Testimony centers on Caylee’s remains

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla.

The defense scrutinized the testimony of a meter reader who it argues moved the remains of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony so he could collect a reward for the discovery and again painted her family as dysfunctional during the murder trial Tuesday of the girl’s mother.

The defense continued to hammer away at forensics evidence at the heart of the prosecution’s case against 25-year-old Casey Anthony, who has pleaded not guilty in her daughter’s death. The prosecution says Caylee’s remains were in the woods for some six months after she was killed when they were recovered in December 2008.

The defense is trying to prove that they could have been there for much less time to try to cast doubt on prosecution experts who said the body had been decomposing for months.

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.

Roy Kronk, the man who reported her remains to the police that December, testified for the defense that the August before, he noticed what he was thought was a skull in the same area where Caylee’s bones were eventually recovered near her grandparents’ home where she sometimes lived. He says he called police three times and they came out to check but didn’t find anything.

Nearly every member of the jury was taking notes while Kronk testified.

The prosecution contends Casey Anthony used duct tape to suffocate her daughter in summer 2008 while the defense said Caylee drowned in her grandparents’ pool and that other members of the family covered up her death. If Casey Anthony is convicted of first-degree murder, she could face the death penalty.

The defense is expected to call a grief expert to begin today’s testimony. Defense attorney Jose Baez also said he has about a half-dozen more witnesses to call before resting, but didn’t say whether that included Casey Anthony.

On Monday, the judge, after reading psychologists’ reports, ruled Anthony was still competent to stand trial and could understand the case against her.

The Anthony family was again under scrutiny during the trial that has lasted more than a month.

They gave differing accounts about an argument over Casey’s mother, Cindy, perhaps sending private investigators to the area where Caylee’s remains were eventually found. Cindy Anthony denied in testimony that she ever did, but her son, Lee Anthony, said he vividly recalled an argument they had shortly before October 2008 in which she told him she had gotten a psychic tip to have the area searched.