estranged son is going to testify that the father bragged that he had found the remains, he was going to go on TV, and he`s become famous.
GRACE: OK. There you have it. The defense gone off the rails. Let`s stop and remember Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class, Jaime Jaenke, 29, Bay City, Wisconsin, killed Iraq, awarded Purple Heart, Navy Marine Corps Commendation, accomplished horseman, started a stable with her mother to train and ride horses. Dreamed of becoming an emergency room nurse. Leaves behind parents, Susan and Larry; brothers, Garrett, Ryan and Justin; daughter, Kayla. Jaime Jaenke, American hero.
Thanks to our guests, but our biggest thank you is to you for being with us.
Tomorrow night, we will be live here at the Orlando Courthouse, in court all day long to bring you the latest in justice for Caylee.
See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern and until then, good night, friend.
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