Sex, Lies & Video Tape: The Casey Anthony Trial (Week Two)

As the Prosecution ended it’s chronological witness parade describing the 31 days that Casey Anthony failed to report her daughter missing we moved on to police interviews and interrogations and jailhouse visitations with her family. It was riviting stuff even though many of us have viewed these tapes a gazillion times during the past three years. Watching those conversations through the eyes of Casey, who has now admitted that her daughter was indeed dead on June 16th, 2008 was fascinating and brought a whole new dimension to the words that were spoken.

I wondered how the jury was reacting to hearing lie after lie after lie and if they were as puzzled as the Detectives who interviewed her were. Poor Yuri Melich was confounded by this strange creature who lied like no other and seemed to believe her own stories. She had so many details that it really seemed like the truth….for awhile. Some of her “Imaginary characters” even had pets!

I’ve watched professionals like Dr. Drew and others attempting to analyze Casey and coming to the same conclusion that I came too three years ago…she is a sociopath and a narcissist. No surprise to me, but still a puzzle for many. How could this happen and what makes a Casey Anthony tick?

I don’t think that anyone really knows the answer to that question and no amount of “talking head” banter will answer that question, in my opinion. I believe that she was born without a conscience (soul?) and enabled by doting and frightened parents to develop into the “monster” that she turned into eventually. It is all too obvious during her conversations with her mother and father as they try to comfort AND confront her while she is in jail and how they walk on egg shells while doing both.

“Calm down sweetheart”, says Casey’s mother Cindy when Casey shows the dark side of her personality and one can feel the evil through the television screen. She grabs her face and sputters in anger as she is asked for any details that can help them find their granddaughter, Caylee. Of course, Casey knows all along that Caylee is dead and dumped in a wooded area fifteen houses away from their home. Does she put them out of their misery and confess to what really happened? Does she admit to an accidental drowning or any other answers as to how Caylee died, no, she does not. She waits until her attorney gives his opening statement in front of a jury and the world at large and accuses her poor, suffering father of molesting her and aiding in a cover-up to hide Caylee’s “accidental death by drowning”. She claims that she is so traumatized by years of molestation that she acted in a bizarre manner for 31 days. In one fell swoop she managed to totally destroy her entire family. Good job Casey…you finished what you started and wiped out your whole family.

After listening to five hours of tapes and hearing too many lies to count the jury was subjected to the most tedious part of any trial; the collection and identification process of evidence by REAL CSI’s. It ain’t like the television show folks. It’s boring and mundane and consists of lots of packaging and labeling. The CSI’s don’t analyze the evidence, they send it to the appropriate laboratory and at a later time the results come back. They don’t solve the case in an hour and run around packing guns like Gil and Nick and Catherine Willows do. They are educated, smart and expert at their jobs and they make really good witnesses if they’ve done their jobs right. This group from The Orange County Sheriffs Department in Orlando, Florida, were brilliant at their jobs but even they couldn’t make the endless reading off of labels and evidence numbers and indentifications sound interesting. Too bad that their hard and important work has been tainted by the “fake” CSI’s that we watch on television every week.

Next week we will hear about what the various labs found in that great circumstantial but important pile of alphabet letters and numbers that the CSI’s collected and some of it will damn Casey. None of it will go unchallenged by Jose Biaz and some of it will not be relevant. Much of it will not be understood by a jury of Casey’s peers or by us who are following the case. Some of it will be damning and nothing that Biaz says during his very rigorous and at times, idiotic cross examination will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey did in fact murder her daughter. That is MY opinion.

Whether or not the jury will buy her claims of suffering at the hands of an evil father and a controlling mother and will set her free, convict her of something less than premeditated murder or hang the jury and require a whole new trial remains to be seen. Whether the lies will continue to affect the minds of the jurors and bring no real justice for Caylee also remains to be seen.

I am sure of only one thing and that is that Casey Anthony is not such a huge puzzle that needs figuring out. She is a sociopath and a narcissist and she follows in the footsteps of many others of her ilk. She is what she is and no matter whther she is free or locked up she will NEVER change.

Onward to week three and lots of foreign words and descriptions that most of us have never heard before. If you really listen, you will be interested and informed even if it does seem boring. Much of it will be original and never before seen or heard in any criminal trial. There is an awful lot to be learned from REAL crime scene investigation and evidence processing and I don’t mean what we now accept as truth and that is in fact, science fiction.