UPDATE: Casey Anthony murder case expected to go to jury Monday


Associated Press

ORLANDO

Jury deliberations in the Casey Anthony murder trial are now expected to begin Monday after the prosecution gives its rebuttal arguments in the morning.

Prosecutors portrayed Anthony as a young mother who killed her daughter because she got in the way of her love life.

“Something needed to be sacrificed, that something was either the life she wanted or the life thrust upon her. She chose to sacrifice her child,” prosecutor Jeff Ashton said during his 90-minute argument.

Defense attorney Jose Baez said the prosecutors’ case was so weak they tried to portray Anthony as “a lying, no-good slut” and that their forensic evidence was based on a “fantasy.” He said Caylee’s death was “an accident that snowballed out of control.”

Prosecutors contend Caylee was suffocated with duct tape by her mother, who then crafted elaborate lies to mislead investigators and her parents.

Defense attorneys countered that the toddler accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool, and that Casey in fact was hiding emotional distress caused by alleged sexual abuse from her father. Her father has denied that claim.

Casey Anthony was born in Warren in 1986 to George and Cindy Anthony, who lived in Howland before moving the family to Florida in 1989.

Read complete details of the closing arguments Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.

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