Casey Anthony Trial: Defense Opening Statement -- Caylee Drowned in Family Pool

Glued to truTV today, I watched as defense attorney Jose Baez gave his opening statement, laying out several bombshell allegations.

Stating that this trial is not about what Casey Anthony did in the 31 days before the police were called in, it is about what happened to Caylee Anthony, he inferred that her bizarre behavior didn't make her a murderer. Eight minutes into his statement, he claimed that Caylee drowned in the family's backyard above-ground swimming pool.

Caylee's claims that on June 16, 2008, she, her father George and Caylee were home, and George at some point angrily asked her where was Caylee. After searching the house, they went outside, Casey going around one side of house, George around the other. When Casey met up with him in the backyard, he was holding Caylee's lifeless body. My opinion on this is that if I had a pool and a missing toddler, that's the first place I'd look.

Allegedly, Casey then took the child and got hysterical, and George yelled at her "Your mother's never going to forgive you for this," and told her she would go to jail for the rest of her life. Casey then asked George to help her, which Baez said "he did, soon after." There was no explanation of how George helped her. There was no more talk of who took Caylee's body where or when.

Why didn't Casey call the police? Baez claimed that George Anthony sexually abused her from the time she was 8, which taught Casey to lie and pretend things were normal when they were not. George Anthony has categorically denied abusing his daughter. Later, the defense claimed that George Anthony had an affair, and told his girlfriend that "It was all an accident that snowballed out of control." Anthony denies any such affair. Why didn't George call the police? There was no explanation. Baez then suggested that Cindy Anthony was the one who forgot to remove the ladder from the pool, which the family claims they did religiously. The blame is now shifted on both parents.

Baez then turned to Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found Casey's body. He reportedly told the police three times in August and once in November that he thought he found a body, but police found nothing. The defense is arguing that Kronk found Casey's body months before and, anticipating a reward, placed it where police found it in December.

A big issue is whether or not the smell of a decomposing body was in the trunk of Casey's car. Casey's ex-boyfriend Tony Lazarro, who cooperated with prosecutors to the point of wearing a wire, has reportedly said that during the time Caylee's body is alleged to have been in the trunk, he saw Casey open the trunk and he smelled nothing. The defense claims the smell in the car after the Anthonys retrieved it was rotting garbage. Baez intends to debunk the hair evidence, the cadaver dog evidence and the air sample evidence.

Do Casey's actions in the 31 days before the police were notified mean she's a murderer? Did police focus on her intentionally murdering he daughter to the extent any other explanation was not even investigated? The key issue in the case IS what happened to little Caylee.