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Lawyers for accused murderer Casey Anthony were unsuccessful in their bid to prevent from being played at trial tapes of the 911 calls made by Casey's mother after she learned her 2-year-old granddaughter Caylee was missing.
On the tapes, Cindy Anthony says that it smelled "like there's been a dead body in the damn car." Yet on the stand for a pre-trial hearing in Orlando on Thursday, Cindy Anthony called her observation exaggerated and a means to stress the urgency of the situation to police.
Circuit Judge Belvin Perry, however, didn't accept that. "Whether they are true or false really has no bearing," he said. "They were designed to elicit statements from the defendant in this case, to ascertain the whereabouts of the victim in this particular case."
Casey Anthony is charged with capital murder in the 2008 death of her daughter. She has pleaded not guilty. Her courtroom appearance – in leg irons – Thursday marked the first time she has seen her family in two years, and she burst into tears at the sight of them.
Mother Faces Daughter
Facing her daughter in an Orlando courtroom, Cindy Anthony testified that she was in a panic after Casey told her that she hadn't seen Caylee in a month. Casey's brother, Lee Anthony, testified Thursday that he tried to get more information out of his sister while their "frantic" mother yelled at her."She was very angry," he said, referring to mother Cindy. "Her first reaction was she had a clenched fist and hit the bed my sister was sitting on and said, 'What did you do? We could have found her 31 days ago.' "
Caylee's skeletal remains were discovered in the woods about a quarter mile from the Anthony home in December 2008. Prosecutors say they plan to show Casey Anthony lied repeatedly about her daughter's fate, and that the 911 calls are a critical part of explaining the sequence of events.
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