Presumed Guilty

by Jose Baez

  There was nothing there. It was gone. It mysteriously disappeared. When I looked at this I was stunned.

  If you go to the cookies, there is not one cookie listed for June 16th. Here was the supposed “unfiltered version” of what was on that computer, filtered by the police.

  When I came across this information, I wanted to find out whether the prosecutors were aware of this. It was possible that the police did this on their own and kept it to themselves.

  To find out, I initially put Larry Daniels on my witness list. I planned on him testifying to the omissions and ramming this down the state’s throat at the trial.

  I also hired another confidential computer expert, Josh Restivo from St. Louis, and he verified the same thing that Daniels had found.

  CASEY’S REVELATIONS about what really happened on June 16 were, for me, a major breakthrough in the case. It was what I had been waiting for all along—the truth, not some story about people who didn’t exist. But I immediately realized a major problem. Her testimony was almost useless. I say this because Casey had lied so many times and for so long that I knew no one would believe her. She was the girl who told lies. I realized very quickly that if we were going to use this information as a defense, we were going to have to find evidence to corroborate what she was saying. But how do you prove a secret? I knew it would be difficult, if not impossible.

  I decided it was time to reread all of the discovery and do another walk-through of the evidence, but this time my goal was to try to disprove what Casey had told me. While her story made perfect sense, I wasn’t so quick to jump on board, especially given her prior proclivity for lying. I was going to be her harshest critic, because I knew if I couldn’t buy it, I couldn’t sell it to the jury.

  I then reviewed all of the evidence in the case, including phone and computer records, an effort which took weeks. I made a column for and against her story and the more I reviewed the evidence, the more the column in her favor began to stack up. I’m a visual person and knew with so many facts in this case, it was exactly what I would do to sway the jury.

  It began with the pool ladder. Casey told me it had been up. I checked it out.

  On June 16, 2008, the day Caylee died, Cindy said she came home from work and found the pool ladder up against the pool. This alone caused Cindy to be alarmed; when she went to work the next day, she told her coworkers about the ladder being up.

  “Somebody has been swimming in my pool,” she told them.

  “That’s what pools are for,” replied Cindy’s coworker Debbie Bennett.

  “No, you don’t understand,” said Cindy. “The pool ladder was left up, and the gate was open, and we never leave the ladder up. It must be kids in the neighborhood.”

  We later found out that Cindy and Caylee went swimming the night before, and while Cindy never admitted it, she may have been the one who left the ladder up when they got out of the pool that night. I found this conversation with her coworkers to be odd. Why would they even have this conversation? For a long time I suspected that Cindy might have known all along that Caylee was dead. But Casey never told me that was the case, and I had no other evidence to support that.

  The mystery I couldn’t solve was what would George do with Caylee’s body if he found her wet and limp in the pool? I reread all of George’s statements to the police and found a bombshell on July 24, 2008. Without his realizing it, George made a very damning statement to the detectives about his involvement.

  George had met with law enforcement and told them about the smell in Casey’s car and in doing so he said the following: “I know that as a fact. I’ve been around that. I mean the law enforcement stuff that I did, we caught people out in the woods, in a house, and in a car. So I know what it smells like. It’s a smell that you never forget.”

  There were three places where we knew Caylee had been dead. The first was the house where she died. The second was a car in which she was transported, and the third was in the woods. This was six months before Caylee was found in the woods.

  George didn’t say, “I smelled bodies in a Dumpster, in an alley, and in a morgue.” His statement only mentioned the places where her body had actually been.

  What I found shocking was that he made this statement long before Caylee was found in the woods. I know this is subjective, but I didn’t think it a coincidence and I was going to question him severely about this at trial. I couldn’t wait to ask him, “How did you know she would be found in the woods?”

  If that statement doesn’t impress you with being damning evidence, consider this: what if Casey had made it? I guarantee you the prosecution would have trumpeted that statement to the media as being her tacit confession.

  Another small piece of evidence that suggests Caylee died at home was the fact that when Caylee’s remains were recovered, she didn’t have on socks or shoes. According to all of George’s statements, Caylee never left the house barefoot. So where were her socks and shoes? This was just another piece of the puzzle that began to form.

  Next was the most damning piece of evidence: the duct tape. Recall that, while Caylee was missing, George had inexplicably called the police to report the loss of two old gas cans. When the police searched the Anthony home they found the same brand of duct tape as that found with Caylee’s remains. They found it in only one place—on one of the gas cans George had reported to the police stolen.

  To me, George calling the police and reporting the gas cans missing was the biggest red flag in the case. Reporting them would only do one thing: it would document the incident. He knew Casey had taken the gas cans, and by calling in the theft of the gas cans, it would point away from him and directly to Casey.

  George did something else in what I believe was an effort to try to pin Caylee’s death on Casey. He recounted how, when he sought to retrieve the gas cans from the trunk, Casey ran ahead of him ostensibly to keep him from seeing what was in the trunk.

  And then, after the duct tape was found near Caylee’s remains, he did all he could to make the prosecutors believe he hadn’t been the one to put the duct tape on his gas cans. More likely, any evidence pointing to him they blithely ignored because it didn’t fit the reality show script that was supposed to end in Casey’s conviction.

  Prosecutor Jeff Ashton asked George during his deposition, “It’s your recollection today that when she gave the [gas cans] back to you, the one did not have the duct tape on it?”

  “Most definitely,” was George’s response. “I’m positive.”

  “And you testified before that, in doing that, you would have put duct tape over the vent, since it was gone?”

  “Yeah, if I would have used that particular can. Yeah,” said George. He said he would have done so to keep the vapors inside the can.

  “I would have done a neat job with it. I wouldn’t have done what you showed me in the photograph.”

  “Sure,” said Ashton.

  “I wouldn’t have done that,” said George.

  “And that’s the can you would use for gas for the mower, the round one?” asked Ashton.

  “Yeah. That’s the one I used to use. Yes.”

  But George’s story goes back and forth. Then George told Ashton that when he gave the police the gas cans on August 1, 2008, the cans did not have duct tape on them. He seems to be implying that the duct tape was applied while the cans were in police custody.

  Extremely agitated, Ashton asked him, “So is it your testimony now that when they took it on August 1, that it did not have duct tape over the vent?”

  “Didn’t have duct tape over the vent,” George replied. “And when it came back to me, or the last time I saw it, now it has duct tape on it. And I did not put that on there.”

  Asked Ashton, “So then explain to me, if you will, how it’s possible that you used this can to get gas for your lawnmower sometime between June 24 and August 1, would have put duct tape over the vent in order to utilize it in your car, but then it wouldn’t have duct tape on it on August 1st.
”

  “That’s a mystery to me, too,” said George.

  Ashton wasn’t buying his story.

  “Did you take the duct tape, put it on and off again?”

  “No, sir. I did not do that,” said George.

  Replied an exasperated Ashton, “But your testimony here today, under oath, [he needs to remind him that he is under oath] that you have a specific recollection that when the police officers took this from your home on August 1, 2008, that this piece of duct tape was not on this can?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Please answer out loud ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’” (Ashton wanted to lock in his answer.)

  “It was not on the can,” said George. “Yes. It was not on that can.”

  George was saying that he wasn’t responsible for the duct tape that was on the gas can. In his own inimitable way, he was saying that the police had planted the duct tape. He feared the police were going to use the duct tape evidence against him, but George was trying to use the duct tape evidence to pin Caylee’s death on Casey.

  As hard as he—and the police—tried, and as often as they boasted they would, they couldn’t link Casey to the duct tape because the truth was she had never been anywhere near it. Proof of that was, even though the duct tape on the gas can hadn’t been exposed to the outdoor elements and was still completely sticky, it didn’t have Casey’s fingerprints or DNA on it. Not a single trace on any of the pieces of duct tape could be linked back to Casey.

  Something else to think about: Whoever put that duct tape on the gas can while leaving no trace had to possess knowledge of and skill in police investigatory techniques. Only one member of the Anthony family had been a cop, and that was George.

  A couple months later, the media would deliver the final blow to the ridiculous theory that Casey had put duct tape on Caylee’s mouth. They did this by finding a hidden video of the same duct tape on a poster of Caylee at the command center manned by George. For all of their bashing of Casey, it was the media that would put the prosecution’s “murder weapon” in the hand of George Anthony, three weeks after Casey was arrested and in jail.

  After the media uncovered the duct tape at the command center manned by George, police began to question people who worked there with him. One of those people was a woman by the name of Linda Tinelli, who told Detective Eric Edwards and Sergeant John Allen that one day the wind was blowing the tablecloth off the volunteer table.

  “I have something that will fix that,” said George.

  He then went into his car to grab some tape. She couldn’t remember what kind of tape it was, but a video obtained by the media made it clear that it was Henkel duct tape, a unique brand with the logo clearly visible, that police were saying had killed Caylee. Another media outlet, WKMG, would obtain video showing almost an entire roll of the duct tape behind the donation jar. Four months later the entire roll of duct tape had disappeared after last being seen with George Anthony.

  This occurred three weeks after Casey was arrested. This had to make the cops nervous. Could they have arrested the wrong person? Edwards asked Tinelli if she would wear a wire and go and speak to George, but she refused. They were so desperate they asked her twice. Again she refused. On one of those occasions Tinelli told Edwards that he reminded her very much of George.

  Edwards immediately responded, “The only difference between me and George Anthony is I have a job and my kids are still alive.”

  After the police spoke to the volunteers at the Caylee command center, several people suggested that they should speak to a woman by the name of Krystal Holloway. People were whispering that there might have been something going on between George and Holloway. Holloway initially denied the affair to police, but then came clean and admitted it. She didn’t want to be dragged into the spotlight and the never-ending media circus of the Casey Anthony case.

  In her statement to law enforcement, Holloway dropped a major bombshell. According to Holloway, George, in a moment of weakness, had told her about what happened to Caylee. She said that while with him in her apartment one day, the two of them shared a quiet moment when Holloway asked him if he had seen Casey or spoken to her.

  George said no, because of all that’s going on. And then he said to her, “You know, I’ve always respected you because you’ve never asked me once whether you thought my daughter did it or not.”

  “Well,” said Holloway, “I don’t know her. But I can tell that two people like you wouldn’t raise someone who would do something like that.”

  “Thank you,” George replied.

  Holloway began to cry, and George said to her, “It was an accident that just … snowballed out of control.”

  “I know what’s that like,” said Holloway, “because I’ve been through that myself.” George was on the couch, and she was sitting on the floor. She got up and gave him a hug.

  “I felt so bad,” said Holloway. The admission took Holloway aback because she now knew that Caylee was dead, and this searching for George’s darling granddaughter was only a ruse.

  Holloway’s testimony was very important, because she was the only independent witness who showed that Casey’s version of the events on the 16th was correct. She had no obvious reason to lie, and she was a reluctant witness, not wanting to get involved.

  We needed to make sure that Holloway was credible. She wasn’t without her problems. She had an alias of River Cruz. And she sold her story to the National Enquirer for $4,000.

  But Holloway wasn’t a kook. Apparently she had a stalker and used the other name to get away from him. And she needed the money because she said that she had loaned George close to $5,000, and he never paid her back. George told her he wasn’t working and that no one would hire him because of the case. According to Holloway, Cindy didn’t know George wasn’t working, so every day George would get dressed and pretend he was going to work and would instead go see Holloway. (Sound familiar? For two years Casey had dressed and pretended to go to work.) I know I’ve already used the “apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree” expression, but I just can’t resist.

  Another thing that gave Holloway’s story credibility was that she lived in a gated community with a guard, who testified that he had seen George coming and going from her apartment several times during that time period. Being in the news every day and driving a PT Cruiser plastered with Caylee’s posters all over it, George wasn’t hard to spot. George had also sent Holloway a text message after Caylee’s remains were found that read, “Thinking of you. I need you in my life.”

  When co-counsel Cheney Mason and I confronted George about the sexual abuse, we also confronted him about Holloway’s statements.

  “George,” I said, “we have statements from Krystal Holloway that we got from the police. It came through discovery, and it hasn’t been released yet to the media. There are some things you need to know that are in there.”

  “Krystal says you told her that Caylee’s death was an accident that snowballed out of control.” I said to George, “Your daughter’s life is on the line here, and if you saw an accident, it will save her life. I have to tell you, what Casey says is irrelevant, because nobody believes her, so I need to find corroborating evidence for everything she says. So, George, please, if you saw something, we can find a way of working this all out. ’Cause if you saw an accident, it will save your daughter’s life.”

  He answered quickly and defensively.

  “You know what?” George said. “No. The last time I saw my granddaughter alive was at 12:50 P.M. when she walked out the door on June 16.”

  My mouth dropped, and George could see it. I was saying to myself, He’s lying.

  “Did you see how defensive he got after I mentioned Krystal Holloway?” I asked Cheney. “You know what? I’ve seen that before, when Casey lied in defiance.” It was the same body language and the same attitude.

  A number of things came together for me at this point. “This man hates his daughter,” I said.

  “I have a d
aughter too,” said Cheney, “and I agree with you.”

  There’s no way I wouldn’t fall on my sword for my daughter. I realized that George Anthony was in a tough position, but he had the perfect opportunity to free his daughter. Here was his chance to throw his daughter a lifeline, to stand up and tell the truth, or even to lie, and he wouldn’t even consider it.

  “This guy’s a monster,” I said. And Cheney agreed.

  After meeting with George, I went back to Day One to find further proof that George knew Caylee was dead and listened to Cindy’s first 9-1-1 call on July 7. There’s a moment when Cindy says to George, “Caylee’s missing.”

  And George softly says, “What?”

  Cindy says, “Casey says the nanny took her over a month ago.” And all you hear is dead silence. I’ll never forget as I was listening to that, I said to myself, George, you son of a bitch. Because George knew. And I would argue this to the jury. When you listen to that 9-1-1 tape, you hear his silence as loud as could be. He doesn’t scream, “What do you mean Caylee’s missing?” Rather, he is dead silent. How do you not go nuts or ballistic over the fact that your granddaughter has been missing for more than a month?

  During the trial we asked several police officers and Casey’s brother, Lee, about George’s behavior when Caylee first was reported missing.

  “Did George ask any questions?” I asked.

  “No, he didn’t ask any questions. He just stood there.”

  And that’s the biggest question of them all, and only George Anthony can answer it: Why?

  When I connected the dots, every dot fell into place. The gas cans. The duct tape that George had used. The statements about Caylee’s death being an accident. The fact that Caylee was found so close to home. She was placed there—not to be hidden, but to be found—until someone else found her and hid her under a heavy tree. It all made perfect sense.

  I was being a lawyer here and needed the information, but now that I had it, I had to figure out what to do with it. Do I try to cut a deal with the prosecutor? Do I let them know what I had learned? I didn’t know. I asked myself, If I tell the prosecutors, will they be sympathetic toward Casey? I knew they wouldn’t. We were at the point of no return.