Judgment nears for Casey Anthony, as testimony ends

Orlando (CNN) -- The prosecution wrapped up its rebuttal phase in the Casey Anthony murder trial late Friday afternoon, suggesting judgment was near for the Orlando woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter then lying to authorities.

After an off-day Saturday, both sides will return to court Sunday. Court spokeswoman Karen Connolly Levey said that closing arguments will likely be heard later that day, with deliberations set to continue through July 4 and perhaps beyond.

Orange County Superior Court Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. dismissed jurors around 5 p.m. by telling them that -- following six long, often emotional weeks of testimony -- no more evidence would be presented.

The judge then heard a defense motion requesting an acquittal. Attorney Cheney Mason said that the prosecution had not sufficiently presented its case -- including exactly how Caylee Anthony had died and at whose hands -- while the prosecution claimed the case was best left in the jury's hands.

Perry sided with the prosecution, a decision that promised the drama and intrigue would continue for at least several more days.

Earlier Friday, prosecutors worked to zero in on Casey Anthony, trying to prove Friday that she -- not her mother -- was the one who searched for chloroform and neck-breaking on the family's home computer.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against the 25-year-old woman if a jury convicts her of first-degree murder. Anthony is charged with seven counts overall, including aggravated child abuse and misleading police, in Caylee's 2008 death.

Prosecutors believe Anthony used chloroform to render her daughter, Caylee, unconscious before taping her nose and mouth with duct tape and disposing of her body in a wooded field near their home.

She has pleaded not guilty. Her defense team has claimed the girl was not killed but instead accidentally drowned in the family pool on June 16, 2008. They say Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, panicked and covered up the death. George Anthony has denied the claim.

Last week, the defendant's mother, Cindy Anthony, testified that she was at home during some of the times highlighted by prosecutors, searching for answers to what was making her dog sick and landing on pages mentioning chloroform as a result. The mother testified that she feared her dog became sick from eating bambo that contained chlorophyll.

She said she also searched for terms such as alcohol, acetone and hydrogen peroxide because she had been told of a scare concerning hand sanitizers and children, as well as searches on various injuries because a friend had been in a car accident.

She denied searching for some of the terms retrieved from the computer, including one misspelled search for "how to make chloraform." She also denied making the 84 visits to one site related to chloroform reflected in the computer records.

The prosecution called several law enforcement forensic computer experts, to raise questions regarding Cindy Anthony's testimony.

Orange County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Kevin Stenger claimed there did not appear to be any searches for chlorophyll or for bamboo, as Cindy Anthony had claimed, though he did say there was a specific Google search for neck breaking. And Detective Sandra Osborne testified there were no evidence of a chlorophyll-specific search on the computer's hard drive, though there was evidence of searches for things such bamboo furniture.

Defense attorney Jose Baez tried to cast doubt on these searches as encompassing everything that Cindy Anthony claimed she'd searched for during her testimony.

The personal attorney for the suspect's parents, Mark Lippman, added in a statement, "My client remains steadfast in her statement that she researched chlorophyll and as a byproduct of that research also researched chloroform."

The lawyer for Anthony's former employer also took the stand Friday, bringing with him work records that he testified showed that someone using Cindy Anthony's credentials logged in and was actively using a desktop computer at her office on the days when those searches were made. Cindy Anthony had claimed she'd done many of the questioned searches in that period from home.

While work records showed she was at the office during some of the searches, she told Baez that it was common to enter eight hours on her time card even if she worked more or less than a full day and said it was "virtually impossible" for her company to have kept e-mails and other records showing whether she was working.

However, Gentiva Health Services chief counsel John Camperlengo told jurors that as a health-care company, Gentiva keeps many records for lenghty periods of time.

He said he provided such records to prosecutors after a June 24 subpoena. The records included e-mails sent under Cindy Anthony's login during that week, as well as a detailed log of computer activity showing someone using Anthony's login was actively updating patient records.

The testimony came after another delay in the trial, when Perry pushed back the start of court so Baez could interview in advance these investigators.

Baez complained at the outset of Friday's session that prosecutors were trying to introduce new evidence that had not been disclosed in reports, as Perry has ordered -- a rule the judge has scolded Baez for violating multiple times during the trial.

"They can't decide to ambush the defense after the defense has rested with new evidence," Baez told Perry.

But prosecutor Jeff Ashton said nothing the witnesses were expected to testify to should have been surprising to Baez.

In Session's Grace Wong, Beth Karas and Vivian Kuo contributed to this report.

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Defense may rest in Casey Anthony trial

(CNN) -- The alleged mistress of Casey Anthony's father took the stand Thursday in Casey Anthony's capital murder trial, testifying that George Anthony once told her the death of his 2-year-old granddaughter Caylee was "an accident that snowballed out of control."

"I was in shock," Krystal Holloway told jurors. "By the time I looked up, his eyes were filled with tears. I didn't elaborate. I didn't ask anything further."

As she testified, George and Cindy Anthony, Casey Anthony's parents, sat stoically in the gallery.

Holloway said she met the Anthonys at their tent -- headquarters in the search for Caylee -- in July or August 2008. She said her relationship with George Anthony lasted for months, but she was also in a relationship at the time with someone else.

George Anthony has denied having an affair with Holloway. He did testify that he visited her, but said that she had told him and his wife that she had a brain tumor and was dying, and since she had donated her time to help his family find Caylee, he felt comforting her was "the least I could do."

Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police, in Caylee's 2008 death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against her. She has pleaded not guilty.

Anthony's defense team is trying to discredit the prosecution theory that the Orlando woman rendered Caylee unconscious with chloroform, duct-taped her mouth and nose, and stored the child's body in her car trunk for a few days before dumping it in the woods.

The defense says Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and that Anthony and her father panicked and covered it up. George Anthony has denied those claims.

Caylee was last seen June 16, 2008, although she was not reported missing until 31 days later, on July 15. The little girl's skeletal remains were found in December of the same year near the Anthony home, with duct tape still attached to the mouth portion.

Defense attorney Jose Baez introduced into evidence a text message sent by George Anthony to Holloway on December 16, 2008, which said, "Just thinking about you. I need you in my life."

Holloway, who also uses the name River Cruz, testified that after the relationship ended, she had to instruct the guard at her apartment complex not to let George Anthony in anymore.

She said she kept quiet about the relationship for years, and when police first approached her and confronted her with text messages, she denied the relationship at first but later set the record straight.

On cross-examination, she acknowledged to prosecutor Jeff Ashton that she was paid $4,000 for an interview with the National Enquirer about the time she admitted the alleged affair to police. Holloway grew defensive after Ashton asked how the interview related to the change in her story, saying, "I had no choice but to tell the truth."

She said she was being "trashed" in the media and wanted to speak to the Enquirer because she felt other media would selectively edit her story.

She also acknowledged that, in another part of her statement to police, she said that George Anthony told her, "I really believe that it was an accident that just went wrong and (Casey Anthony) tried to cover it up."

Holloway hotly maintained that George Anthony did not actually say that, but Ashton pointed it out in her statement.

"He didn't tell you that he was present when this occurred, did he?" Ashton asked. "No," Holloway said.

"He never told you that he knew it himself, that he knew it to be the case?" the prosecutor questioned her.

"I just told you what he said," she replied.

Ashton asked her to read her statement, and asked her if it wasn't true that George Anthony made it clear he had no firsthand knowledge of what happened to Caylee. She admitted that was true.

Ashton also pointed out that in a letter to Holloway from George Anthony, he writes that he has been trying to send messages to her through her daughter, the security guard and her husband. Holloway said she was not married and did not believe George Anthony thought she was. George Anthony said in the letter how much Holloway's friendship meant to him and his wife, she admitted, and signed the letter with both of their names.

She also acknowledged George Anthony sent the text message five days after Caylee's remains were found.

Holloway is one of the defense's final witnesses as they present their case. The defense may rest as early as Thursday.

After Holloway's testimony, Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. told jurors her testimony may be used to impeach George Anthony's credibility, but told them that her testimony is not proof of how Caylee died and is not evidence of Casey Anthony's guilt or innocence.

George Anthony, who offered some of the trial's most dramatic testimony on Wednesday, was recalled to the stand along with his wife and son Thursday to answer questions about the manner in which various pets of the family were buried over the years.

Some of them, they testified, were buried with blankets in a black plastic bag and secured with tape. Cindy Anthony noted that some of the pets were secured that way by the veterinarian after they died. She said she didn't think it was duct tape, but Lee Anthony recalled using duct tape to secure a plastic bag on one occasion.

"I take it that you did not euthanize your own pets with chloroform?" prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick asked Cindy Anthony. She also asked whether duct tape was put on the animals' faces and Cindy Anthony said no.

"Have you ever taken a dead pet and thrown it in a swamp?" Ashton asked George Anthony, who said no.

Private investigator Dominic Casey was also recalled to the stand to answer brief questions about where he searched for Caylee in the same area where her remains later were found in November 2008.

On Wednesday, George Anthony bristled at Baez's questions and at one point broke down and sobbed on the stand as he was questioned about his granddaughter and his suicide attempt that followed the discovery of her remains.

On January 22, 2009, the date of his attempt at suicide by drinking and taking pills, "It just felt like the right time to go and be with Caylee," George Anthony told prosecutor Jeff Ashton, his voice breaking. "... I just decided it was time for me to get away from all this, to spend time with Caylee."

Under Baez's questioning, George Anthony agreed that he told police in a July 24, 2008 statement that his daughter's trunk smelled like human decomposition -- a smell he was familiar with from his own law enforcement experience in Ohio. He testified Wednesday he was 100% sure he had recognized that smell.

"I could smell it 3 feet away on the passenger side," he told Baez about the odor from his daughter's car. "When I opened up that door, it smelled like decomposition. Human decomposition ... not the garbage that was in it."

The defense has suggested a bag of garbage left in Casey Anthony's trunk for weeks during a hot Florida summer may have been the source of the odor, although a cadaver dog alerted to it and several witnesses have identified it as the odor of human decomposition.

Numerous prosecution witnesses, including Casey Anthony's former boyfriend, acquaintances and friends, testified that during the month her daughter was missing, she was attending parties, nightclubs and shopping, but never mentioned her missing daughter, and they noticed nothing different in her demeanor.

Baez said in his opening statement that Casey Anthony behaved as she did because years of sexual abuse by her father had conditioned her to conceal the truth and hide her pain.

George Anthony has denied abusing his daughter, and did so again Wednesday. "I would never do anything like that to my daughter," he said. "... I would never do anything to harm my daughter in that way."

Later in the day, Casey Anthony wiped away tears as a grief expert testified that the reactions to grief vary widely, and that sometimes young mothers who lose their children engage in "risky behavior."

Young people, in particular, are "reluctant grievers," Sally Karioth said. Their risky behavior in response to grief could include visiting bars or getting a tattoo, as Casey Anthony did. "They might say nothing has happened," she said.

Denial is one type of coping mechanism, she said, and people can develop "magical thinking" and convince themselves of something else.

Karioth, who never interviewed Casey Anthony, testified over prosecutors' objections. Under questioning by Ashton, she acknowledged, "I have to say anything could happen when someone has a great grief."

Asked by Ashton if it would be unusual for a mother to tell no one her child has died and tell different stories about the child's whereabouts for a month -- including telling her parents that she is in another city with the child -- Karioth said, "I would agree that's a young woman in crisis who is unable to figure out how to make things better." Casey Anthony nodded.

Baez also asked George Anthony about his suicide attempt, suggesting that he had left a note that "expressed some guilt." Ashton objected, saying the document itself should be entered into evidence, but instead Baez withdrew the question.

As her father testified, Casey Anthony scribbled notes and occasionally shook her head angrily or whispered to her attorneys. No expression was visible on her face as she watched her father cry on the witness stand.

After lunch, Baez asked George Anthony whether the suicide attempt came because "the pressure was getting to you ... you knew you were being investigated." George Anthony answered that a lot of people were investigated in connection with the case, not just him, and maintained it was a "tumultuous time in my life," along with that of his wife, son and others.

This is the sixth week of testimony in the trial. Opening statements began on May 24. Perry originally told jurors, who are being housed in an Orlando hotel shielded from media coverage of the trial, that it could last six to eight weeks.

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Casey Anthony murder trial resumes after abrupt delay

(CNN) -- Casey Anthony, charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter in 2008, underwent examinations by three psychologists over the weekend after her defense team filed a motion to determine her competency to proceed, the judge in her trial said Monday.

All three psychologists found Anthony competent, Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry said out of the jury's presence. Their reports will be sealed, he said.

It was implied -- but not expressly stated -- that the motion was the reason for the abrupt recess Perry called on Saturday. The resumption of the trial Monday was delayed for more than half an hour as attorneys huddled in Perry's chambers.

Anthony's defense team is trying to discredit the prosecution theory that the Orlando woman rendered her daughter Caylee unconscious with chloroform, duct-taped her mouth and nose, and stored the body in her car trunk for a few days before dumping it in the woods. Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against her.

The defense says Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and that Anthony and her father, George, panicked and covered it up. George Anthony has denied that theory.

On Monday, jurors heard testimony from Orange County Sheriff's Office Detective Yuri Melich, the lead investigator in the case. Defense attorney Jose Baez questioned Melich in an effort to cast doubt on the thoroughness of the investigation.

Under questioning, Melich acknowledged that he did not subpoena George Anthony's cell tower records, showing where he was when calls were made or received. Asked whether that might have helped investigators, Melich said it would have, "if I had had a reason to believe it would play a part in this case, which at the time I did not."

He said he also did not seize a computer belonging to Roy Kronk, the meter reader who discovered Caylee's remains in a wooded area near the Anthony home on December 11, 2008. Melich testified he had no reason to do so.

Melich also said that cadaver dogs were not deployed on George and Cindy Anthony's cars, only on Casey Anthony's. On cross-examination, prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick asked Melich whether anyone ever reported that either of those cars smelled like a dead body. He said no.

Saturday had been planned as an extended weekend work day in the trial. But Perry ordered a recess over the sudden emergence of what one analyst said must be a major issue.

"Obviously it's big, and obviously it's troublesome and obviously it's something that can't be disclosed," HLN legal analyst Linda Kenney Baden said.

Perry emerged from his chambers Saturday morning after nearly an hour of discussions with lawyers both in and out of the courtroom to announce the day's planned testimony would be canceled.

He said only that the delay was due to a legal issue unrelated to complaints prosecutors raised Saturday morning about expected testimony from Kenneth Furton, a chemistry expert the defense had planned to call.

Defense attorney J. Cheney Mason said media speculation on a potential mistrial or plea deal was false.

In what has become a familiar strain during the trial, prosecutor Jeff Ashton complained to Perry on Saturday that defense attorneys didn't disclose Furton's plans to testify about things that weren't contained in his initial report provided to prosecutors or mentioned in his formal interview with them.

Perry has previously admonished Baez for failing to disclose planned testimony to prosecutors, going so far as to say he will consider contempt proceedings against Baez once the trial is over.

Furton was to testify about explanations for vile odors and the presence of chloroform in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car, where prosecutors claim she stored the body of her daughter before dumping the remains in a wooded field.

Chloroform can be given off in small amounts by a decomposing body. One prosecution expert described the levels of the substance in the trunk of Anthony's white Pontiac Sunfire as "shockingly high." Several witnesses also testified for the state about odors that they said smelled like the unmistakable scent of human decomposition.

Furton did not provide specific alternative explanations for the presence of odors or chloroform in his initial report or in his interview with prosecutors, Ashton complained.

"Once again we are in the position of experts having supplemented their opinions without notifying the state," Ashton said.

Attorneys indicated to Perry they had reached an agreement on Furton, but did not say whether the agreement involved his testifying.

Perry hinted at his frustration Saturday.

"You would think this would have grown old by now, but I guess some things never change," he said.

Saturday marked the end of the fifth week of testimony in the trial, which began with opening statements on May 24.

Perry originally told jurors, who are being housed in an Orlando hotel shielded from media coverage of the trial, that the trial could last six to eight weeks.

On Friday -- before Saturday's delay -- Baez said he expected the defense to rest on Wednesday or possibly Thursday. That would leave room for a rebuttal case from the prosecution and closing statements before the Independence Day holiday.

It is unclear how Saturday's delay will affect those plans.

Caylee was not reported missing to police until July 15, 2008, when Casey Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, tracked down her daughter and demanded answers regarding Caylee's whereabouts. Prosecution witnesses described Anthony's behavior in the month after Caylee was last seen as nonchalant, testifying that she spent time with her boyfriend, went shopping and to nightclubs -- but told no one her daughter was missing.

Baez said in his opening statement that Anthony behaved as she did because years of sexual abuse by her father had conditioned her to conceal the truth and hide her pain.

George Anthony has denied the claims that he abused his daughter or helped conceal his granddaughter's death.

In Session's Michael Christian and Jean Casarez contributed to this report.

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Anthony trial delayed over legal issue

Orlando (CNN) -- What had been planned as an extended weekend work day in the Casey Anthony murder trial abruptly ended Saturday morning as the judge overseeing the case ordered a recess over the sudden emergence of what one analyst said must be a major issue.

"Obviously it's big, and obviously it's troublesome and obviously it's something that can't be disclosed," HLN legal analyst Linda Kenney Baden said.

Judge Belvin Perry emerged from his chambers Saturday morning after nearly an hour of discussions with attorneys both in and out of the courtroom to announce the day's planned testimony would be canceled.

He said only that the delay was due to a legal issue unrelated to complaints prosecutors raised first thing Saturday morning about expected testimony from Kenneth Furton, a chemistry expert the defense had planned to call Saturday.

Anthony's lawyers are trying to discredit the prosecution theory that the Orlando woman rendered her 2-year-old daughter Caylee unconscious with chloroform, duct-taped her mouth and nose and stored the body in her trunk for a few days before dumping it in the woods. Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts, including first-degree murder.

The defense says Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and that Anthony and her father panicked and covered it up.

In what has become a familiar strain during the trial, prosecutor Jeff Ashton complained to Perry that defense attorneys didn't disclose Furton's plans to testify about things that weren't contained in his initial report provided to prosecutors or mentioned in his formal interview with them.

Perry has previously admonished Baez for failing to disclose planned testimony to prosecutors, going so far as to say he will consider contempt proceedings against him once the trial is over.

Furton was to testify about explanations for vile odors and the presence of chloroform in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car, where prosecutors claim Anthony stored the body of 2-year-old Casey Anthony before dumping the remains in a wooded field.

Chloroform can be given off by a decomposing body, and one prosecution expert described the levels of the substance in the trunk of Anthony's white Pontiac Sunfire as "shockingly high." Several witnesses also testified for the state about odors that they said smelled like the unmistakable scent of human decomposition.

Furton did not provide specific alternative explanations for the presence of odors or chloroform in his initial report or in his interview with prosecutors, Ashton complained.

"Once again we are in the position of experts having supplemented their opinions without notifying the state," Ashton said.

Defense attorney Jose Baez disagreed, saying nothing in Furton's planned testimony differed from his previous opinions.

"Mr. Ashton can continue to make these allegations and make these allegations and then suddenly they become true in his world," Baez said. "But I do not believe they are true."

Perry indicated that he would not allow Furton to testify on Saturday, but didn't rule on the controversy before ordering the trial to recess until 8:30 a.m. Monday morning. But he did hint at his frustration.

"You would think this would have grown old by now but I guess some things never change," he said.

Saturday marked the end of the fifth week of testimony in the trial, which began with opening statements on May 24.

Perry lengthened Saturday's work day from the usual half-day in an effort to speed the trial's conclusion. He originally told jurors, who are being housed in an Orlando hotel shielded from media coverage of the trial, that the trial could last six to eight weeks.

On Friday -- before Saturday's delay -- Baez said he expected the defense to rest on Wednesday or possibly Thursday. That would leave room for a rebuttal case from the prosecution and closing statements before the Independence Day holiday.

It is unclear how Saturday's delay will affect those plans.

Anthony could face the death penalty if convicted of the most serious charge, first degree murder. The charges against her also include misleading authorities and aggravated child abuse.

Caylee was not reported missing to police until July 15, 2008, when Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, tracked down her daughter and demanded answers regarding Caylee's whereabouts. Prosecution witnesses described Anthony's behavior in the month after Caylee was last seen as nonchalant, testifying how she spent time with her boyfriend, went shopping and to nightclubs.

Baez said in his opening statement that Anthony behaved as she did because years of sexual abuse by her father and had conditioned her to conceal the truth and hide her pain.

George Anthony has denied the claims that he abused his daughter or helped conceal his granddaughter's death.

CNN's Michael Christian contributed to this report.

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Anthony case judge scolds attorneys

Orlando (CNN) -- The judge in the Casey Anthony murder trial abruptly canceled Monday's session after initially delaying court to allow defense attorneys more time to pick up a witness.

Anthony's defense team had to scramble to get a witness to court after Judge Belvin Perry ruled that neither of the two witnesses they had on hand would be allowed to testify Monday.

It wasn't immediately clear why Perry canceled the session. Earlier in the morning, while scolding attorneys for what he called continued "gamesmanship," he complained of the trial's slow place.

"By joint stipulation, court is in recess until 9 tomorrow morning," Perry said without explanation in a brief announcement from the bench.

Some spectators who managed to get tickets to attend the trial -- a hot ticket in Orlando -- grumbled quietly as they left the courtroom.

"I guess it's just the luck of the draw," one spectator said on the way out.

Perry is presiding over the trial of Anthony, the 25-year-old Orlando woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008.

Testimony had been scheduled to resume at 9 a.m., but shortly after Perry entered the courtroom, prosecutor Jeff Ashton asked the judge again to delay the testimony of a defense witness who had been ordered off the stand Saturday.

Forensic anthropologist William Rodriguez had planned to testify Saturday about duct tape found near Caylee's skeletal remains and a controversial video that prosecutors say proves that a piece of duct tape could have been the murder weapon.

But Rodriguez's opinions were not contained in his report filed with the court and weren't shared with prosecutors, a violation of a court order, the judge said.

Perry called the omission "quite intentional" and said he would consider contempt proceedings against defense attorney Jose Baez at the conclusion of the trial.

He renewed the threat Monday after Baez complained to Perry that Ashton deliberately refused to take a deposition from a witness, DNA expert Richard Eikelenboom, on Saturday.

Ashton told the judge that Baez had sent Eikelenboom to his office with a half-page report that "indicated nothing, essentially," leaving him with little for questioning.

Perry warned any further deliberate violations of his orders to reveal evidence and opinions to opposing attorneys could result in the exclusion of that evidence from the trial.

That is an extreme step that has not yet been upheld in Florida courts, but Perry said he would be willing to take the action "at the cost of doing this all over again" should the violations continue.

Perry granted Ashton's request to delay Rodriguez's testimony. Eikelenboom -- the defense's second planned witness of the day -- could not testify because prosecutors have not interviewed him, leaving defense attorneys scrambling to pick up their third witness.

A clearly displeased Perry postponed the first testimony of the day until about 10:30 a.m. But when attorneys came back to court, Perry summoned them into his chambers for meetings, before emerging at about 11 a.m. to announce the daylong recess.

Anthony is charged with seven counts, including first degree murder, in her daughter's death. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

Prosecutors allege Anthony used chloroform to make her daughter unconscious, then used duct tape to cover her nose and mouth, suffocating her. The girl's skeletal remains were found in a wooded field six months after her family last reported seeing her.

Defense attorneys say Caylee was not murdered, but that she accidentally drowned in the family pool on June 16, the day she was last seen. They argue that Anthony and her father, George Anthony, panicked and covered up the death.

George Anthony has rejected that scenario in his testimony.

Perry ordered attorneys to be in court at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, instead of the customary 9, and told them to plan for a full workday on Saturday instead of usual half-day. He also threatened to cut the time for lunch.

"If y'all don't want to act professional, I will work you real full days," Perry said.

The trial entered its fifth week Monday.

In Session's Mayra Cuevas, Ilana Rosenbluth and Michael Christian contributed to this report.

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Judge denies Casey Anthony acquittal motion

(CNN) -- A convicted felon who served prison time for kidnapping was added to the list of defense witnesses in Casey Anthony's capital murder trial, court records show.

According to an amended witness list filed Tuesday, defense attorneys claim cell phone records show four calls between Vasco Thompson, 52, and Casey Anthony's father, George Anthony, on July 14, 2008 -- one day before Casey Anthony's 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, was reported missing to authorities.

According to Florida Department of Corrections records, Thompson was sentenced in 1998 to serve eight years in prison for kidnapping.

He was released in 1989, but was incarcerated again from 1992 until 1993, and then again from 1998 to 2004, according to the department's website.

It was unclear how Thompson might fit into the defense's strategy in the Anthony case.

Prosecutors allege that Anthony, 25, killed Caylee in 2008 by using chloroform on her and putting duct tape over her nose and mouth. They allege she then put the little girl's body in black garbage bags and stored it in her trunk before dumping it in woods near her home.

Caylee's skeletal remains were found in December 11, 2008. She was last seen June 16, 2008, but her disappearance was not reported until July 15, after Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, demanded answers from her daughter about Caylee's whereabouts.

Anthony faces seven counts in Caylee's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading investigators. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

She has pleaded not guilty. Her attorneys have said Caylee was not killed, but rather drowned in the family pool on June 16.

Defense attorney Jose Baez told jurors that Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, panicked when they discovered the body and covered up her death. George Anthony rejected that scenario in his testimony the first week of the trial.

Prosecutors rested their case earlier Wednesday, and Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. rejected a defense request for a judgment of acquittal, saying the jury must decide what to make of the evidence.

Casey Anthony's defense attorneys will begin presenting their case Thursday. The trial, held in Orlando, is in its fourth week.

In arguing for acquittal, defense attorney J. Cheney Mason told Perry the state had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and noted that evidence against Anthony is purely circumstantial.

"There is no evidence to establish when the child died, other than a monthly window of opportunity, where she died, how she died, who, if anyone, was with her in attendance when she died," Mason told Perry.

And prosecutors have not disproved that Caylee's death could have been accidental and was covered up, he said. "What has been presented to you and this jury is the mere presence of duct tape on or near the remains."

All the state has been able to prove, he said, is that Anthony had a "history of untruthfulness" with friends and family.

"There has been, in this case, no evidence of premeditation," he said. "... There is a stacking of inferences, a stacking of speculation, but no evidence."

But, prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick told Perry, "It is our position that a reasonable jury in this case can conclude that Caylee Marie Anthony died as the result of an application of three pieces of duct tape to her nose and mouth; that a reasonable jury can conclude that Caylee Marie Anthony died as a result of poisoning by chloroform; that a reasonable jury can conclude that Caylee Marie Anthony died as a result of the combination of the two, based on the evidence that was discovered in the trunk and the evidence connected with how her remains were discovered."

She went on, "It is our position that a reasonable jury can conclude that the relationship between the parties in this case (Casey Anthony and Cindy Anthony) could provide, or did provide, a motive for Casey Anthony to eliminate the child. It is our position that a reasonable jury can conclude that Ms. Anthony began preparations for the elimination of the child as early as March of 2008, when she conducted computer searches for how to make chloroform and other means of weapons and how to create injury."

In the past 3 1/2 weeks, jurors have heard testimony that was sometimes dramatic and other times complicated and scientific. They have seen grisly crime-scene photos of skeletal remains and received crash courses in computer forensics, forensic entomology and DNA testing.

Some of the most powerful testimony came from Anthony's former boyfriends, friends and acquaintances, all of whom saw her between June 16 and July 15, 2008.

During that time, according to testimony, Anthony was living at her boyfriend Tony Lazzaro's apartment, attending parties, hitting nightclubs, getting a tattoo that says "Bella Vita" -- Italian for "beautiful life" -- and shopping.

Numerous witnesses testified that they noticed nothing different in her demeanor, that she did not appear anxious or sad and that she did not mention Caylee except to provide different accounts of where she was -- most commonly, with her nanny, identified by Anthony as Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez.

Once an increasingly frantic Cindy Anthony tracked her daughter down and demanded answers as to Caylee's whereabouts, Casey Anthony told her family, as well as police, that Gonzalez had kidnapped Caylee and that she had spent the previous month frantically searching for her daughter.

The apartment Anthony led police to, claiming it was where Gonzalez lived, was vacant at the time. Police were never able to find the nanny. They did find a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, who denied ever meeting Caylee or Casey Anthony and later sued for defamation.

"No one else benefited from the death of Caylee Marie Anthony," Burdick told jurors in her opening statements. "Caylee's death allowed Casey to live the good life, at least for those 31 days."

When Casey Anthony was asked by authorities, during the 911 call Cindy Anthony made to report her granddaughter missing, why she waited 31 days to report the disappearance, Casey Anthony replied, "I have been looking for her and have gone through other resources to find her, which was stupid."

Gonzalez was one of a host of people Anthony apparently invented, complete with realistic-sounding details, according to testimony.

There was Jeffrey Hopkins, a wealthy suitor she told her mother she and Caylee were spending time with in Jacksonville, Florida, when in reality Caylee was missing and Casey Anthony had not left Orlando. One of Casey Anthony's acquaintances named Jeffrey Hopkins testified, saying he had never dated Anthony, that he was not wealthy and he had never lived in Jacksonville.

In addition, Anthony had claimed to be working at Universal Studios as an event planner through Caylee's disappearance. Testimony showed she had not worked there in years. A co-worker there, Juliette Lewis, whom Anthony said had a daughter Caylee's age, was also not found to exist.

Jurors heard from Anthony's former friend, Amy Huizenga, that her frustration level with her parents, particularly her mother, was rising around the time that Caylee disappeared. "I remember she told me her mom had told her she was an unfit mother," Huizenga said. "She was extremely upset about that."

She said Anthony also had to cancel plans "fairly frequently" when no one was available to watch her daughter.

However, the same friends, acquaintances and former boyfriend of Anthony's also said, when pressed by defense attorneys, that Anthony when seen with Caylee appeared to be a good and loving mother.

Anthony herself has appeared mostly stone-faced during testimony, but has broken down at times, wiping tears away or sobbing outright.

Jurors also heard evidence about Anthony's car, which she abandoned in late June, saying she had run out of gas. It eventually was towed from an Orlando business to a tow yard. Her parents picked it up July 15 after receiving a letter from the wrecker yard.

Numerous witnesses testified about a foul odor coming from the car -- a scent prosecutors allege stemmed from human decomposition. A dog trained to detect human remains alerted to the trunk, according to testimony, and compounds associated with human decomposition were found in the trunk.

One scientist, Arpad Vass of Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, also testified that the level of chloroform found in testing of Anthony's trunk was "shockingly high."

Key forensic witnesses described in graphic detail the state of Caylee's remains when they were discovered in a wooded area less than a mile from the Anthony home, and jurors saw pictures of the child's skull; tiny, decaying shorts; and a "Winnie the Pooh" blanket found with the remains.

Animals had chewed on the little girl's bones by the time they were discovered, according to testimony. At times, Anthony ducked her head and tried to avoid looking at the graphic images.

Despite objections from defense attorneys, jurors saw a video in which images of Caylee's skull and the duct tape found across its mouth portion at the scene were superimposed over a photo of Caylee alive, smiling, with her mother.

Some of the most compelling testimony came from Dr. Jan Garavaglia, star of the Discovery Channel's "Dr. G. Medical Examiner" and chief medical examiner in the case. Garavaglia, who examined the child's remains, told jurors she could not say for sure how the child died, but homicide is "the only logical conclusion."

"The fact that it's tossed in a field to rot in bags is a clear indication that the body was trying to be hidden," Garavaglia said.

"It being put in a bag is a very big red flag for homicide, never seen in an accidental death for a child, and the fact that there's duct tape attached anywhere to that child's face is to me indication of a homicide."

An FBI latent print examiner testified that adhesive in the outline of a heart was found on the duct tape that covered the mouth portion of Caylee's remains. Sheets of heart-shaped stickers, with some stickers missing, were found at the Anthony home and introduced into evidence.

A sticker was also found at the site where Caylee's remains were discovered on a small piece of cardboard. An FBI analysis showed that sticker did not match those found at the Anthony home.

Jurors also heard about searches conducted on a computer at the Anthony home on March 17 and 21, 2008 -- several months before Caylee disappeared. They included "chloroform," "how to make chloroform," "household weapons" and "neck-breaking," according to testimony.

Other terms searched included "hand-to-hand combat" and "self-defense" and appeared uninvolved. "Chloroform" was searched for 84 times, according to the testimony of John Bradley, who developed a computer program used to locate the information.

Jurors heard from experts that a hair found in Anthony's trunk appeared similar to that of her daughter's, although the experts could not conclusively state that the hair was Caylee's. In addition, a forensic entomologist testified that tiny flies found in the trunk fit the theory that Caylee's body was stored there -- perhaps for three to five days.

Perry told jurors Monday that testimony in the case could conclude by the end of next week, although he cannot say for sure. Deliberations could begin by June 25, he said.

In Session's Mayra Cuevas, Cara Hutt and Michael Christian contributed to this report.

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CNN

Casey Anthony prosecution case could wrap this week

Orlando (CNN) -- The fourth week of Casey Anthony's capital murder trial could mark the close of the prosecution's case and the beginning of the defense.

Only a few prosecution witnesses remain, including a trace-evidence analyst and a tattoo artist Anthony visited in the weeks following her daughter's disappearance.

Over the weekend, an insect expert testified that tiny flies found in the trunk of the Orlando woman's car fit the theory that the body of her 2-year-old daughter was stored there -- perhaps for three to five days.

The flies suggest something began to decompose inside the trunk, but do not prove that the material was a human body, said Neal Haskell, a forensic entomologist from Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana. Such flies will feed on many things, he said.

Based on his analysis of temperatures and the reproductive habits of the small flies found on paper towels that another scientist found were soaked in fluid from decomposition, Haskell said it appeared that whatever attracted the flies had been in the car for three to five days.

Defense attorney Jose Baez, in his cross-examination of Haskell, tried to show that the flies could have been attracted by common garbage or leftover food.

Haskell was the latest in a line of investigators and forensic experts called to the stand by prosecutors in an effort to prove their theory that Anthony, 25, killed her daughter Caylee by knocking her out with chloroform and taping her nose and mouth, putting the body in black garbage bags and storing it in the trunk before dumping her in woods near her home.

Caylee's death retold in vivid detail

Anthony faces seven counts in her daughter's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading investigators. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

She has pleaded not guilty. Her attorneys have said Caylee was not killed, but rather that she drowned in the family pool shortly after her family last reported seeing her and that Anthony and her father, George Anthony, panicked when they discovered the body and covered up her death. George Anthony rejected that scenario in his testimony the first week of the trial.

Saturday's testimony also included a crime scene investigator who collected a piece of Henkel brand duct tape from an area near where Caylee's skull was found.

Ronald Murdock, a forensics supervisor for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, also testified that despite a thorough search of the house, the only piece of Henkel duct tape investigators recovered from the home Anthony shared with her daughter and parents was attached to a gas can.

Last week, jurors saw graphic photos of Caylee's bones and heard testimony that they had been gnawed by animals as her body decomposed during as much as six months in the field.

They also watched a video superimposing an image of Caylee's skull over her living face and an outline of a strip of duct tape in an effort to prove tape could have been, in effect, the murder weapon, prosecutor Jeff Ashton said.

Baez tried to prevent jurors from seeing the presentation, which he called "disgusting." But Judge Belvin Perry ruled the role of duct tape in the girl's death is "highly relevant." He also rejected a defense motion for a mistrial based on the video at the close of Friday's session.

Initial estimates were for the trial, including the defense's case, to be over by the end of June.

In Session's Cara Hutt and Nancy Leung contributed to this report.

CNN

Judge allows use of graphic video in Casey Anthony trial

Defense says the prosecution use of a graphic video only inflames the juryProsecutors say the video establishes that "duct tape is sufficient to be murder weapon" Casey Anthony is accused of killing her daughter, Caylee, 2, in 2008Tune in to HLN's "Nancy Grace" at 8 ET for live reports from Orlando, Florida on the Casey Anthony trial. And follow the action on Nancy's special Casey Anthony trial page.

Orlando (CNN) -- The defense is calling the prosecution's use of a graphic video that features a smiling Caylee Anthony with a skull and duct tape superimposed over her face highly prejudicial, saying it only serves to inflame the jurors.

The accusation came in the third week of the trial of Caylee's mother, 25-year-old Casey Anthony, who faces seven counts in her daughter's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading investigators.

If convicted, she could face the death penalty. She has pleaded not guilty.

Caylee's cause of death and the condition of her body when discovered months after she was reported missing have been the focus in recent days. The trial is scheduled to resume Saturday.

The defense on Friday argued against allowing the video into court, saying it presented just one of many possible scenarios and would only inflame sentiments among the jurors.

But the prosecution countered, saying it was necessary "to establish the state's theory that this duct tape was sufficient to be the murder weapon."

Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry agreed to allow the video into evidence, saying the role of duct tape in the girl's death was "highly relevant."

Perry also denied a mistrial motion made by the defense, related to the video, at the close of Friday's proceedings.

Attorneys for Anthony have said Caylee drowned in the family pool and that Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, panicked and tried to cover up the death. George Anthony denied that scenario during his testimony.

Prosecutors allege Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and suffocated her by putting duct tape over the little girl's mouth and nose.

They allege she put her daughter's body in her car trunk before disposing of it. Caylee's skeletal remains were found on December 11, 2008, less than a mile from the home of Anthony's parents.

Earlier Friday, the chief medical examiner in the case said the way in which prosecutors say Caylee's body was discarded left no doubt that the girl was intentionally killed.

Dr. Jan Garvaglia testified that Anthony's failure to report her daughter missing for more than a month was just one of three red flags that strongly indicate foul play.

The others were the discovery of the girl's remains amid black garbage bags in a wooded field -- "tossed in a bag to rot" was her testimony -- and the presence of duct tape on the girl's skull.

On Friday, jurors saw graphic photos of Caylee's bones and heard testimony that they had been gnawed by animals as her body decomposed during as much as six months in the field.

In Session's Nancy Leung contributed to this report.

CNN

Unclear if Casey Anthony illness will delay trial

Orlando (CNN) -- The way in which prosecutors say Caylee's Anthony's body was discarded left no doubt that the girl was intentionally killed, the chief medical examiner in the case said Friday.

Dr. Jan Garvaglia testified that Casey Anthony's failure to report her daughter missing for more than a month was just one of three red flags that strongly indicate foul play.

The others were the discovery of the girl's remains amidst black garbage bags in a wooded field -- "tossed in a bag to rot" was her testimony -- and the presence of duct tape on the girl's skull.

"There is no child that should have duct tape on its face when it dies," Garvaglia testified. "There is no reason to put duct tape on the face after it dies."

Attorneys for Anthony have said Caylee was not killed, but rather drowned in the family pool and that Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, panicked and tried to cover up the death. George Anthony denied that scenario during his testimony.

Garvaglia testified on the 15th day of Anthony's capital murder trial.

Anthony, 25, faces seven counts in Caylee's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading investigators. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

Prosecutors allege Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and suffocated her by putting duct tape over the little girl's mouth and nose. They allege she put her daughter's body in her car trunk before disposing of it. Caylee's skeletal remains were found on December 11, 2008, less than a mile from the home of Anthony's parents.

Anthony has pleaded not guilty and denied having anything to do with her daughter's death.

After Garvaglia completed her testimony, jurors were excused while attorneys argued over the admission of a video that prosecutor Jeff Ashton said would prove a single piece of duct tape would have been sufficient to have ended Caylee's life.

The video, shown in court outside of the jury's presence, showed pictures of Caylee's skull superimposed over her smiling face.

Anthony intently watched the video, in stark contrast to her behavior during testimony about Caylee's remains Friday morning.

During that testimony, jurors saw graphic photos of Caylee's bones and heard testimony that they had been gnawed by animals as her body decomposed during as much as six months in the field. Anthony looked down during the presentations, her head in hand, and daubed her face with a tissue. She appeared to sob at times.

After a recess, Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry agreed to allow jurors to see the pictures of Caylee's skull superimposed over her face, saying determining the role of duct tape in the girl's demise was "highly relevant."

The tape and its position on Caylee's skull have been points of discussion in the trial for two days.

Earlier Friday, a forensic anthropologist who examined the skull, John Schultz of the University of Central Florida, said under questioning from defense attorney J. Cheney Mason that the tape was not covering the nose hole on Caylee's skull when he examined it.

On Thursday, Dr. Gary Utz, the chief deputy medical examiner for Orange County, testified the girl's jaw still had the jawbone attached when it was recovered -- relatively rare given the stage of decomposition. The duct tape, he testified, was helping keep the jawbone attached, along with hair on the skull.

During cross-examination Friday morning, defense attorney Mason challenged prosecutors' claims that Caylee's jaw was held to her skull by the tape.

Mason asked if the tape was wrapped around the skull or just attached on the left side, to which Utz responded that there were "points of adherence" on the right side.

When asked by Mason whether the jaw came off while he was handling it, Utz said that it did not.

Anthony returned to court Friday after appearing to fall ill Thursday afternoon as jurors were viewing graphic images of Caylee's remains. Perry ended the day early without an explanation to jurors.

She continued to look shaken for much of Friday morning's testimony.

Schultz said that one image, which showed Caylee's vertebrae -- the bones that made up her spine -- suggest that she was left at the site where the remains were discovered before her body decomposed.

He explained that in children, in order to allow room for growth, individual vertebrae are not yet fused together. Because Caylee's were found in one location, it suggested they had been held together by soft tissue when they were placed there, he testified.

Schultz testified that Caylee's body could have been in the woods for about six months, about the length of time that had passed between the time her family last saw her in June 2008 and the discovery of her remains in December 2008. The bones showed no evidence of any injuries or trauma prior to her death, he said.

In Session's Nancy Leung contributed to this report.

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CNN

Anthony trial: 'Chloroform' searched on computer

(CNN) -- Someone conducted keyword searches on "chloroform" using a desktop computer located in the home Casey Anthony shared with her parents, a computer examiner testified Wednesday in Anthony's capital murder trial.

The searches were found in a portion of the computer's hard drive that indicated they had been deleted, Detective Sandra Osborne of the Orange County Sheriff's Office testified.

However, she told jurors, deleted material remains on a computer's hard drive and can be retrieved until it is overwritten by new data. It had not been overwritten on the Anthonys' computer, she said, and "a complete Internet history" was obtained.

Anthony, 25, faces seven counts in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading investigators. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

The toddler's family last saw her on June 16, 2008, but no one alerted police until July 15, when the girl's maternal grandmother tracked down the suspect and demanded answers.

Prosecutors allege Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and suffocated her by putting duct tape over the little girl's mouth and nose. They allege Anthony put her daughter's body in her car trunk before disposing of it. Caylee's skeletal remains were found in December 2008, less than a mile from the home of Anthony's parents.

Anthony has pleaded not guilty and denied having anything to do with her daughter's death. Defense attorney Jose Baez has said that when all the facts are known, it will become clear his client is innocent.

The searches using the keyword "chloroform" were conducted in March, three months before Caylee disappeared, according to testimony.

It appears the computer user first searched for "chloraform" on Google and received results for "chloroform," said John Bradley, owner of the software development company that created the software used to retrieve the data. One of the search results was from Wikipedia.org, which was accessed, he testified.

It also appeared searches were conducted using terms such as "inhalation," "self-defense," "meningeal artery," "ruptured spleen," "alcohol" and "head injury," he said. The user either typed those terms in to search, Bradley said, or in some instances might have clicked on links on the Wikipedia site to go to a different page.

Searches were also conducted on "how to make chloroform," "neck breaking" and "making weapons out of household products," Bradley testified.

During his cross-examination, Baez attempted to show that the user apparently did not spend a great deal of time looking at the pages referencing chloroform. Only a few seconds elapsed in some cases before the next site was accessed, Bradley said.

Bradley agreed with Baez's assertion that the links do not tell jurors what was on the websites accessed, and that some could have been jokes or information on self-defense. He also agreed he could not say how closely the user was examining the websites or whether a user was looking at multiple browsers.

While there were two user-created profiles on the computer, Osborne told Baez she could not tell who performed the searches.

She also testified she found no reference to chloroform on a computer belonging to Ricardo Morales, Anthony's former boyfriend. Shown a photo Morales earlier admitted posting on his MySpace page featuring a couple with the caption, "Win her over with chloroform," Osborne said either it had been deleted and overwritten or posted from another computer.

She said a keyword search would not necessarily have located the picture, since the keyword was embedded in pixels in the picture. Morales earlier testified he posted the photo as a joke.

Osborne said she also was asked to find any records on the computer relating to a Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez. Anthony told authorities Gonzalez, who had been Caylee's nanny for years, abducted her.

Osborne testified she found searches for Gonzalez on people search sites, Google and high school class reunion sites, along with the social networking site MySpace. All of those searches were conducted on July 16, 2008 -- the day after Caylee was reported missing to authorities, she testified.

But Osborne said she found no searches for Gonzalez before that date, another blow to Anthony's claims to authorities that she had been frantically searching for Gonzalez and her daughter during the month before police were notified Caylee was missing.

Anthony's former boyfriend, friends and acquaintances who saw her during that time recalled her shopping, eating out, going to parties and hitting nightclubs, but all of them testified she never mentioned her missing daughter and none of them noticed any change in her demeanor.

Her mother testified that Anthony had moved out of her parents' home about the time Caylee went missing, offering little in the way of explanation, and that when she inquired after Caylee, she was told she was with her nanny.

Police were never able to find the nanny. They did find a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, who denied ever meeting Anthony or Caylee and later sued for defamation.

Earlier Wednesday, jurors heard testimony that a second cadaver dog alerted to the potential scent of human remains in the backyard of the Anthony home, but -- like the first dog -- failed to do so again once land in that area was disturbed.

Within three to four minutes of being given a command to search in the yard, "I saw there was an area of interest he kept going back to and sniffing pretty hard," Osceola County, Florida, sheriff's Sgt. Kristin Brewer said of her dog, Bones. The dog made a second lap around the backyard and then gave his final alert -- sitting down, she said.

The alert was within six to eight feet of that made the same day, July 17, 2008, by another cadaver dog, named Gerus, Brewer said -- although she did not find that out until afterward.

She said she and Bones returned to the Anthony home the following day, but several crime scene units were working there and "a lot of dirt, mulch, pavers ... changed the landscape quite a bit."

Bones did not alert to any locations in the yard on the second search, she said. Gerus also did not alert the second day, Gerus' handler, Orange County sheriff's Deputy Jason Forgey, testified Tuesday.

Gerus also alerted to the smell of human remains in the trunk of Anthony's car, Forgey testified Tuesday. When the dog passed around Anthony's white Pontiac Sunfire on July 17, 2008, "he started indicating in the rear of the vehicle," Forgey said. "I could tell he was working something."

After the trunk was opened, Gerus put his front paws inside and then lay down, signaling that he had detected the scent of remains.

Forgey explained the conflicting results in the Anthony backyard by saying that he believed Gerus alerted to a scent on the surface of the land. Once technicians disturbed the surface, he said, the scent was diminished "where the dog wouldn't find it. It was gone at that point."

On cross-examination, however, Forgey said he does not know the real reason behind the conflicting alerts. Still, he said, "in every single time (Gerus has) had an alert besides this case, he's had a find," that is, he found remains.

Brewer offered a similar explanation on Wednesday. "Whatever he was alerting to could have been moved or destroyed or dissipated because of all the work that had been done," she said, "or they may just not have dug enough to find what was below the surface."

A crime scene investigator, the operator of a towing company and members of Anthony's family all have testified they smelled a bad odor coming from Anthony's car after it was found abandoned in a parking lot on June 27, 2008, and then towed four days later.

A bag of trash found in the trunk, which had been sitting there for weeks during a Florida summer, has been suggested as a possible source of the odor. But Forgey told Burdick his dog does not alert on trash, and has been trained around garbage.

Forgey told Baez that he's smelled human decomposition on numerous occasions and "I smelled it clear as day" in Anthony's car.

Also Tuesday, FBI forensic chemist Michael Rickenbach testified he analyzed pieces of Anthony's trunk liner, carpet and parts of the spare tire cover, among other items.

On those, he said, chloroform "residue" was found, but it was at low levels. But he did not want to offer specific levels, saying it would not be appropriate because he conducted qualitative testing, confirming chloroform's presence, rather than quantitative testing, which would detect its level.

Under questioning from prosecutor Jeff Ashton, Rickenbach said the samples were sent to him in a cardboard box, not a sealed container, which could have allowed some of the chloroform to evaporate, lowering the levels present. Having the car trunk open for a time might also lower the levels, he said.

On Monday, Arpad Vass, a senior research scientist at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, testified that the presence of chloroform on a carpet sample from the trunk was found at a "shockingly high" level -- far beyond what normally would be seen in environmental samples.

Both Vass and Rickenbach tested the carpet inside the trunk. However, Vass, who is not a chemist, was attempting to find compounds associated with human decomposition. Rickenbach was specifically testing for the presence of chloroform.

Vass told jurors in the Orlando courtroom that the presence of a decomposing human body is the only plausible explanation for the odor in Anthony's trunk and the results found in forensic testing.

In Session's Michael Christian contributed to this report.

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CNN

Casey Anthony trial enters third week

(CNN) -- Forensic testing on a carpet sample from Casey Anthony's trunk showed the presence of chloroform at a level that was "shockingly high," a scientist testified Monday in her capital murder trial.

The level was far beyond what normally would be seen in environmental samples, said Arpad Vass, a senior research scientist at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and higher than any he has seen in his nearly two decades of forensic study.

"The chloroform was shockingly high, unusually high," Vass said. The same testing done on a "control sample" of carpet from a similar make and model vehicle also showed chloroform, but the level was much lower, he testified.

Laser-based testing also seemed to indicate that decomposition had occurred in the trunk, as it showed high levels of inorganic elements such as calcium. Such inorganic elements are consistent with a decomposing body, Vass testified in an Orlando, Florida, courtroom.

Casey Anthony, 25, faces seven counts in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading investigators. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

Caylee was last reported seen by her family on June 16, 2008, but no one alerted police until July 15, when the girl's grandmother, Casey Anthony's mother, tracked Anthony down and demanded answers.

Prosecutors allege Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and suffocated her by putting duct tape over the little girl's mouth and nose. They allege Anthony put her daughter's body in the trunk of her car before disposing of it. Caylee's skeletal remains were found in December 2008, less than a mile from the home of Anthony's parents.

Anthony has pleaded not guilty and denied having anything to do with her daughter's death. The Orlando woman's attorneys argue Caylee drowned in the family pool on June 16, 2008. They say Anthony and her father panicked and covered up the death. George Anthony denied the claim during his testimony.

Vass' testimony was frequently punctuated by objections from Anthony's defense attorneys. Nearly all of them were overruled by Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr., but the judge at one point allowed defense attorney Jose Baez to question Vass about the testing outside the presence of the jury.

Vass gave jurors in the trial a crash course in the stages of human decomposition and explained his nearly 20 years of study, some of which was done at "The Body Farm," the anthropological research facility located near the University of Tennessee campus.

Some of his research, Vass explained in his highly technical testimony, has concerned the odors emitted by human decomposition.

Vass said he was contacted by Orange County Sheriff's Detective Yuri Melich and asked to examine evidence in the Anthony case, and requested air samples from various points in Casey Anthony's car.

A crime scene investigator, the operator of a towing company and members of Anthony's family all have testified they smelled a bad odor coming from Anthony's car after it was found abandoned in a parking lot on June 27, 2008, and then towed four days later. The prosecution maintains the odor in the car was that of human decomposition, and says cadaver dogs also alerted to it.

Vass testified the odor in the air samples he received was "extremely overwhelming" and he identified it as human decomposition. Tests on scrapings from the wheel well of Anthony's car showed the presence of acetic acid, he testified. The substance is "a byproduct of human decomposition," he said, as well as a byproduct of the manufacture of chloroform.

On Saturday, an FBI evidence analyst testified that a single hair found in the trunk of Anthony's car was similar to that of Caylee and showed evidence of decomposition.

But defense attorney Jose Baez attacked the findings by FBI trace evidence examiner Karen Lowe as unreliable.

Testimony about the hair marked a departure from the dramatic testimony and evidence offered in the first nine days of the trial, in which friends and acquaintances contradicted Anthony's claims that she was frantically searching for her daughter during the month she was missing.

Instead, she was staying with her boyfriend, spending time in Orlando with numerous friends, attending parties, going shopping and hitting nightclubs, including participating in a "hot body" contest, according to testimony in the case.

Her former boyfriend, friends and acquaintances have all testified that she did not mention her daughter being missing during that time and that they noticed nothing different about her demeanor.

In dry, scientific terms, Lowe testified Saturday how a 9-inch piece of hair sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, appeared similar to a piece of hair recovered from a brush belonging to the girl.

But she said hair analysis is not as precise as DNA analysis, so she could not say with absolute certainty that the hair belonged to Caylee.

The hair had a dark band that Lowe testified has only been seen in hairs remaining in the scalp of a decomposing body.

In cross-examination, Baez questioned the validity of Lowe's testimony, first asking if there was any way to prove how the hair got into the trunk.

"I couldn't say how the hair got there," Lowe said. "It's consistent with transfer or contact of some sort, but I don't know from whom."

She also testified under questioning from Baez that while the hair is clearly not Casey Anthony's, it could belong to any other light-haired relative on her mother's side of the family. The kind of DNA testing authorities were able to perform on the sample reveals DNA passed down only through maternal lines.

Lowe also testified there are no standards for identifying the bands and that such decisions are based on her opinion and that of a fellow investigator.

Baez also questioned Lowe's experience, saying she had failed a 2000 proficiency test and that she has never before testified on hair banding.

In addition, he questioned the entire premise of hair analysis, citing a 2009 National Academies of Science report that broadly questioned the use of microscopic hair analysis and other forensic science results in criminal cases.

Lowe said she agreed with the report's findings -- that hair can't uniquely identify an individual and that it's important to send samples for DNA analysis, which she said she did in the Anthony case. Lowe, who is not a DNA expert, has not testified about the findings of the those tests.

The hair in question was recovered after Anthony's car was picked up from her family's home, after it had been abandoned in a parking lot, towed to an impound lot and then driven back to the family home two weeks later by Anthony's father.

According to testimony, Anthony asked her boyfriend to pick her up from the parking lot on June 27, saying the car had run out of gas. She also told a friend that she believed an animal carcass was lodged in her car's frame.

The car was towed to an impound lot on June 30, 2008, where a manager said he smelled the odor of decomposition.

Also on Saturday, Orange County crime scene investigator Mike Vincent told jurors about collecting air samples from inside Anthony's car.

Baez questioned whether the air inside the trunk on August 29, 2008, when it was tested, was the same as that in the car when it was recovered in July.

He also sought to raise a question whether a trash bag found in the car when it was recovered might have been the source of the smell. Vincent also sampled air from the inside of that bag. The contents of the bag were dry when Vincent tested the air inside, he testified. The trash might have smelled different when, and if, it was wet, Vincent said under questioning from Baez.

Before prosecutors began presenting scientific evidence in the case on Friday, jurors watched recordings of jailhouse visits between Anthony and her parents.

In one conversation played Friday, Anthony scoffed at a media report her mother brought up speculating that Caylee had drowned in the family swimming pool.

"Surprise, surprise," Anthony said of the rumor, which is now the primary defense theory.

Anthony's defense team explains her behavior in the weeks following Caylee's death by saying she had been sexually abused by her father and had been taught to conceal her pain. George Anthony has denied abusing his daughter.

The excuses

Testimony earlier in the trial in Orlando revealed that Anthony lied to her parents and avoided them for 31 days in the summer of 2008 while Caylee was supposedly missing.

During the second week of the trial, jurors learned more about what Anthony told her parents during that time and what she was actually doing.

From the witness stand Tuesday, Anthony's mother described heated confrontations with her daughter on July 15, 2008, after she learned Anthony had been lying about her whereabouts for a month.

The stories began with Anthony saying she was having a sleepover with a nanny named Zenaida "Zanny" Gonzalez. Then, Anthony said she was out of town on a work trip to Tampa, Florida.

By the fourth week, Anthony's story was that she was out of town visiting an old boyfriend named Jeffrey Michael Hopkins.

Cindy Anthony caught her daughter in her lies by discovering she was, in fact, in Orlando with a different boyfriend. By the time her mother called 911 to report Caylee missing, Anthony had a new story.

"I know who has her. She's been my nanny for about a year-and-a-half, almost two years," Anthony told the operator in the July 15, 2008, call, which jurors heard Tuesday.

When asked by the operator why she waited so long to report her daughter missing, Anthony replied, "I have been looking for her and have gone through other resources to try to find her, which was stupid."

The characters

In the following days, Gonzalez's alleged role would expand from an occasionally-mentioned nanny to a central character in Caylee's disappearance.

When initially questioned by Orange County Detective Yuri Melich on July 16, 2008, about Gonzalez, Anthony provided a description of her without hesitation. That interview was played Wednesday.

Anthony said she'd known Gonzalez for four years after they met working together at Universal Studios. She provided a physical description of Gonzalez, her address, even her mother's name.

Other characters were also fleshed out. Hopkins, a former Universal Studios co-worker, according to Anthony, lived in Jacksonville and had a son named Zachary who played with Caylee.

And then there was Juliette Lewis, another co-worker at Universal, who now lived in New York, Anthony said. She also had a daughter Caylee's age.

Anthony claimed she called Lewis and Hopkins when she realized Caylee was missing. But prosecutors claim Anthony was not looking for her daughter in the month she was missing.

Instead, she was staying with her boyfriend, spending time in Orlando with friends, attending parties, going shopping and hitting nightclubs, according to testimony from friends, her former boyfriend, and acquaintances, who also said that she did not mention her daughter being missing during that time.

Anthony's frustration level with her parents, particularly her mother, was rising around the time Caylee disappeared, friend Amy Huizenga testified Tuesday.

"I remember she told me her mom had told her she was an unfit mother. She was extremely upset about that," Huizenga said.

But Anthony also was agitated at her mother because she had to cancel plans "fairly frequently" when no one was available to watch her daughter, Huizenga testified.

In late June, Huizenga said, Anthony told her that she was keeping Caylee away from her parents, as they were having marital problems and were considering divorce, and "she wanted to keep Caylee out of the drama."

'Fessing up

On Thursday, Melich described the day Anthony was finally forced to admit her lies, at least in part. On July 16, 2008, Melich worked with Universal Studios to scour the employee database.

Anthony was in the database, but she hadn't been affiliated with Universal for years. Melich also found no record of Gonzalez or Lewis.

A Jeffrey Hopkins was found, but never worked for the company at the same time as Anthony. Gonzalez's supposed apartment had also been found vacant.

Anthony voluntarily met Melich at Universal Studios to discuss the matter. Melich testified Thursday that he watched Anthony try to enter the park without a badge, then attempted to lead him to her office before being forced to admit she didn't have one.

"I can tell you just for certainty everything you've told me so far has been a lie," Melich said in a recorded interview played for the jury on Thursday.

"I've gone to every address that you've told me. I've looked up every name, I've talked to every person that you wanted me to talk or try to. And found out all these names you're giving me are people that either never worked here or been fired a long time ago, OK?"

Anthony conceded she didn't work at Universal and that the people she had described as her co-workers did not exist. Yet she continued to blame Gonzalez for the disappearance of her child.

Cindy Anthony said her daughter had been telling her about Gonzalez along with numerous other people -- a boyfriend, a co-worker and a man named Eric Baker, whom she believed to be Caylee's father -- for years before Caylee went missing.

At the time, she said, she never had a reason to believe those people were fictitious. "I just found out they were imaginary people," she testified.

A Zenaida Gonzalez was later found, but she had no affiliation with Anthony aside from having filled out a guest card at the Orlando apartment complex where Anthony claimed the nanny lived.

The apartment where Anthony said Gonzalez lived was found to be vacant, and there was no record of Gonzalez in the Universal Studios employee database.

Anthony has denied killing her daughter. She faces the death penalty if convicted.

CNN's Ashley Hayes contributed to this report.

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After arrest, Casey Anthony insisted her focus is on finding Caylee

(CNN) -- In jail visits with her brother and parents following her arrest, Casey Anthony alternately cries, giggles, expresses love to her relatives and insists her sole focus is finding her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, according to tapes of those visits played for jurors in her capital murder trial on Thursday.

"If you can speak to the media directly, my concern for me is Caylee," a tearful Anthony tells her brother, Lee Anthony, on July 25, 2008, from an Orange County, Florida, jail. "No one has said for me that I love my daughter, that I want her safety and that she and the rest of my family is my only concern. All I want is to see her again, to hear her laugh, to see her smile and to just be with our family. Nothing else matters to me at this point."

The same day, Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, asks her during a visit, "Are you protecting Caylee? Are you protecting me?"

"I'm protecting our family, yes," Anthony replies. "Not from anything I've done."

"Is someone threatening us?" Cindy Anthony asks, then asks again after receiving no answer.

"Just leave it at that, please," her crying daughter replies, adding that she will write her and elaborate. The family was careful about what they discussed, mindful the conversations were being recorded.

Now 25, Casey Anthony is charged with seven counts in Caylee's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

She has pleaded not guilty and denied harming her daughter or having anything to do with the little girl's disappearance or death. Defense attorney Jose Baez has said that once all the facts are known, it will become clear his client is innocent.

The taped conversations occurred at a time when tips were pouring in to authorities on Caylee's whereabouts. The little girl was last seen June 16, 2008, but was not reported missing until a month later. Her skeletal remains were found in December 2008, not far from the Anthony home.

Asked during the visit what Anthony wants her mother to give the media as a message to Caylee, Anthony breaks down as she says to tell her daughter "that Mommy loves her very much, and she's the most important thing in this entire world to me, and to be brave. I truly, truly love that little girl, and miss her so much."

"I know in my heart, I know in my gut, I know with every ounce of my being that we will be with (Caylee) again," she tells Lee Anthony during a July 28 visit.

Anthony gives her visitors information on places to look for Caylee and shares information in an effort to track down a person named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, saying she was a nanny who kidnapped the little girl.

After the playing of the first taped conversation between Casey and Lee Anthony, Baez moved for a mistrial, saying it had damaged his credibility in the eyes of the jury. In the conversation, Lee Anthony tells his sister that Baez might not pass along messages or information to her if he deemed it not in her best interest.

Orange County Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. denied that motion, saying Baez should have raised the issue months ago.

Earlier, jurors heard a tape of a police interview in which, under intense questioning, Casey Anthony admits she had purposely misled investigators attempting to find Caylee, but maintains the little girl was kidnapped by Gonzalez.

The interview with an Orange County sheriff's sergeant and two detectives was conducted July 16, 2008, in a conference room at Universal Studios. It came after the officers had accompanied Anthony there, only to have her confess that, despite her previous claims to the contrary, she no longer worked there.

In the interview, investigators pleaded with Anthony to tell the truth about what happened to Caylee.

"None of us are sitting here believing what you're saying because everything that's coming out of your mouth is a lie," Detective Yuri Melich told Anthony during the interview. "Everything. And unless we start getting the truth, we're going to announce two possibilities with Caylee: Either you gave Caylee to someone that you don't want anyone to find out because you think you're a bad mom. Or something happened to Caylee and Caylee's buried somewhere or in a trash can somewhere, and you had something to do with it. Either way, right now it's not a very pretty picture to be painting."

Asked later whether Gonzalez accepted money, Anthony said, "I would not have sold my daughter. If I wanted to really just get rid of her, I would have left her with my parents and I would've left. I would've moved out. I would've given my mom custody."

Later that day, after authorities failed to find Gonzalez in a database of Florida driver's licenses, Anthony was arrested on suspicion of giving police false information, obstructing an investigation and child neglect.

"Did you ever locate the Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez that Ms. Anthony described to you?" prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick asked Melich, who took the stand Wednesday. "No, I did not," Melich answered.

Authorities did find a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, who denied ever meeting Casey Anthony or Caylee and later sued for defamation.

On cross-examination, Baez expressed skepticism that Melich did not suspect Anthony at that point of foul play in Caylee's disappearance. Melich said he did not, although he knew Anthony had lied, and "I couldn't understand why the mother of a missing child would go to (this) extent if we're just trying to find her child."

But, he said, Anthony was "adamant" that she was telling the truth about Gonzalez the nanny kidnapping her daughter.

Earlier, prosecutors set about debunking Anthony's previous statements to her friends and family, presenting testimony that she never had a wealthy suitor named Jeffrey Michael Hopkins and she had not worked at Universal Studios since 2006, despite years of claims to the contrary.

A man named Jeff Hopkins testified that while he knew Anthony from middle school, her claims of dating him and him introducing her to Gonzalez were fabrications. Hopkins, 26, said his name wasn't even Jeffrey Michael Hopkins -- the name Anthony had given as a wealthy suitor living in Jacksonville, Florida, with a son named Zachary.

Hopkins said he had no children and described Anthony as an acquaintance. He said he has never lived in Jacksonville and that while he once worked at Universal Studios, he was not there at the same time as Anthony.

Asked by Baez whether all Anthony's stories were "one great fiction," Hopkins said, "Yeah, that's correct."

Following Hopkins to the stand was Leonard Turtora, assistant manager of loss prevention at Universal Studios. Turtora testified that after he was contacted by authorities investigating Caylee's disappearance, he searched the Universal Studios database and found Anthony had not worked there since 2006 -- and even then worked for a third party, Colorvision, that operated on Universal property.

According to testimony, Anthony claimed to work as an event planner at Universal Studios until after Caylee was reported missing.

She was forced to own up to the lie after detectives brought her to Universal Studios and met Turtora there. She directed them to a building Turtora said he knew was not an events building.

"Melich began to look around and asked if we were in the events building," Turtora said. "Ms. Anthony looked at me, put her hands in her back pocket and stated, 'I don't work here.'"

The name Juliette Lewis, given by Anthony as another co-worker, also was not found in the database, nor was a Zenaida Gonzalez. Anthony had told authorities after Caylee went missing that Gonzalez had a seasonal ID for Universal but was working only as a nanny.

Melich was called back to the stand Thursday. On Wednesday, he had testified about a written statement from Anthony and an interview he conducted with her in the early morning hours of July 16, just after Caylee was reported missing. A recording of that interview was played for jurors Wednesday.

Asked whom she had told about the kidnapping, which supposedly had occurred 31 days earlier, Anthony said in the interview she had told no one besides Hopkins and Lewis. Asked for their phone numbers, Anthony told Melich she didn't have them at present but could find them.

Asked by Melich during the interview why she hadn't notified authorities for the 31 days Caylee had been missing, Anthony said, "I think part of me was naive enough to think that I could handle this myself, which obviously I couldn't. And I was scared that something would happen to her if I did notify the authorities or got the media involved, or my parents, which I know would have done the same thing. Just the fear of the unknown. Fear of the potential of Caylee getting hurt, of not seeing my daughter again."

Prosecutors allege Anthony was not looking for her daughter during the month she was missing. Instead, she was staying with her boyfriend, spending time in Orlando with numerous friends, attending parties, going shopping and hitting nightclubs, including participating in a "hot body" contest, according to testimony.

Her former boyfriend, friends and acquaintances have all testified that she did not mention her daughter being missing during that time and that they noticed nothing different about her demeanor.

Just after Caylee was reported missing, Anthony accompanied deputies to an apartment she said was Gonzalez's. An apartment manager testified that apartment was vacant at the time and that a Zenaida Gonzalez had never lived in the complex.

Prosecutors allege that Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and then suffocated her by putting duct tape over her nose and mouth.

Anthony's defense has claimed that the little girl drowned in her grandparents' pool on June 16, the day she was last seen, and that Casey Anthony and her father panicked and kept the death a secret. George Anthony has denied that claim in testimony.

Casey Anthony's defense attorney explains her behavior in June and July 2008 by saying she had been sexually abused as a child by her father -- and, to a lesser extent, her brother -- and was taught from a young age to hide her pain.

George Anthony has also denied abusing his daughter in previous testimony. Earlier Wednesday, her brother, Lee Anthony, testified. Neither side asked Lee Anthony about sexual abuse allegations during his testimony on Wednesday.

In the July 25 interview, Casey Anthony cries as she tells her father, "You've been a great dad and you've been the best grandfather. Don't for a second think otherwise."

After the jury left for the day, prosecutors told Perry that defense attorneys had just notified them of a new expert witness. Perry said the potential witness, Dr. Sally Karioth, should prepare a report, as all expert witnesses must, and outline what she will testify about. He said he would rule later on whether to allow the witness to testify.

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Anthony trial enters 2nd week

(CNN) -- Cindy Anthony testified Tuesday, sometimes tearfully, of her efforts to rid her daughter's car of a terrible smell -- and her sadness at finding her granddaughter Caylee's favorite doll propped in the little girl's car seat.

On July 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony had not seen 2-year-old Caylee since June 16. She testified that she asked her daughter Casey Anthony about the little girl daily. Casey -- who she also had not seen -- gave her reason after reason why Caylee was unavailable, she said.

Caylee's skeletal remains were discovered in a wooded field in December 2008.

Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police in the death of her daughter. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

Cindy Anthony said Tuesday she asked repeatedly to speak to Caylee by telephone. "I missed hearing her little voice," she testified.

She said in testimony Saturday and Tuesday that when she asked about her granddaughter, Casey Anthony always had a reason why the girl wasn't available, including work meetings, a car accident and sudden plans to hang out at a hotel with a wealthy suitor Cindy Anthony said she had long heard about but never met.

"There was always a reason I missed her," Cindy Anthony said.

She testified Tuesday she and her daughter had a heart-to-heart on July 3 about several issues, including that Casey Anthony had moved out of her parents' home without warning. Casey Anthony asked her mother for space to work out some things, Cindy Anthony testified. She said she "backed off" but continued to call daily asking if she could speak to Caylee.

On July 15, George and Cindy Anthony received a notice on their door. George Anthony picked up a certified letter from a tow yard, which said that Casey Anthony's Pontiac Sunfire -- registered to her parents -- had been there for a couple of weeks.

Cindy Anthony testified that her daughter had told her that the car was with her in Jacksonville, Florida, and she called her and told her "she had a lot of explaining to do." She asked her to come home.

After George Anthony drove the car home from the wrecker yard, Cindy Anthony, a nurse, said she smelled the car and asked, "What died?" She testified that she knew what human decomposition smelled like, but said it was just an expression and that she didn't really believe someone had died or decomposed in the car. She said that at the time she was satisfied that the smell was some garbage her husband said he found in the trunk.

But "the smell in the car was like something I had never -- it was pretty strong," she said.

After her husband left for work, Cindy Anthony said she retrieved her daughter's purse from the car, along with the doll. She broke into tears as she described finding the doll in Caylee's car seat, "like it was sitting where Caylee would have sat."

She tearfully recalled putting the doll on an ice chest in the garage and wiping its face and hands with a disinfecting wipe, then spraying its body and the interior of the car with Febreeze, a substance that helps eliminate odor. She said she also put a dryer sheet in the car.

Cindy Anthony also cried when photographs of the car seat and the doll were introduced into evidence, and when she testified about removing a toothbrush and other items from the little girl's backpack she found in the trunk.

"I went through and held some of Caylee's things, just because," she said.

Before testimony began Tuesday, Anthony's defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully to bar her brother, Lee Anthony, from the courtroom, saying he should not be able to listen to other testimony before he testifies. Defense attorneys previously were unsuccessful in barring Anthony's parents from the courtroom.

Prosecutors allege that Anthony used chloroform on her daughter, then suffocated her by putting duct tape over her nose and mouth.

Anthony's defense has claimed the little girl drowned in the Anthonys' pool on June 16, the day she was last seen, and that Anthony and her father panicked and kept the death a secret. George Anthony has denied that claim in testimony.

Anthony's defense attorney explains her behavior in June and July 2008 by saying she had been sexually abused as a child by her father -- and, to a lesser extent, her brother -- and was taught from a young age to hide her pain. George Anthony has also denied abusing his daughter in previous testimony.

Anthony has pleaded not guilty and denies harming her daughter or having anything to do with her disappearance. Defense attorney Jose Baez has said that once all the facts were known, it will become clear his client is innocent.

Despite what Anthony was telling her mother during the time Caylee was missing, testimony in the trial and evidence has showed she was still in Orlando, spending time with friends, staying with her boyfriend, going shopping and hitting nightclubs. Her former boyfriend and numerous friends and acquaintances have testified that she did not mention her daughter was missing. Instead, she insisted she was with a nanny, at the beach and other places.

Cindy Anthony testified her daughter was not answering her phone after the car was picked up July 15, so she contacted one of Casey Anthony's friends, Amy Huizenga. She picked Huizenga up at a mall and told her to take her to her daughter. She was directed to the home of Casey Anthony's then-boyfriend, Tony Lazzaro.

She convinced her daughter to leave with her and told her they were going to get Caylee, who Casey Anthony said was with the nanny. But she said Casey Anthony told her it wasn't a good idea for her to see Caylee and refused to direct her to where the child was. Cindy Anthony testified her daughter also didn't explain what had happened with her car. At one point, she testified, her daughter asked her to take her back to Lazzaro's and "I told her she wasn't going anywhere."

Later that night, Cindy Anthony notified police her granddaughter was missing. Her daughter told her that the nanny had kidnapped Caylee weeks ago, and that she had been looking for her on her own, authorities have said.

The prosecution

From the prosecution, the jurors have heard about an Anthony free of remorse who had an affinity for parties, drinking and sleepovers with men. During opening statements on May 24, the jury heard about how Anthony waited nearly 31 days before reporting Caylee missing.

During that period, she got a tattoo, participated in a "hot body" contest at an Orlando club and spent many nights at the apartment of her then-boyfriend Anthony Lazzaro, the prosecution said.

"No one else benefited from the death of Caylee Marie Anthony" said Assistant State Attorney Linda Drane-Burdick in her opening statements last week. "Caylee's death allowed Casey to live a good life, at least for those 31 days."

Prosecutors allege Anthony forced Caylee to inhale chloroform and then suffocated her by placing duct tape on the toddler's nose and mouth.

The defense

The defense painted a picture for jurors of a loving mother, whose dysfunctional family forced her to live in a state of denial. They argued the family held dark secrets, including that Anthony was sexually abused by her father and brother.

"It all began when Casey was 8 years old and her father came in and began to touch her inappropriately," Anthony's lead defense attorney, Jose Baez, said during his opening arguments Tuesday.

The defense says Caylee drowned in the family pool as the result of what Baez called "an accident that snowballed out of control."

He said Anthony's father, George, was privy to the accident and tried to cover up the drowning at Anthony's expense.

"As soon as Casey came around this corner and went back, she saw George holding Caylee in his arms," Baez said as he showed a diagram of the Anthony home and pool. "And shortly thereafter George began to yell at her, 'Look what you've done!'"

George Anthony was the first witness called after Baez's opening argument. He denied the molestation and any knowledge of the alleged drowning.

The witnesses

The prosecution team has brought in witnesses ranging from ex-boyfriends to women who partied with Anthony. But even those who knew the defendant seemed to describe two very different people.

When asked by prosecutors if Anthony's behavior changed after June 16, 2008 -- when Caylee was last seen -- some of the witnesses said Anthony was her usual self. She was friendly and upbeat, never mentioning that her daughter was missing and making excuses for the toddler's whereabouts, some of them testified.

When pressed by Baez, the same witnesses affirmed Anthony was a good mom with a strong bond with her daughter. During Friday's testimony, Mallory Parker, the fiancee of Anthony's brother Lee, broke down on the stand as she described the relationship between Anthony and Caylee as "amazing."

Anthony's father, George, recounted the day he retrieved her abandoned car from an Orlando tow yard. When pressed by Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton, the former police officer said the odor that came from his daughter's car smelled like a human corpse.

On Saturday, Anthony's mother, Cindy, recounted the answers Anthony gave her when questioned about Caylee's whereabouts.

Anthony told her Caylee was with a nanny while she was busy with work meetings, Cindy Anthony testified.

Anthony's demeanor

If the jurors are looking for answers in Anthony's face, they may come away empty-handed. While Anthony has broken down in court on several occasions, particularly when the subject turns to her relationship with Caylee, she is often stoic as she hears the recollections of the men and women who once made up her life.

On Saturday, Anthony was essentially stone-faced until a court recess in the middle of her mother's testimony. Then she was seen sobbing and speaking passionately to her lawyers. The defendant regained composure when her mother retook the stand.

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