By Jacqueline Fell, Adam Longo , Kelli Cook and Christine Webb, Team Coverage
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 05, 2011 4:43 AM
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 05, 2011 4:43 AM
The Case Against Casey
Trial Recap & Photos (this is an excellent day by day summary of the trial with photos)
The jury of seven women and five men are debating whether Anthony is guilty of first-degree murder. If convicted of that charge, the 25-year-old could get the death penalty or life in prison. The five alternates will continue to be sequestered until the jury reaches a verdict.
The jury received the case from Judge Perry at 12:09 p.m. Monday. They deliberated until about 6 p.m. Monday night without asking a single question of the judge or lawyers. They will return to the courthouse on Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m.
Once a verdict is reached, Judge Belvin Perry will give a 30 minute warning to allow the state, defense, defendant and other to gather inside the courtroom.
Meanwhile, hundreds have started gathering at the Orange County Courthouse to await a verdict.
Monday morning, prosecutors told jurors they kept their promises, alluding to defense claims that never materialized.
Prosecutor Jeff Ashton began his rebuttal by trying to convince jurors to believe the state's forensic evidence. Defense attorneys on Sunday called the forensic evidence "fantasy."
Ashton says duct tape held together the skull and jaw bone of Caylee's skeleton, which he says means the tape was placed there before her body decomposed. He says the defense never showed why George Anthony would place duct tape over his dead granddaughter Caylee's body and dump her in the woods instead of calling 911.
Lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick told the jurors she and her colleagues backed up every claim they made in their opening statement six weeks ago.
Without saying it, she was pointing out to the jury that the defense never directly backed up its opening statement claim that Anthony's 2-year-old daughter Caylee drowned and that Anthony's father made the death look like a murder.
The state says Anthony was a party girl who killed her daughter Caylee by covering her face with duct tape because she got in the way of her mom's love life. Her attorneys say Caylee accidentally drowned in a pool, and the mother's lies and erratic behavior afterward were brought on by trauma from her own childhood.
On Sunday, the prosecution took just under an hour and a half to for its closing arguments.
The defense took more than twice that time as both sides tried one last time to sway the jurors to their side.
But the lawyers got into a little trouble about their behavior in the courtroom.
In fact, it led to a delay in Sunday's proceedings. Judge Perry nearly found the lawyers in contempt of court
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