My Daily Joe

Casey Anthony’s defense team rested its case today after trying with mixed success to implicate her father and meter reader Roy Kronk in disposing of the body of Caylee Anthony, two men who are at the center of their strategy to save Casey Anthony from a death sentence.

Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, and conviction could result in her execution.

The most debated tactic of her defense team was to keep her off the stand.

“The jury will be given very specific instructions, you cannot hold it against her that she’s not testifying,” said ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams. “But I am certain these jurors are going to be thinking, ‘Why didn’t she testify?’” Read more »

A giant 55 foot ‘sea monster’ has been found washed up on a beach in China.

The beast from the deep is so badly decayed it cannot be identified.

But according to local reports from Guangdong, in the south-east of the country, it weighed at least 4.5 tons.

One fisherman, known only as Hwang, 66, said he was astonished by the find.

People have flocked to see the creature — despite the rotting corpse’s foul stench.

It was found tangled in ropes and one theory is fisherman caught it but could not land it as it was so big.

For a picture of the unidentified beast, check out the Sun.

Casey Anthony’s “surprise witness” became an embarrassment for the defense today when the witness held a news conference outside of the courthouse where she is being tried for murder and said that he did not know the Anthony family.

Defense attorney Jose Baez included Vasco Thompson, a convicted kidnapper, as a last minute surprise addition to his amended witness list earlier this week. Baez claimed that Thompson and Casey Anthony’s father, George Anthony, shared a series of phone conversations the day before 2-year-old Caylee Anthony’s disappearance was reported to authorities in July 2008.

George Anthony angrily issued a statement through his attorney earlier this week denying those claims. Today, Vasco Thompson stood outside the Orange County courthouse and also denied that he’d ever met George Anthony.

“I have no idea who George Anthony is,” Thompson said. “The phone number they got, I didn’t have that number until February of 2009. I don’t know why they dragged me into all this mess.”

Baez never said what Thompson’s connection to the case may have been, but he has accused George Anthony of helping to dispose of Caylee’s body after she accidentally drowned in the family pool.

It is unlikely that Baez will now call Thompson to the witness stand. Read more »

An FBI forensics expert appeared to cast doubt today on evidence that the outline of a heart sticker was detected on duct tape found on the decomposing skull of 2-year-old Casey Anthony.

The heart stickers are a key piece of the prosecution’s case against Casey Anthony, the Florida woman accused of murdering her daughter Caylee in 2008.

The prosecution claims that the outline of a heart sticker was found on duct tape on Caylee’s skull and another heart sticker was found near her remains. The duct tape, they contend, was placed over Caylee’s mouth and nose. They argued that these stickers are similar to stickers found in Casey Anthony’s bedroom and link Casey Anthony to her daughter’s death.

Forensic expert Lorie Gottesman said that she was unable to find any trace of a heart shaped sticker on the duct tape found on Caylee’s skull.

“I was unable to see any sticker or sticker fragment with the naked eye…After trying all the different lights and different filters I was unable to detect any sticker or sticker fragment,” said Gottesman.

Earlier in the trial another FBI forensics expert, Elizabeth Fontaine, told the court, “During my examination… an outline of a heart appeared in one of the corners on the edge of that piece of duct tape… The outline of the heart resembled that glue or debris that if you had been wearing a band aid for an extended period of time.”

Fontaine examined the duct tape first, looking for latent prints. She found no prints on the tape and unexpectedly found the outline of the heart. Gottesman looked at the tape after Fontaine and was tasked specifically with looking for the heart shape Read more »

Casey Anthony’s mother mouthed the words “I love you” today as she left the witness stand in what was likely the final day of the prosecution’s case in the Florida murder trial.

The prosecution is expected to tell the Orlando court on Wednesday that it has concluded presenting evidence that Casey Anthony allegedly killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in June 2008. Casey Anthony could face the death penalty if convicted of the murder.

Casey Anthony’s lawyers asked the judge for a second time to declare a mistrial today, but the request was denied by Judge Belvin Perry.

Cindy Anthony was among the final witnesses for the prosecution, testifying tearfully at times as she recalled items like the remmants of a shirt found with Caylee’s remains and heart shaped stickers.

The dead girl’s grandmother said that she had never seen the pink shirt that reads “Big Trouble Comes Small” until she was asked by police about a photo showing Caylee wearing the shirt. Only shreds of the shirt survived during the the six months between the time that Caylee was last seen in June 2008 and when her body was found a short distance from the Anthony home in December 2008.

In addition, Cindy Anthony told the court that she noticed in May 2008 that Caylee’s Winnie the Pooh blanket was missing. Rotting bits of a Winnie the Pooh blanket were found with Caylee’s remains.

Caution that some evidence photos are graphic

The trial has touched at times on gruesome details that have repeatedly reduced Cindy Anthony to tears as well as grim photos introduced as evidence. Those photos have included such gritty details as Caylee’s hair, bones fragments, and a reconstructed skeleton of Caylee’s body. Read more »