Defense in Anthony case prepares to wrap up

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla.

Casey Anthony’s father broke into tears Wednesday when telling jurors about his suicide attempt some six weeks after his granddaughter’s body was found, undercutting defense claims that the girl was not slain by her mother but accidentally drowned and that he helped cover it up.

Anthony, 25, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Caylee Anthony in summer 2008. The prosecution contends she suffocated the child with duct tape. Her remains were found in the woods near her grandparents’ home in December that year.

A grief expert also testified it is plausible for a young person dealing with a death to exhibit the same behavior Casey Anthony did in the month after prosecutors believe she killed her daughter. Several witnesses have said she spent her time partying and claimed the child was with an imaginary nanny.

Lead defense attorney Jose Baez said the defense should rest its case sometime today, leaving only a short rebuttal by the prosecution. Judge Belvin Perry tentatively said closing arguments could come Saturday and that he would hand the case over to the jury that evening or Sunday.

Still not known is whether Casey Anthony will take the stand.

George Anthony wrote in a January 2009 suicide note that he had unanswered questions about what happened to his granddaughter and never alluded to knowing what caused her death.

Defense attorneys, who have been trying to paint the Anthony family as dysfunctional, say Caylee drowned in her grandparents’ backyard pool and that George Anthony disposed of the body.

Baez asked George Anthony about his attempt to overdose on pills. When prosecutor Jeff Ashton asked Anthony if he had bought a gun five months before that, Baez objected.

With the jury out of the room, George Anthony said he planned to use the gun to try to get his daughter’s friends to tell him what happened to Caylee.

He said he chose to kill himself because “I needed at that time to go be with Caylee because I knew I failed her.”

Ashton argued that the statements were valid for the jury to hear because they rebutted the drowning theory and implied that George Anthony didn’t know what really happened to Caylee. Ashton also said the suicide note did not include any reference to George Anthony molesting Casey Anthony when she was a child, as Baez claimed in his opening statement.

When asked on the stand, Anthony denied ever hurting his daughter sexually.

Judge Belvin Perry agreed the jury could hear about the gun purchase and the suicide note.

When the jury came back, George Anthony started crying as he recounted the emotional month before his suicide attempt, in which he drove to Daytona Beach and tried to overdose on prescription medication. His daughter showed no emotion as he was crying.

He also said he never got the opportunity to confront his daughter’s friends because law enforcement confiscated the gun the day after he bought it in August 2008. Casey was out on bond and staying in his home, and firearms are prohibited in a place where a person on bond is living.

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.