Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of first degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, may have accidentally killed Caylee when she tried to quiet the toddler with chloroform, said former Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr., who presided over the 2011 trial.
It’s a theory, he said, and if jurors had come to that conclusion, they might have found her guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Anthony was charged with first-degree murder after Caylee disappeared in 2008. Anthony, now 30, was charged with first-degree murder, and prosecutors asked for the death penalty, but a jury acquitted her July 5, 2011.
Perry was chief of the Orange-Osceola circuit until he retired and joined a private law firm in 2014.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Perry did not find fault with the verdict, but said evidence showed that Anthony had gone online to research how to use chloroform as a sedative.
A scientist also reported finding chloroform in the trunk of her car, where prosecutors said Anthony likely put Caylee’s body temporarily.
Authorities were unable to determine a cause of death. The child’s remains were found five months after she was reported missing.
Defense attorney Jose Baez told jurors that the toddler accidentally drowned in the family pool and that someone else hid the body.
Prosecutors said Anthony used chloroform and then suffocated the child by putting duct tape over her mouth.
In the past, Perry said, surgeons used chloroform as an anesthetic.
“There was a possibility that she may have utilized that to keep the baby quiet … and just used too much of it, and the baby died,” he said. “That’s just one of the many theories as to how this beautiful young lady [Caylee] tragically met her death.”
He stressed that that was just one of several theories about what may have happened to Caylee.
“As I’ve expressed, the only person that really knows what happened was Casey,” Perry said.
“For whatever reason, people are still fascinated with Casey Anthony,” he added.
Since her acquittal, Anthony has lived in seclusion.
rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394
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rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394
