The case against Casey Anthony shed new evidence to the jury in an Orange County courtroom on Thursday, as recorded statements and jail interviews from July, 2008 were exposed to the 12 men and women deciding Casey's fate.
Casey was first arrested on July 16, 2008 for numerous charges, including providing false information to law enforcement officers. The day prior her mother, Cindy Anthony, contacted the Orange County Police Department to report 2-year-old Caylee Anthony missing.
Casey provided law enforcement, including lead detective Yuri Melich, with invalid information and bad addresses when filing the report for her alleged missing daughter.
Casey claims she left Caylee with the nanny of nearly two years, Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, or Zanny. She said the last time she saw her daughter was on June 9, 2008 when she dropped the toddler off at Zanny's residence in Sawgrass apartments, at the end of a staircase leading to the babysitter's home. "She's the last person I've seen my daughter with," Casey said to the witness.
Yuri Melich said Casey directed police to the various residences Zanny has lived over time, but Melich said they were "bad addresses." One location Casey led the officers turned out to be a nursing home and the particular one in Sawgrass was vacant.
She also led them to Universal Studios theme park claiming she worked there and there were witnesses who were employed there, as well. She later admitted to Melich and the assistant manager of loss prevention, Leonard Tutora, that she did not work there, after taking them through a building to an office she didn't really have.
"She looked at me, her hands in her back pocket and said, 'I don't work here,' " said Tutora in his testimony on Wednesday. Melich then asked Tutora for a room where he could talk to Casey. In that conference, Melich recorded his conversation with Casey and two other deputies, all trying to convince Casey to speak the truth or the circumstances would worsen.
"Everything you have told me so far has been a lie," Melich said, at the start of the conversation. He stated Casey's so-called testaments were very convincing because her statements and descriptions were extremely detailed, but eventually he realized they were fabricated, including people.
Melich: Pretty much everything you told me is a lie, including where Caylee is right now.
Casey: I still don't know where she is.
Melich: Sure you do.
Law enforcement officers continued to interrogate Casey, but she still was not budging, which ultimately led to her arrest.
Melich said in cross-examination to Defense Attorney Jose Baez: "I didn't understand why the mother of a missing child would to take it to this extent." He also added, "She was adamant that her daughter was with this Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez."
In her police and jail interviews, Casey repetitively said her main focus was finding her missing child and cooperatively provided officers, her parents and her brother with information that could lead to her daughter's whereabouts.
"She's the one thing in this world that I love more than then anything," Casey said, crying, on the recorded police interview at Universal.
In a jail video conversation Casey's brother, Lee Anthony, on July 25, 2008, Casey expresses the same feelings.
"All I want is to see [Caylee] again," Casey said. "To hear her laugh, see her smile ... Nothing else matters at this point."
At the same visitation, Lee asked his sister questions in order to retrieve more information in finding his niece.
"Check things locally," said Casey. "Things that are familiar to us personally."
Casey's parents, Cindy and George Anthony, visited Casey that same day, and she provided them with similar comments. "My gut is telling me that she's okay, she's not far," said Casey, to her parents. "She's not far. I know in my heart she isn't far, I can feel it."
Caylee Marie Anthony's remains were found in the woods near the Anthony home in December, several months following the beginning of the investigation.
The 25-year-old Casey is accused of murdering her daughter, and currently is incarcerated at the Orange County Jail. Her murder trial began May 24, when the defense's opening statement claims Caylee Marie Anthony died accidentally by drowning in the pool.
Court will proceed from recess on Friday at 9 a.m.
(Photography by Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel)
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