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Witness: Anthony Lazzaro
Jose Baez continues cross-exam of Anthony Lazzaro, boyfriend of Casey Anthony at the time Caylee disappeared. He asks if Caylee laughed with Casey, hugged her, ran to her? Yes. Lazzaro agreed there seemed to be a lot of love between them. Caylee would have her teddy bear, toys, books with her. She already knew how to count to 40 in Spanish from watching Dora the Explorer, he said.
He can't recall whether the gas cans had duct tape on them when he and Casey took them from shed. Baez commented that the photos taken at Fusion were part of promotional business, commonly posted online to attract interest (including photos of pretty girls). Lazzaro agrees with that.
Baez tells Lazzaro not to tell what the secret was, but asks if it was shared prior to Casey's arrest. Lazzaro says yes. Baez asks if he and Casey grew closer end of June, beginning of July. Lazzaro said yes and said that they had said "I love you" to each other.
Baez asks if when news broke on July 16, he was shocked. Yes. Baez asks if Casey were to confide in anyone, would Lazzaro think it would have been him? He says yes, him, or her parents. When she talked to her parents, she went outside -- kept that world separate from your world? Yes, he said.
Re-direct by George. Lazzaro says it's not that there was no duct tape on cans, but that he can't recall whether there was or wasn't. He said when they reached her car with the cans, he parked in front of her vehicle. He immediately opened his tailgate and removed the cans. Casey poured the first one in her tank and he passed her the second one. He closed his tailgate and was standing between the back of his car and front of hers. Said all he could see was the rubber seal of the trunk; couldn't see inside it at all.
Re-cross by Baez. He asks Tony if he knew the trunk was a significant part of case. Yes. When he talked to LE, he told them he did not notice an odor. Correct, said Lazzaro.
Witness: George Anthony (recalled by State)
Ashton calls George back to the stand to clarify events of June 24 (gas cans/argument with Casey). George was preparing to mow his lawn. Went to the shed and found it'd been broken into. The only things missing were his two gas cans. He called police and an officer came out and took a statement. He then went and purchased new gas cans.
A little after 2:00pm on June 24, George saw his daughter for the first time since June 16th. She seemed surprised to find him home (he normally would've been working that day but took it off to take care of some things). He suspected she might've taken the gas, so he used some tire blocks in her trunk as a ruse to check it. She brushed past him, ran out to the car, opened the trunk and said, "Here's your fucking gas cans," thrusting them at him.
George said he did not see inside the trunk and the only odor he noticed was from the gasoline cans. He's shown a photo of the can and says he's had it probably 25 yrs. The small piece of duct tape was put on it because the vent cap was missing when Casey returned it.
Cross-exam by Baez. He asks whether George knew Casey had taken gas in the past. Yes. Did it upset him when she did that? Yes. Baez asks whether, when he called LE to report gas cans missing, he reported his granddaughter missing as well. George responded that his granddaughter wasn't missing on June 24th.
Baez commented that he'd never been more than a day without seeing Caylee and hadn't seen her in 9 days, yet George didn't mention that or Casey's having taken gas cans when they came out for the shed break-in. Again, George tried to clarify that as far as he knew, Caylee was not missing as of June 24th -- he thought she was in the car of her mother.
George said he smelled no odor from her trunk and that there was no duct tape on the gas cans when she gave them back. Baez attempts to impeach him with prior statement saying he didn't put duct tape on gas can. George explains that the photo Baez refers to shows a longer piece of tape that was on the can when LE returned it to him. He did not put that piece on there; he placed the smaller piece on there to replace the vent cap.
Baez kept on and on with the same questions til the Judge finally stopped him and said, "You *can't* question the witness about something that's *not* in evidence." Baez continued on, having George step down from the stand and mark dates on a giant calendar. They were standing within arm's distance of each other. There was a lot of tension between them.
Baez continued to ask questions, but mostly make statements with a "right?" or "did you not?" at the end of the statement. He was trying to insinuate that George was lying, knew Caylee was "missing" as of June 24 and purposely tried to incriminate Casey with the gas cans and duct tape.
Between the inartful phrasing of Baez's exam and his repeated time-wasting attempts to go where the judge told him not to and George's claiming that Baez was badgering him, trying to confuse him, it was a painful, very awkward process.
Witness: Ricardo Morales
Frank George for the state on direct exam. Morales shared a townhome with J.P. Chatt. Morales dated Anthony from early 2008 through mid-April, when they broke up. She spent 4-5 nights a week at his place and almost always brought Caylee with her. Casey would sleep in the middle of the bed with Morales on one side of her and Caylee on the other. She didn't leave clothes or toiletries for herself/Caylee at his apartment.
Anthony told him she worked at Universal as an event coordinator and that part of her duties included giving tours to out-of-towners. He never visited her at work. She occasionally talked about work, including a coworker named Juliet and a boss named Tom. He never met or spoke to either of them.
George shows him a photo of Casey & Caylee he took in his room. He believes the photo was taken late January, he says, because Caylee has a bruise under her eye. (Objection/Sidebar - More on this photo later.) Morales said he and Anthony remained friends and in contact after their April break-up.
During the time Morales dated Casey, he never met her parents, although he'd been to the house when Casey invited him over for breakfast. The last time Morales saw Caylee was the morning of June 10, and he didn't see Casey again til July 1st. Had maybe 1-2 texts with her during that time.
By July 1, he and Chatt had a friend, Amy, sleeping on their couch. She'd wrecked her car and didn't have transportation to work. They lived near her job and let her stay with them. Amy told them she was planning to move in with Casey at her parents' home after the parents moved out.
Morales was surprised to see Casey sitting on his sofa, talking with Amy, when he awoke the morning of July 1st. From July 2 - July 8, he took a trip to Boston and did not have contact with Casey during that time. On July 8, he didn't go home when he returned to Orlando; instead, he waited at the airport for another flight out, this time to Puerto Rico.
Amy, JP, Troy and Morales went to Puerto Rico together. Casey had been invited at one point (since she was his girlfriend). He hadn't rescinded the invitation, but he wasn't expecting her to join them. She picked them all up from the airport on July 15 and gave them a ride. Lunch recess. Will start new post for rest of the afternoon.
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