By Martie Hevia | Blue Beach Song™

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Day 30 – June 28, 2011 – Tuesday

The Defense’s List of Witnesses for June 28, 2011

• First Defense Witness: Joe Jordan – Texas Equusearch Volunteer Team Leader.
• Second Defense Witness: George Anthony – Casey Anthony’s father.
• Third Defense Witness: Cindy Anthony – Casey Anthony’s mother.
• Fourth Defense Witness: Lee Anthony – Casey Anthony’s brother.
• Fifth Defense Witness: Yuri Melich – Detective for Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
• Sixth Defense Witness: Roy Kronk – Water Meter Reader who found Caylee’s remains.
• Seventh Defense Witness: David Dean – Water Meter Reader and Roy Kronk’s co-worker.
• Eighth Defense Witness: Alex Roberts – Senior Water Meter Reader and Roy Kronk’s supervisor.
• Ninth Defense Witness – Proffered Outside the Presence of the Jury: Dennis Moon Sammy – Sergeant in the Orange County Corrections Women’s Detention.
• Ninth Defense Witness – Proffered Outside the Presence of the Jury: Marlene Baker – Orange County Corrections Officer in the Women’s Detention Center.
• Tenth Defense Witness – Proffered Outside the Presence of the Jury: Jesse Grund – Casey Anthony’s ex-fiancé.

The Defense’s Witnesses:
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

The Defense called George, Cindy and Lee Anthony, the entire family, along with a few important witnesses, like a man who searched for Caylee and did not find her, as well as a man who wasn’t looking but did.

The Defense called Joe Jordan a volunteer who sent an email to detectives, after Caylee’s remains were found, that he had searched that area and he believed that Caylee’s remains were moved there. Under cross-examination he acknowledged that he did not know exactly where Caylee’s remains were found, and he and his team had only searched five feet into the woods because of the flooded areas in there.

George Anthony was called back to the witness stand to address allegations that he had an affair with Crystal Holloway, a.k.a, River Cruz, who volunteered to help find Caylee. This woman also claimed that she had an affair with Mr. Anthony. The Defense brought up a statement she made that George Anthony had told her that the situation at hand was “an accident that snowballed out of control.” [Was that the wishful thinking of a father, or did he know something? The Defense implied he knew something.] The prosecutor countered back by asking George about another statement attributed to Ms. Holloway that one day he pushed Casey against the wall and demanded to know what she had done with Caylee. Mr. Anthony denied both statements, as well as the affair.

Cindy Anthony followed her husband, only to state that she did not tell Dominic Casey to search the woods off of Suburban Drive, but the Defense brought her son, Lee, and Detective Melich to impeach her and prove she had just perjured herself. [Why would the Defense want to prove to the jury that their witness, who had taken responsibility for the Google searches on chloroform a few days earlier, was willing and able to lie on the stand?]

The man who found Caylee, Roy Kronk, was basically accused of wanting nothing but the reward money and insinuations were made that he may have moved Caylee’s remains from another location, held them for about four months, and then dumped them into the woods, just so he could claim the reward. [Why would he not have claimed the reward from the original location where he found Caylee’s remains?]

The next few witnesses were heard outside the presence of the jury. Two Orange County corrections officers were proffered to show that Casey has been a model inmate, always smiling and happy, hoping that they would be allowed to present these witnesses to the jury to show how Casey, even in bad circumstances is always smiling and happy.

The last witness to speak outside the presence of the jury was Jesse Grund, Casey’s ex-fiancé who was there to say that Casey had told him, back in 2005, that she woke up one night to find Lee standing over her, just staring at her; and another night she woke up to find him groping her.

The Judge would not allow any of the last three witnesses, proffered outside the presence of the jury, to testify based on the lack of relevancy and materiality to the charges. And that was that.

Joe Jordan

The day began with Joe Jordan taking the stand, a volunteer team leader with Texas Equusearch who was asked to search the Suburban Drive area for Caylee in 2008, but never found her. He described there being too much water in the woods that only allowed his team to go about five feet deep. They did find a red cooler and a pink baby blanket, which he had cadaver dogs check with no luck. Mr. Jordan described having about 5 people search along the side of the road because the brush was heavy, but they did not find anything.

On December 13, 2008, two days after Caylee’s remains were found in the area of Suburban Drive, Joe Jordan wrote an email to Sergeant Allen suggesting that perhaps the remains had been moved because he and his team had searched the area. The Defense questioned him about it, but he insisted that he made a mistake sending that email because he did not know exactly where Caylee’s remains had been found and he and his team had not gone beyond five feet into the woods.

Perhaps feeling somewhat defeated, Cheney Mason, the defense attorney asked him if he had been threatened with felony prosecution, which prompted Mr. Jordan to assert his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, but the prosecutor objected and a long sidebar followed.

Apparently, Mr. Jordan, in October 2009, had attempted to tape-record a conversation, without the other party’s consent, which is felony wiretapping. Unfortunately for the Prosecution, the remedy was for Judge Perry to ask the jury to disregard the last question and Mr. Jordan’s response to it, which in repeating it, only highlighted it for them. [Perhaps it would have been better for the prosecutor to go ahead and cross-examine the witness on what the charges were, lest the jury think it had something to do with him doing something directly related to Caylee’s remains.]

George Anthony

George Anthony, Casey’s father, was up next and Jose Baez wasted no time in asking him if he knew a woman by the name of Crystal Holloway and if he had had a romantic or sexual relationship with her. He admitted he knew her by that name and another name, River Cruz, and that she was a volunteer at the command center, who at one time he considered “a friend.” He denied, however, having a romantic or sexual relationship with her. Mr. Anthony explained that he had gone to her condominium a couple of times because she claimed to have a brain tumor and he felt compassion for her.

Mr. Baez asked and George Anthony denied ever telling Crystal Holloway that this whole thing with Caylee was “just an accident that snowballed out of control.” When asked if he ever told Ms. Holloway not to say anything about their affair, Mr. Anthony replied, “I never had a romantic affair with Crystal Holloway or River Cruz, she is not a very good person, she has a questionable past, she has been arrested for fraud, breaking and entering…” and the Defense objected. Mr. Anthony tried again, “I never had an affair with her, so the answer is no.”

Mr. Ashton, during cross-examination, asked George Anthony if he ever told River Cruz that he grabbed Casey by the throat, threw her against the wall and asked, “What did you do to Caylee, I know you did something to Caylee!” but Mr. Anthony denied ever having done that. [This one question by the prosecutor, however, was important in showing that George Anthony did not know what happened to his granddaughter, if you are inclined to believe Ms. Holloway that George Anthony said that the ‘whole thing was an accident that spiraled out of control.’ It helps you consider the possibility that Mr. Anthony was simply trying to cast the best light on whatever involvement his daughter may have had.]

Cindy Anthony

Mr. Baez then called Cindy Anthony to the stand to ask her if she had instructed Dominic Casey and Jim Hoover to search for Caylee off of Suburban Drive, something she denied doing. Baez asked her if she remembered telling Detective Melich on December 20, 2008 that she had had her people walk that area where Caylee was found and there was nothing there, but she did not remember saying that.

Jose Baez, felt the need to impeach Cindy Anthony, his own witness, the witness who claimed responsibility for the Google searches involving chloroform, even though her time-cards showed she was at work on those days. He asked Ms. Anthony if prior to December 2008 she had told her son that she had sent Dominic Casey to Suburban Drive to look for Caylee with a video camera, but she stuck to her guns and said, “No, I never told anyone to go search for Caylee there. I had no knowledge of that search before Caylee’s remains were found.” Mr. Baez insisted, “You had no argument with Lee who asked you why you were looking for a dead Caylee?” The prosecutor objected and the question was withdrawn.

Lee Anthony

So, for some reason, Mr. Baez called Lee Anthony to the stand to impeach his own mother. Lee was asked and he admitted to having had an argument with his mother about her sending Dominic Casey to go search for Caylee off of Suburban Drive. He remembered it was because she had received a psychic tip and he was positive it was prior to October 2008 they had that argument.

The prosecutor, Mr. George, during cross-examination, asked Lee Anthony about the time period of the argument and Lee answered, “I know it was prior to October, before I went back to work, because that fueled my decision to go back to work.” Mr. George then asked Lee if he knew that Mr. Dominic Casey searched the woods in November, which meant Lee and Cindy would have had this alleged argument before Mr. Casey checked the woods and Lee replied, “Yes, if that’s when it happened, then, yes.”

Mr. George had one final question for Lee Anthony under his re-cross-examination, “Up until October 2008 you were completely sold on the lies your sister told you?” And Lee, smiling, almost chuckling to himself, said, “Yes… and no.”

Yuri Melich

The Defense’s next witness was lead Detective Yuri Melich called back to impeach Mrs. Anthony and state that he recalled her saying that she had her people walk that area a month prior to Caylee’s remains being found and there was nothing in that area. [Again, why would you want to prove your witness, Cindy Anthony, a liar to the jury, the witness who told them she did the Google searches and by doing so pretty much took the premeditation out of the equation?]

Roy Kronk

Defense attorney, Cheney Mason, took the helm and called Mr. Roy Kronk to the stand, the water meter reader who found Caylee’s remains in the woods about a block from the Anthony home. The Defense tried very hard to imply that Mr. Kronk was motivated by the reward money, and in their theory of events, they believe Mr. Kronk found Caylee’s remains elsewhere and dumped them in the woods later on to collect the reward money. At the end of the direct examination, however, we were no closer to understanding why they thought that.

What we did learn is that Mr. Kronk called several times, in mid-August, an Orange County non-emergency number to report what he thought looked like a skull in the woods, he met with a couple of deputies at the site, who did a cursory look around and “chewed” him out for wasting their time. On December 11th 2008 four months after he first spotted what he thought looked like a skull, Mr. Kronk was back in the Anthony neighborhood on that route to read meters and made the shocking discovery of Caylee’s remains in the woods.

Of significance in the testimony, Mr. Kronk admitted to picking up the bag he saw and holding it at arms length, parallel to the ground, and looking down to see the skull. Roy Kronk stated that he tilted the skull back with his meter reader stick and then realized it was indeed a skull. [This should be significant in terms of past testimony that described the skull being buried up to the eye sockets in leaf litter and the duct tape as holding the skull and mandible together. If Mr. Kronk moved the skull and picked up the bag on December 11, 2008 when he found the skull, then the assumptions that the bag and skull were in the same position and location as they were when they were dumped are incorrect, and, hence, so might the conclusions based on those assumptions.]

Mr. Mason asked Roy Kronk about a phone call the Defense claims he made to his son, Brandon Sparks, on November 11, 2008, one month before Caylee’s remains were found, that he was going to be rich and famous and to watch him on TV. Mr. Kronk stated that his son got that wrong, if that’s what he said, and he clarified that he called his son on December 11, 2008, after finding the remains, and told his son to watch the T.V. because he, Mr. Kronk, would be on television, and he said this because his son had not seen him since he was eight years old.

During cross-examination, Linda Burdick asked Mr. Kronk if he knew any of the Anthonys, and he did not. She pointed out that he had moved to Florida in 2007, got the meter reader job in 2008, and the first time he was in the Anthony neighborhood was during his job training. The second time he was in that neighborhood was on August 11th 2008, when he saw what seemed to be a skull in the woods and made the first call to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Ms. Burdick then proceeded to ask Mr. Kronk a series of questions about having access to the Anthony computer, to the Anthony home, to any of their laundry bags or garbage bags, or duct tape, or any of Caylee’s clothing or blankets and Mr. Kronk replied to all, “No, ma’am, I did not.”

David Dean

The Defense called Mr. Kronk’s co-worder, David Dean, who was there with Mr. Kronk on August 11, 2008, and who is the person who suggested they all take a break in the shade on Suburban Drive, next to the woods. He remembered telling Kronk that the woods would be good a place to hide the body of the little girl. Kronk stepped in a few feet looking around and said he thought he saw a skull in there, but as Mr. Dean headed that way to look, he saw a dead rattle snake and decided to get the snake and put it in his trunk to take back to work. The Defense tried to make it sound like there was something nefarious about Mr. Kronk not telling his co-workers that he reported it to the police, or telling them he met with a deputy a couple of days later.

During cross-examination, Linda Burdick asked if it was Mr. Dean’s idea that the little girl might be in the woods that prompted Mr. Kronk to look in there and he agreed. She asked Mr. Dean if he thought that those woods might be a good place to hide a body and Mr. Dean replied, “Yes, that and what Casey told her mother about the little girl being close to home.” [Probably, referring to the jail house visits between Casey and her parents.] The prosecutor asked him if he was familiar with that area because of his work and he replied that he was. Linda Burdick proceeded to ask him if it was a swampy area, full of water at certain times of the year, and Mr. Dean replied that it was.

Alex Roberts

The next witness called by the Defense was Alex Roberts, employed as Roy Kronk’s supervisor in 2008. He testified to Mr. Kronk not having read any meters that day because after his discovery of the remains he was not able to work. The supervisor claimed that Mr. Kronk called him to let him know what he found and asked him to come. Mr. Roberts found Roy Kronk nervously smoking by his county truck.

Sgt. Dennis Moon Sammy

The last witness the jury saw was Sergeant Dennis Moon Sammy with the Orange County corrections women’s detention, where Casey has been since 2008. Mr. Baez asked him if Casey Anthony was under a certain status, the Prosecution objected, the Judge called a sidebar, and then Judge Perry excused the jury for the rest of the day at 4:33 p.m. ET.

The Defense proffered Sgt. Sammy’s testimony outside the presence of the jury, which was to say that Casey Anthony has been under protective custody since October 2008, in a cell, 23 hours a day. The witness was asked about Casey’s demeanor and he described her as a model inmate, always smiling, pleasant and happy.

Marlene Baker

The Defense then called Marlene Baker, an Orange County Corrections officer who observed Ms. Anthony from 2008 when Casey arrived to 2010 when Ms. Baker transferred to another department. Ms. Baker also described Casey as pleasant.

The Judge stood by his ruling that the testimony was not relevant or material.

Jesse Grund

The Defense proffered testimony from Jesse Grund, Casey’s ex-fiancé when Casey was first born. Mr. Baez asked Mr. Grund if he recalled a conversation he had with Casey about her brother Lee. Mr. Grund noted that Lee was always very quiet and sullen around him, Casey and Caylee, and so Jesse asked Casey about it. Casey Anthony told him that she did not want her brother near Caylee because once she found him standing over her in the middle of the night, just staring at her, and on another occasion she woke up to find him groping her. Mr. Grund added that back then he took everything Casey said to him as the truth.

The prosecutor, Jeff Ashton, argued to the judge that the entire matter is hearsay and it does not go to a state of mind of the defendant at a relevant point in time. The Judge ruled that it was not admissible under the hearsay rule.

Future Defense Witnesses

The lawyers and the Judge then discussed a grief expert witness the Defense wants to bring in, but from whom, once again, there is no report as to what she plans to say on the stand. She did not evaluate Ms. Anthony and she does not know any of the facts in the case. The Defense wants to bring her in to speak about how different people grieve differently. The Judge, after something of an admonition, commented, “So, I guess we will be popping in and out of testimony tomorrow like pop tarts.”

The Judge then asked the Defense how many more witnesses they were planning to call after the grief counselor, and Mr. Mason said that there are a half dozen more witnesses. Judge Perry reminded the Defense that he, the Judge, will need to inquire, if the defendant chooses to testify, if it is her decision and her decision alone.

And court was recessed.

Final Thoughts

No good deed goes unpunished was the thought that I was left with today. It seemed that Casey was surrounded by people trying to help her find her daughter, from her family, to law enforcement, to perfect strangers. It seemed the only one who was not trying to help find Caylee was Casey.

It seemed that instead of gratitude for their efforts, the good Samaritans racked up legal bills, lost their jobs, were accused of crimes, and had their reputations tarnished or destroyed.

Casey’s parents and brother are all unemployed, while racking up legal bills. The Defense has accused the mother of perjuring herself and the father and brother have been accused of sexually molesting Casey since the age of eight.

Roy Kronk found the remains of Caylee Anthony, he is unemployed, he has racked up legal bills, and he has been accused by the Defense of moving the remains and seeking the reward money.

Detective Melich has been accused by the Defense of not doing his job well, of failing to read Casey her Miranda warnings, of entrapping her at Universal Studios, of failing to investigate other individuals, of deciding early on that he was going to focus on Casey and no one else.

Amy Huizenga, Casey’s former friend whose bank account Casey emptied out, was accused of going after Casey’s ex-boyfriends, of being an alcoholic, and of driving drunk.

Jesse Grund, Casey’s ex-fiancé whom she informed that he was Caylee’s father when she was pregnant, who was willing to still marry her when DNA testing proved he was not the father after Caylee was born, he was someone that Casey indicated to her family in those jail house visits that he could not be trusted and she did not know if he had something to do with Caylee’s disappearance.

Dr. Vass and Dr. Weiss were accused by the Defense of tailoring their testimony to validate some contraption they had invented and make royalties from its sale, even though it turned out that their potential customer, the U.S. government, does not have to pay them royalties.

And… the list seems endless.

The Defense has been so focused on blaming everyone else, that they have not spent much time presenting evidence that will prove their version of the events: that Caylee drowned; that the grandfather pulled her out of a pool; that he disposed of her body; that Casey’s father molested her since the age of eight; that her brother also molested her; and that Casey’s behavior is consistent with someone who deals with trauma through lies and denial.

At the very least, you would expect the Defense to call a psychiatrist to testify about his evaluation of Casey and her behavior during those 31 days… but they don’t have anyone who has evaluated her on their witness list

At this point, their only choice might be to put Casey on the stand. After all, she lied masterfully in her police interviews, to her parents, to her friends, and to her boyfriend. She knows she is a good liar; she even takes pride in it, as we know from her statement to an acquaintance, “Oh my God, I am such a good liar!”

Perhaps Ms. Anthony will insist to her Defense team to let her take the stand and perhaps they will have no choice or influence in the matter.

Perhaps she can convince one juror that her words are true and that her tears are real and perhaps she can hang a jury and get a mistrial… Perhaps.

We know she did it for 31 days and we know she’s done it for most of her adult life… And, who knows, perhaps she can do it again.

What are your thoughts?

Casey Anthony Trial | Day 31 – Daily Updates (Thoughts & Observations) – Coming Soon

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