Thailand enters calm before election storm (Reuters)

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Political campaigning in Thailand drew to a close Saturday, taking a day to cool off before an election which could exacerbate the country's six-year-old political crisis just as easily as end it.

Opinion polls point to a win by the opposition Puea Thai (For Thais) party led by Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, over the Democrat Party of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Thaksin, who lives in self-appointed exile in Dubai after being ousted by the military in 2006, looms large over the election, popular with the red shirts supporters of Puea Thai and hated by the Democrat elite who want him to stand trial for corruption.

The risk of turbulence lies in the margin of a Puea Thai win and the reaction of the red shirts, mostly rural and urban poor whose protests last year prompted a bloody crackdown. Key as well will be the response of the military, which has a history of intervening in Thai politics.

"It's almost certain the Puea Thai will win, the question is by how much," said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

If they win by a landslide, it would be a "slap in the face" of the Democrats, but would likely rile the military which has a record of launching coups when riled, he said.

Yingluck told reporters Saturday she was confident Puea Thai would win more than 250 seats, an outright majority, while Abhisit appealed to supporters to give the Democrats the same margin of victory.

"What we would like to see is a clean and fair election," Yingluck said, adding that it was premature to talk about a coalition with any other party.

It also is possible the Puea Thai party has reached a deal with the military -- allowing them to rule in return for not pursuing the generals responsible for last year's violence, which killed 91 people, mostly red shirts.

If the margin of the win is small, Puea Thai would have to garner the support of smaller parties. Their backing could be contingent on Thaksin serving jail time for corruption as part of any plan to bring him back from self-exile in Dubai.

There also is the possibility of the Democrats teaming up with smaller parties to get the necessary majority, an outcome sure to bring the red shirts back out on to the streets.

At a stadium packed with about 20,000 people, many under umbrellas in driving rain, Yingluck Friday called for reconciliation and promised a probe of last year's violence.

"If only you give this woman a chance to serve you," she said.

Abhisit warned about 15,000 voters not to believe her.

"They say they will move Thailand forward, but I don't believe they will do so on your behalf," he said, before assuring supporters he would heal rifts in Thai society.

Amnesty International called on whoever wins to end repression, unlawful use of lethal force and intimidation of peaceful dissidents.

Election days in Thailand are traditionally dry affairs, with alcohol sales banned from 6 pm Saturday to midnight on Sunday and the go-go bars closed.

A spoof Web site called "Not the Nation" wondered how the city's foreigners would cope, and whether Thai police were bracing for a weekend of violence from "angry, sober, alcoholic expatriates."

(Additional reporting by Vithoon Amorn; Editing by Brian Rhoads)

Yahoo! News

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.

var cnnOmniPartner="TV-Nancy Grace"Watch Nancy Grace Monday through Sunday starting at 8 p.m. ET on HLN. For the latest from Nancy Grace click here.

CNN

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.

var cnnOmniPartner="TV-Nancy Grace"Watch Nancy Grace Monday through Sunday starting at 8 p.m. ET on HLN. For the latest from Nancy Grace click here.

CNN

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Casey Anthony trial enters 4th day

(CNN) -- Casey Anthony's car reeked of what they deemed the unmistakable odor of a decomposing body, her father and a tow company manager testified Friday in the Orlando woman's capital murder trial.

The odor was so powerful, George Anthony said he could not drive it home from the impound lot where it had been towed two weeks before without rolling down the windows, he said.

"I did worry for my daughter and granddaughter," George Anthony testified, noting that he had not seen Casey or her 2-year-old daughter Caylee since June 24. "I didn't want to believe what I was smelling."

The defense pointed out -- and George Anthony admitted -- that he did not call police after noticing the smell, nor did he tell authorities about his concerns. Later that day, his wife Cindy did call 911, sparking the investigation that led to the discovery months later of Caylee's remains and the arrest of her mother for the toddler's murder.

"Looking back, sir, there's a lot of things I wish I would have done," George Anthony said, after being pressed by defense attorney Jose Baez as to why he didn't contact police immediately.

Anthony's white Pontiac Sunfire took center stage in the fourth day of Anthony's capital murder trial.

Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts, including first degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police in the death of her daughter, whose remains were discovered in December 2008.

Prosecutors say Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and then put duct tape over her nose and mouth, suffocating the girl.

Anthony's attorneys argue that she did not kill Caylee, but rather that the girl accidentally drowned in the Anthonys' pool on June 16. They say she and her father, George Anthony, panicked and kept the death a secret. George Anthony denied that claim in testimony Thursday.

Anthony's car was found, apparently abandoned, in a financial-services company parking lot on June 24.

It was towed by a wrecker service to an impound lot on June 30 and remained there for about two weeks, the wrecker service's operations manager, Simon Birch, told jurors.

Closed up, the car gave off the faint smell of human decomposition, Birch testified.

"It's a very, very unique and distinctive smell," Birch said, noting that he has had the misfortune of coming into contact with decomposition in cars numerous times.

Birch said the smell became more noticeable after George Anthony and his wife arrived to pick up the car and they opened first the door and then the trunk.

George Anthony recalled his mind racing with concern for his daughter, whom he had believed was in Jacksonville, Florida, with the car, and his granddaughter, whom he had not seen in nearly a month.

"Please God," he recalled thinking as he prepared to open the trunk, "don't let this be Casey or Caylee."

The smell did not seem to dissipate after they removed a lightly-filed garbage bag from the trunk, Birch said.

But after being called back to the stand later Friday, George Anthony said he did not notice the stench was stronger after he opened the trunk and removed garbage from the trunk.

In response to a question from Baez implying he was somehow trying to distance himself from evidence in a potential crime, George Anthony said, "I would not have walked away ... from something. That's not in my make-up. ... I believe I'm a pretty good guy."

Before challenging George Anthony, Baez questioned why Birch never called police, even after learning the car had been towed by authorities for forensic analysis.

"I had no idea why it was towed to forensics," Birch said.

William Waters, a friend of Anthony's who testified that he went shopping with her on July 5, testified that she had a friend's car at the time. He said she explained that she did not have her own because it needed an alignment or a tune-up.

The car also figured in testimony Thursday, when George Anthony testified about an argument he had with his daughter over two missing gas cans from the storage shed at his house.

On June 24, George Anthony called police to report the break-in and report the gas cans missing. He testified that he saw his daughter later in the day and argued with her about the missing cans. He had a hunch she had them, he testified, as she had taken them before.

George Anthony said that when he went to get them out of his daughter's car, she bristled, brushed past him, quickly opened the trunk and retrieved the gas cans. Then she threw them down and told him, "Here's your f---ing gas cans."

The cans are significant because duct tape on them appears to be the same as that found on the mouth of Caylee's skeletal remains, which were found six months after the child went missing. The type of tape, prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick told jurors in her opening statement this week, is relatively rare.

George Anthony said that when his daughter returned the gas cans to him, there was no tape on them. He said he had put the tape on to replace a missing vent cap.

In earlier testimony, prosecutors displayed evidence and questioned witnesses suggesting that Casey Anthony seemed unburdened in the days after her daughter disappeared -- attending a party and going shopping for furniture, clothes and beer.

Jurors saw silent surveillance videos of Anthony shopping at Target, Ikea and other stores in the days following her daughter's disappearance.

The videos were shown over the objection of defense attorneys, who said they were irrelevant to the charges against Anthony and could improperly impeach her character and state of mind in the eyes of the jury.

They also heard Waters testify that Anthony attended an Independence Day party at his house on July 4, 2008 -- about two weeks after Caylee was last seen -- and that the two also went shopping the next day. She gave no indication that anything was wrong either time and only briefly mentioned her daughter, Waters testified.

Waters' testimony was similar to statements Thursday from numerous witnesses who said Anthony did not mention her daughter's disappearance until her mother, Cindy Anthony, reported the girl's absence to police on July 15.

Among the witnesses was a former boyfriend, Ricardo Morales, who said Anthony was "happy, smiling" during his encounters with her in July.

Another friend, Matthew Crisp, testified that he met Anthony for lunch on July 7 and asked about Caylee. Anthony told him the girl was "on a play date with one of her girlfriends who also had a child."

Another former boyfriend, Anthony Lazzaro, and his roommates said that when they asked where Caylee was, Anthony told them she was with her nanny, mentioning that the nanny was taking her to Universal Studios and to the beach.

In the early days of the investigation, Anthony said the nanny, who she said was named Zenaida Gonzalez and nicknamed "Zanny," had kidnapped Caylee. Authorities were never able to find the nanny but did track down a woman with that name who denied knowing Anthony and sued her for defamation.

Anthony also repeatedly visited at least two nightclubs during the month Caylee was missing, once participating in a "hot body" contest.

Defense attorneys explain Anthony's behavior as a result of what they allege was sexual abuse by her father beginning as a child. Anthony was schooled from a young age to "hide her pain," her attorneys argue. In testimony, George Anthony has denied sexually abusing his daughter.

In cross-examination by lead defense attorney Jose Baez, those who saw Anthony and her daughter together testified that Caylee was well taken care of and that Anthony, at least to their knowledge, appeared to be a good mother.

In a dramatic moment Friday morning, the fiancee of Casey Anthony's brother broke down when asked to describe Anthony's relationship with her daughter.

The fiance, Mallory Parker, described the relationship as "amazing."

"Casey and Caylee had a very special bond," Parker, a witness for the prosecution, said with a quivering voice while under cross-examination by Anthony's lead attorney, Jose Baez.

Anthony appeared to cry as Parker spoke.

In all, Anthony is charged with first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of misleading police. If she is convicted of capital murder, she could be sentenced to death by the seven-woman, five-man jury.

The trial, now in its fourth day, is expected to last six to eight weeks.

CNN's Ashley Hayes contributed to this article

var cnnOmniPartner="TV-Nancy Grace"Watch Nancy Grace Monday through Sunday starting at 8 p.m. ET on HLN. For the latest from Nancy Grace click here.

CNN

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.