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| Casey Anthony |
Testimony in the Casey Anthony murder trial resumed Saturday with the Orlando mother's former boyfriend on the stand discussing text messages between the two the night after Anthony's daugther was reported missing to police -- nearly a month after her last reported sighting.
In the messages, Anthony told Anthony Lazarro that she had been driving around with police looking for her daughter.
"If they don't find her, guess who gets blamed and spends an eternity in jail?" Anthony texted.
Anthony called herself "the dumbest person and the worst mother."
"The best person in my life is missing and God only knows if I'm ever going to see her again," read another text.
Prosecutors began questioning Lazarro the day after Judge Belvin Perry questioned their attempts to introduce other instant messages that Assistant State's Attorney Frank George said showed Anthony believed her daughter was in the way of their relationship.
"... Only a few more days and you can bring your ass over anytime you want and stay any night you want," read one text message that prosecutors said was sent June 10.
George said the message and others like it would help prove Anthony's motive for killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, whose skeletal remains were found in a wooded field in December 2008.
Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts, including first degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police in the death of her daughter, whose remains were discovered in December 2008.
Prosecutors say Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and then put duct tape over her nose and mouth, suffocating the girl.
Anthony's attorneys argue that she did not kill Caylee, but rather that the girl accidentally drowned in the Anthonys' pool. They say Anthony and her father panicked, and kept the death a secret. George Anthony denied that claim in testimony Thursday.
George said the instant messages showed that Caylee's presence was stifling her lifestyle, which prosecutors have attempted to paint as hard-partying and carefree.
"She couldn't do what she wanted to do," George told Perry in a discussion held without the jury present in the courtroom.
But Perry questioned the logic, asking why Anthony did have not also plot to kill her parents.
After Perry said he did not believe the evidence was relevant and would be excessively prejudicial even if it was, prosecutors withdrew their attempt to have it introduced into evidence, for the time being at least.
Testimony Friday focused largely on Casey Anthony's car, a white Pontiac Sunfire found abandoned in a parking lot and later towed to an impound lot where her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, picked it up two weeks later.
George Anthony and a tow company manager testified that Casey Anthony's car reeked of the unmistakable odor of a decomposing body.
Towing company operations manager Simon Birch said the the car gave off a faint smell when it was closed up, a smell that became stronger when the Anthonys arrived and they opened the door and then the trunk of the car.
"It's a very, very unique and distinctive smell," Birch said, noting that he has had the misfortune of coming into contact with decomposition in cars numerous times.
George Anthony said the odor was so powerful he could not drive it home from the impound lot where it had been towed without rolling down the windows, he said.
"I did worry for my daughter and granddaughter," George Anthony testified. "I didn't want to believe what I was smelling."
George Anthony recalled his mind racing with concern for his daughter, whom he had believed was with the car in Jacksonville, Florida, and his granddaughter, whom he had not seen in nearly a month.
"Please God," he recalled thinking as he prepared to open the trunk, "don't let this be Casey or Caylee."
Anthony said he took the car home and opened the windows and sunroof to let it air out.
It was only when Cindy Anthony called 911 later that day did police learn of the car and the odor -- sparking the investigation that led to the discovery months later of Caylee's remains and the arrest of the toddler's mother.
Defense attorney Jose Baez questioned both George Anthony and Birch why they did not alert police of the smell.
"Looking back, sir, there's a lot of things I wish I would have done," George Anthony said.
In response to a question from Baez implying he was trying to distance himself from evidence in a potential crime, George Anthony said, "I would not have walked away ... from something. That's not in my makeup. ... I believe I'm a pretty good guy."
Earlier in the day, Baez questioned why Birch never called police, even after learning the car had been towed by authorities for forensic analysis.
"I had no idea why it was towed to forensics," Birch said.
William Waters, a friend of Anthony's who testified that he went shopping with her on July 5, testified that she had a friend's car at the time. He said she explained that she did not have her own because it needed an alignment or a tune-up.
Waters also testified that Anthony attended an Independence Day party at his house on July 4, 2008 -- about two weeks after Caylee was last seen -- and that the two also went shopping the next day. She gave no indication that anything was wrong either time and only briefly mentioned her daughter, Waters testified.
Waters' testimony was similar to statements Thursday from numerous witnesses who said Anthony did not mention her daughter's disappearance until her mother, Cindy Anthony, reported the girl's absence to police on July 15.
Defense attorneys explain Anthony's behavior as a result of what they allege was sexual abuse by her father beginning as a child. Anthony was schooled from a young age to "hide her pain," her attorneys argue. In testimony, George Anthony has denied sexually abusing his daughter.
In cross-examination by Baez, those who saw Anthony and her daughter together testified that Caylee was well taken care of and that Anthony, at least to their knowledge, appeared to be a good mother.
In a dramatic moment Friday morning, the fiancee of Casey Anthony's brother broke down when asked to describe Anthony's relationship with her daughter.
The fiancee, Mallory Parker, described the relationship as "amazing."
"Casey and Caylee had a very special bond," Parker, a witness for the prosecution, said with a quivering voice while under cross-examination by Baez.
Anthony appeared to cry as Parker spoke.
In all, Anthony is charged with first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of misleading police. If she is convicted of capital murder, she could be sentenced to death by the seven-woman, five-man jury.
Anthony has pleaded not guilty and denies harming her daughter or having anything to do with her disappearance. Baez has said that once all the facts are known, it will become clear that his client is not guilty.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.
Source : CNN
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