Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [157]
Pushing the “end of the hall” idea one step further, I brought up the creation of Casey’s final lie, Casey 4.0, the drowning story that became her version of the truth at trial. I explained how this story was yet another example of Casey reaching the end of the hall. Once the body had been connected to the house through the duct tape and laundry bag, suddenly the stranger abduction story became implausible. She had to take the lie somewhere else, and that somewhere was George Anthony.
One thing that was important to emphasize was the total absence of logic in Casey’s version of the truth. Part of what I wanted to show was that even if you bought the idea that Caylee’s death was an accident, there really was no way to justify Casey’s behavior after the fact. Simply put, her behavior did not reflect how a mother would react to the “accidental” death of her child—unless, of course, you believed in the logic of Casey’s world. In Casey’s world, you didn’t call 911 when your child drowns. In Casey’s world, you didn’t frantically bring your child to the hospital to try and revive her. In Casey’s world, you didn’t grieve for weeks and months on end. Instead, in Casey’s world you stuffed your little girl in a laundry bag, threw her in a swamp, and went out partying with your new boyfriend.
Turning to something that I knew Baez would feature in his closing, I brought up George Anthony. I explained all the reasons why I knew George was not involved with Caylee’s death, saying his love for her was undeniable, his passive acceptance of her death unthinkable, and his disposal of her body in a swamp unimaginable. I mentioned the suicide letter, the depth of the despair that finding Caylee’s body had pushed him to. George Anthony may have struggled with his own demons, but harming Caylee was not a solution.
From George I moved on to the forensics, reminding jurors of Dr. Vass, the odors he uncovered, and the chemical compounds found in the trunk, which were only present during human decomposition. I talked about Caylee’s hair, which was found with the “death band” on it, a hair that could only have belonged to Caylee with a characteristic that had only been found to occur in dead bodies. But the piece of forensics that I really wanted jurors to focus on, the piece that I myself could never get past or understand, was the duct tape. I reminded jurors, in case they had some lingering thought that maybe the whole thing had been an accident spun out of control, that the duct tape proved the accident theory wrong. That was why the defense had gone to such great lengths to implicate either Roy Kronk or George Anthony with the duct tape; because it was the duct tape that showed an intent to kill. Almost certainly, it was responsible for her death. It was the duct tape that made little Caylee’s death murder in the first degree.
Finally, as I wrapped up my speech, I stood in front of the court, and provided the judge, jurors, and spectators with the prosecution’s version of events. I told them how we thought Caylee’s murder happened, walking them point-by-point through the timeline that Linda, Frank, and I, with the help of Orange County Sheriff’s Office, had spent nearly three years assembling. By the end of close, I’d been speaking for almost two hours, but it felt like only minutes. I would have stood there for another twenty-four hours if I thought it would help to prove our point. To me, the answer couldn’t have been simpler: Casey wanted to live the “beautiful life,” and the only problem was the beautiful life did not include a two-year-old daughter.
NEXT WAS BAEZ’S TURN. WE expected him to argue about everything we had presented, and we were spot-on. Judge Perry had ruled that Baez could not return to his molestation allegations, as he had not proven them at trial. Without that fiction in his quiver, he attacked us heavily on our forensics and George Anthony. He drilled into George’s credibility and minimized Casey’s lies as nothing but part of her fantasy world. At times, his argument was convincing and well-articulated.