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Dave Knechel | tagged Amy Pavuk, Anthony Colarossi, Bianca Prieto, RRed Huber | in Bill Sheaffer, Casey Anthony, Caylee Anthony, Cheney Mason, Dave Knechel, David B. Knechel, David Knechel, Human Interest, Jose Baez, Marinade Dave, Marinade Dave Knechel, Marinade Dave’s Caylee Anthony Posts, Orlando Sentinel, WFTV, marinadedave | Share Article 
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Reader Comments (123)
One of the atty's for the man accused of killing the 8 yr. old in NY resigned from the case last night. He stated having 3 sons he could not represent a man who did this type of crime to a child.
Oh my, a defense atty that cares about the victim. Is this a new trend?
Thank you so very much, Carole. I'll be back to writing soon because I have a few ideas floating inside my head. I tried to be as level-headed as I could be while reporting on Caylee and her mother. I had my moments, but I sure did try to be fair. It's nice you think I was. I know how easy it is to work a crowd into a frenzy, and there were tons of people who did just that. There's no doubt my blog attracted mostly sensible people, and it wasn't just me. We all chipped in to keep tabs on each other. That's what made this blog successful. That means you, my friend. All of us, so we all can take credit for it turning into a safe haven in the blog storm that sometimes gusted out of control. While I'm not happy with the results, I'm very glad it's over.
I may have a couple of clean up posts, but I'm also working on another local murder I find interesting. When that one's ready, you'll see it.
Thanks, Carole. You are a wonderful friend.
Good to see you, calli patti! Yes, there are attorneys with good consciences, but in this case, the defendant admitted he did it. Casey did no such thing. Both were hideous crimes. In the NY case, I'll bet you another criminal defense attorney will come along. They always do.
Yes, Carol that was my point. If the anonymous tip hadn't come in yesterday NO ONE would have known that this sweet little 4 year old child was unaccounted for since July 14th. That was 1 week ago.He was found today. 7 long days and his mother didn't know where he was and never said a word to the authorities. Poor little guy living in a flea bag motel with his prostitute mother and pawned off on a homeless heroin addict while she turned a trick is a scary thing. But it is reality. It sounds like 1 hour turned into a stint in jail. There ought to be a law and that's why I believe Caylee's Law in whatever form it is tweaked into will be a good thing.
Dave, maybe it will be after the fact but if the parent knows there are serious repercussions, as in serious jail time, maybe they'll think twice before they do it. Can you imagine these unfit, sorry excuses for a parent saying to themselves, "damn, now I've got to know where my babies are at all times or I could go to jail!". How can you legally be allowed to not know exactly where your child is and that they are safe and being taken care of? For all this woman knew her child could have been sold to a child pedophile ring a week ago. Thank God for the tipster.
Dave,
GOODY GOODY!!!
I can hardly wait to see what has caught your interest that you might write about!! I know it will be a fascinating topic.
Terrytsk - I doubt the law would deter mothers like her. She had to know at the time that what she was doing was downright wrong and immoral, hooking or not. Turning a trick was more important to her. I say one strike, you're out, unless the mother can prove she's been clean for two years because drugs are what fuel women like her. And in her case, having Caylee's Law in place wouldn't have stopped her. As far as I'm concerned, it adds to the other felony and misdemeanor charges. Knowing Casey, she wouldn't have cared, either, but with an additional charge, she wouldn't be free today.
For sure, that child was lucky. Not so for Caylee.
Okay, we can agree to disagree on whether or not a law proposing to charge parents (I'll say parents because it's not always Mom who has custody and is responsible for the well-being of a child) who does not know where that child is and is not sure that the child is safe and being well cared for should be in place. I'm not sure what the cut off age should be. I'm not sure how to deal with parental custody disputes, runaways, etc.
All I know is a 2 year old like Caylee, or a 4 year old child as in this case sure as hell deserve at least having someone monitoring their well-being and indeed ensuring they are still alive and haven't actually been packaged in garbage bags and a laundry bag like garbage and thrown in the swamp to be torn apart and eaten by rodents without any questions. That's my personal opinion. Disagree all you want.
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Carole - One of the posts will be about ZG - the one represented by John Morgan. The other one I'm working on has a lot to do with a murder, but it's got nothing to do with Casey or her clan of clowns.
I'm not disagreeing with you at all, Terrytsk. All I'm saying is that a mother like Casey and the one that handed her child over to a homeless drug addict obviously don't care about law. That hooker knew what she was doing was illegal, but it didn't stop her. Casey, for crying out loud, knew that everything she did with her daughter, in the end, was against the law. Here are two prime examples that show laws don't matter. That's all I'm saying, so in the end, if it only succeeds in people like them spending more time behind bars, then Caylee's Law would help. Generally, when people do bad things, they don't check law books first. As a matter of fact, they just don't care. However, if it does deter some parents who are generally law abiding, then the law can work that way, too.
I have been trying to figure out why I have spent so much time and emotional energy on this murder and the family of the killer. Today as I was reading a thought popped in my mind that has almost scared me. What if our karma was Casey not being found guilty? .
I can say for myself I have crossed many of my own "standards." I have entertained many, many negative thoughts and more than one time stated my frustration and hate. I have fed my own fire.
Quote, "That hooker knew what she was doing was illegal, but it didn't stop her. Casey, for crying out loud, knew that every thing she did with her daughter, in the end, was against the law".
But Dave is it against the law? We know casey anthony was not charged for not reporting her child missing for 31 days. She was charged with lying to LE. Maybe I'm confused on what Caylee's Law is hoping to address. I thought it was being considered to cover what is lacking in the law as far as parental responsibility is concerned, namely not bothering to report that your child is missing, or dead, or possibly dead, or possibly being passed around a pedophile ring, or living on the street with a homeless drug addict. I'll have to go back and relook at what laws the petitions are asking for before I say any more.
Hi Newbie - You know, I know exactly what you're saying. This case had it all, right from the git-go. A seemingly normal middle class All-American family. Attractive parents. Good looking daughter. Adorable granddaughter. Missing a whole month without reporting it. It was destined to become a big story, and as it unfolded, the family was exposed to the world. Down came the facade of being a normal family. We got to see every wart, every pimple, every mole, and every imperfection. In the end, the only normal one in the bunch was the victim. Long before the WWW, it was peek around the curtain at your neighbors. Today, it's the Internet that peels back the curtains. This whole thing was a mess, and we were not just taken inside the Anthony home, we got to follow their every move. Everything that happened caused us to love, hate, and look into the sordid abyss, not knowing what to expect next. We were drawn into it because of what it was - a perfect storm. It had it all. Sex, lies, and feuds, accusations, hate and whatever else under the Florida sun.
It seemed as if the whole world became unglued. It wasn't just the family, either. Florida's discovery laws opened every door. Arguments over the death penalty ensued, not to mention wild imaginations over evidence we got to see. In death, Caylee's memory took on a life of its own. Many people felt (and still do) empowered, as if they owned the toddler and her blood family had no rights to claim her.
I think this was a stark experiment into the human psyche. As we learned more and more about what we could do on the Internet, we explored more and more about this crime, more so than ever before. This was the first one that gave us everything. When it ended, it wasn't at all what we expected, and that only made it worse. I've got a couple of articles I'm working on. One will be about Zenaida. Then, I'm going to drift away from the Anthonys. I understand that the verdict was anticlimactic. It was a major letdown. I wouldn't expect people to quit cold turkey. This has to be a transition. We've got to ween ourselves from the story and that's proving to be a bit difficult. We expected a guilty verdict for almost 3 years. It's not easy to walk away from something like this.
Hi Terrytsk - I meant that murder is against the law. The court exonerated Casey, but let's say she did murder her daughter. That means she broke the law; she never gave it a thought. It deterred nothing. Trust me, I'm all for a law like this, but do laws ever really stop lawbreakers? That's what I mean. People with common sense would think twice, but someone like Casey or that hooker couldn't care less. While I thoroughly agree with you, my point is that it won't stop people like Casey. Had the law been in place in June 2008, it wouldn't have helped Caylee, but it most certainly would have helped keep Casey behind bars longer than what she got.
Well, Sir, I am walking away cold turkey....LOL....how many times have I said that !!!!
Looking forward to your next post.
My next post will be about Zenaida and what I really think of her.
Your answer doesn't respond to our (or my) initial discussion about Caylee's Law. The "hooker's" child is alive and well. Yes, murder is against the law. But is not reporting your child missing against the law? LE could not charge casey anthony with anything other then lying when it was reported by the child's grandmother that the child was in fact missing because there is no law in place saying she has to report it.That's what I assumed Caylee's Law was addressing. What am I not understanding? A child could be missing, dead, possibly dead, possibly being passed around a pedophile ring, be living on the street with a homeless drug addict, etc. What law says any one will ever be charged? What am I not understanding? Why didn't LE charge casey anthony if there was a law in place? They charged her with lying to LE when as were dilligently searching for this VULNERABLE TWO YEAR OLD child who was "missing".
I agree with you 100%, Terrytsk. Lets enact a law that protects children like what Caylee's Law is intended to do. I'm all FOR it. I have no problem whatsoever. Hopefully, it will protect children from future harm.
Funny story at least IMO, my youngest nephew (and I have 36 yr old nephews) is 10 yrs old and he was busy watching TV and ignoring me as I spoke to him. He, as all kids of his age, is a whiz on computers and I was looking for some minor assistance. He just ignored me and made fleeting eye contact when I yelled to him but went right back to his show. I said to my mom, "It's like talking to a brick wall". Lo and behold, this crazy child had been listening somewhere in the back of his mind and when I spoke to him next he said, "I'm not helping you, you called me a brick wall!". He was insulted. Next I said he's burning the candle on both ends because he and his friends are doing sleep overs like they're going out of style and he looked tired. He thought I was accusing him of lighting candles with lighters or matches which he's of course he's never touched because he's not allowed. It just crossed my mind that these jurors just didn't have critical thinking skills and didn't understand what they were asked to do. Cheney Mason's long diatribe to the jury regarding their duty may have swayed some jurors. At the end he even said, "if you're confused, just say to yourself, what would Mr. Mason tell you?". This was before he was photographed giving the finger to the press after grabbing onto his "package" like a rap star. Yuck! I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.
The jurors did not have the ability to separate the facts presented during the trial from the fiction that Baez presented in his opening statement. And a murderer goes free. IMO.
I know exactly what you're saying. It's also called selective hearing, only in the jury's case, they selected all the wrong stuff. That leads me to wonder who would buy a book written by any of them? I mean, how long did they actually sit in the courtroom? It's obvious they didn't study much, and there was plenty of evidence to sift through. I have to admit, though, that when Judge Perry asked the state when they thought they would rest, I wondered how they would get in more of the evidence in such a short period of time. Surely, there was much more, right? Wrong. Even so, I still believed the state offered more than enough to convict Casey. Everything was well manicured and what was addressed was very clear. What the heck happened??? That's the only thing I'd like to know from the jury and that's not going to take a book to explain.
By the way, I think you'll find people who will tell you I'm guilty of selective hearing, to which I have always responded, "No! Not me? Wait... would you repeat that?"
I know you've shut down this particular blog/article what ever you name it. I've been thinking against my will about the juror's decision and I'm still sickened and outraged by their verdict that gives Casey Anthony a pass. IMO, they sided with a murderer. The only victim was a 2 year old child who was completely dependent on her adult mother, this 25 year old "child" as Mason refers to Casey Anthony. What a joke. Casey Anthony was 19 yrs old when she gave birth and 22 yrs old when she killed her child, IMO.
But I have been thinking, were the jury members truthful in their claims they had NO KNOWLEDGE about the details of the death and the disgusting dumping of this 2 year old child's body in a swamp to be eaten by rodents other then what they heard in the trial? I truly hope so.
Had they ever read the post that Casey Anthony posted on MySpace on July 2nd 2008, 3 weeks after her baby was supposedly having the time of her life but had apparently now we're to believe she had already "drowned" on June 16th where she said, "What is given can be taken away, Every one lies, every one dies, etc". I can't remember all of the words. They were awful and very upsetting to those of us who followed the case and were hoping that Caylee was still alive. As soon as I heard her "poem" I knew Caylee Anthony was dead.
How about the pictures she posted during the time Caylee was "missing" and having a great old time visiting the sites of Florida where we're now expected to believe that her sweet baby "accidentally drowned" and her fathers supposedly disposed of the body like one of his pets. God! Like her pics she posted on-line of the graphic decomposing skeletons or the one where it showed a little child hanging from a noose saying, ""why would you kill someone who killed some to show them that it's wrong to kill someone". She posted that on July 2nd or 3rd, 2 weeks after her bay "drowned" by accident? Not allowed because it's too prejudicial? Why wouldn't that be state of mind? I'm not a lawyer.
My point, the jury never saw 2/3 of what we saw. I wonder if they had at least read the e-mail she sent to her mom who was desperate to see Caylee in early July where she was hiding Caylee from her parents and she posted the "what is given can be taken away, every lies, every one dies' etc. as I referred to above, would their verdict be different?
Maybe (?!?!) they made the right choice because they did not know what we know. If so, whose fault is that? The SA for not making it clear, because their hands were either tied or they were too confident. I personally think their hands were consistently tied. Judge Perry, because he didn't want an appeal, sided with the defense unfairly in almost every single instance. Or perhaps it's because the defense are cheats and they will do whatever it takes to win (and as said previously Judge Perry allowed it). I'm not so happy with the Honorable Judge Perry these days. I seriously wonder if he is happy with his own judgements in this case. I think he believed she would be found guilty of "something" and went out of his way to be fair, never imagining she would be released with time served. I'm not very happy about it either. That's life. Life is not fair.
Poor little child who was never really wanted or loved enough for anyone to demand justice for her even in death.
There is never a cut off date on any blog post, Terrytsk. No comment threads are ever shut down, so feel free to write whatever crosses your mind.
Yes, this was a strange case that had a stranger outcome. Absolutely, the defense lied, but that's not unique to Baez, et al. "Whatever it takes" seems to be the mantra instead of "nothing but the truth".
When the State rested, I wondered whether it would be enough to convict Casey. Yes, they left a lot of the evidence out, and it puzzled me, but I figured they knew what they were doing and, perhaps, they didn't want to confuse the jury with too much evidence. I know we looked at a lot more than the jury, but how much of it was worthwhile? Yes, we saw plenty of stuff over the course of 3 years, but plenty of it could not be substantiated, although I fully anticipated that the Grunds would have witnessed for the State. I expected to see cell phone pings that placed Casey at or close to the Anthony home on June 16, 2008.
I imagine legal pundits will argue over this case for years to come. Did the State produce enough evidence or did the jury get it right? There was evidence, by golly, but it wasn't enough. That's what they decided.
How sad.
Terry Tsk,
You are not alone with your feelings of rage over the verdict! The evidence about the fight between Cindy and casey on the night of Father's day should have been brought out. But, hearsay......phooey. I in no way think that the jury got it right. However, casey will be in her own prison. People will not forget that easily and she will not become the celebrity she so dearly wanted to become. "Every dog has its day" is something my grandmother used to tell me when I was a little girl living with an abusive step-mother. It took many years but that dog did have its day! Casey's day will come, also. Keep the faith and remember that she got off because her defense team lied. Out and out lied! They now have notoriety, not fame. Shyster is a good word for their character.
Dave,
I really believe that the jurors will come to regret their verdict. I am sure that they will have a hard time explaining to friends and family how they made their decision. And I am sure that when they get on the internet and research the case further they will regret the decision. Too little too late.....
I think the jury is now aware that the public is disappointed with the verdicts. They will find out soon enough that some people have fangs. I would think that some of the jury has begun researching the crime, while others have walked away from it. I'm certainly not happy with the results, but it is what it is, as JP said on many occasions. Even he is afraid to release the names of jurors at this time because of threats, idle and otherwise. For sure, anyone who's hung around my blog is aware of the crazy people who attacked me and several others. There are some real nuts in the world, and there's no telling how far they will go. Personally, I feel that October 25 is not long enough for things to settle down.