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Prosecutors set about debunking Casey Anthony's statements Thursday in her capital murder trial, presenting testimony that she never had a wealthy suitor named Jeffrey Michael Hopkins and she had not worked at Universal Studios since 2006, despite years of claims to the contrary.
A man named Jeff Hopkins testified that while he knew her from middle school, her claims of dating him and his introducing her to a nanny named Zenaida Gonzalez were fabrications. Hopkins, 26, said his name wasn't even Jeffrey Michael Hopkins -- the name Anthony had given as a wealthy suitor living in Jacksonville, with a son named Zachary.
Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, previously testified her daughter spoke often about Hopkins, describing him as a former coworker at Universal who had introduced her to Gonzalez, purportedly employed as a nanny for Casey Anthony's 2-year-old daughter Caylee. The two began dating, Casey Anthony had claimed.
After Caylee went missing June 16, 2008, Casey Anthony stayed away from her parents' house for weeks, telling her mother she and her daughter were spending time with Hopkins in Jacksonville, Florida, where he lived.
Caylee was not reported missing until July 15, 31 days later. The little girl's skeletal remains were found in December 2008 in a wooded area not far from the home of Casey Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony.
Casey Anthony, now, 25, is charged with seven counts in Caylee's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.
She has pleaded not guilty and denied harming her daughter or having anything to do with the little girl's disappearance or death. Defense attorney Jose Baez has said that once all the facts are known, it will become clear his client is innocent.
Hopkins said he had no children. He said he once worked at Universal Studios, in 2002, but was not there at the same time as Anthony. He described his relationship with Casey Anthony as "acquaintances," and said he had never lived in Jacksonville and had never met Caylee.
Asked by Baez whether all Anthony's stories were "one great fiction," Hopkins said, "Yeah, that's correct."
He said he ran into Casey Anthony in July 2008 at a restaurant, and the two exchanged pleasantries and phone numbers. He testified he received a couple of text messages from her inviting him to a nightclub shortly afterward.
Following Hopkins to the stand was Leonard Turtora, assistant manager of loss prevention at Universal Studios. Turtora testified that after he was contacted by authorities investigating Caylee's disappearance after she was reported missing, he searched the Universal Studios database and found Anthony had not worked there since 2006 -- and then worked for a third party, Colorvision, that operated on Universal property.
According to testimony, Anthony claimed to work as an event planner at Universal Studios until after Caylee was reported missing.
During the police investigation, lead detective Yuri Melich called Anthony and put her on a speakerphone with Turtora, who testified she insisted she worked there and gave a Thomas Manley as her supervisor. Manley also was not found in the database. During the call, Melich asked her if she was an event planner for marketing or entertainment, Turtora testified, and she said a little bit of both. "I knew that couldn't be true," Turtora said.
Eventually, Anthony was forced to own up to the lie after detectives brought her to Universal Studios and met Turtora there. She directed them to a building Turtora said he knew was not an events building.
"Melich began to look around and asked if we were in the events building," Turtora said. "Ms. Anthony looked at me, put her hands in her back pocket and stated, 'I don't work here.'"
The names of Juliette Lewis, given by Anthony as another coworker, also was not found in the database, nor was a Zenaida Gonzalez. Anthony had told authorities after Caylee went missing that Gonzalez had a seasonal ID for Universal but was working only as a nanny.
Melich was called back to the stand Thursday. On Wednesday, he testified about a written statement from Anthony and an interview he conducted with her in the early morning hours of July 16, just after Caylee was reported missing. A recording of that interview was played for jurors Wednesday.
Anthony told him in the interview Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, Caylee's nanny, had kidnapped the child. She told Melich she had met Gonzalez through a friend, Jeffrey Hopkins, and that Gonzalez had also watched Hopkins' son.
Asked whom she had told about the kidnapping, which supposedly had occurred 31 days earlier, Anthony said in the interview she had told no one besides Hopkins and Lewis. Asked for their phone numbers, Anthony told Melich she didn't have them at present but could find them.
Authorities were never able to find the nanny. They did find a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, who claimed she had never met Caylee or Casey Anthony and later sued for defamation.
Asked by Melich during the interview why she hadn't notified authorities for the 31 days Caylee had been missing, Anthony said, "I think part of me was naive enough to think that I could handle this myself, which obviously I couldn't. And I was scared that something would happen to her if I did notify the authorities or got the media involved, or my parents, which I know would have done the same thing. Just the fear of the unknown. Fear of the potential of Caylee getting hurt, of not seeing my daughter again."
In her written statement, Anthony told authorities she had looked for the little girl every day for a month, and "after 31 days, I know that the only thing that matters is getting my daughter back."
"I have lied and stolen from friends and family to do whatever I could, by any means, to find my daughter," Anthony said in her written statement to Orange County, Florida, Sheriff's Office. "I avoided calling the police or notifying my family out of fear. I have been, and still am, afraid of what has, or may happen to Caylee."
Prosecutors allege Anthony was not looking for her daughter during the month she was missing. Instead, she was staying with her boyfriend, spending time in Orlando with numerous friends, attending parties, going shopping and hitting nightclubs, including participating in a "hot body" contest, according to testimony.
Her former boyfriend, friends and acquaintances have all testified that she did not mention her daughter being missing during that time and that they noticed nothing different about her demeanor.
On cross-examination Wednesday, Baez tried to get Melich to say that he considered Anthony a suspect and her story untrue from the outset, but Melich denied that.
Earlier Wednesday, Orange County sheriff's Cpl. Rendon Fletcher told jurors that after he arrived at the Anthony home in response to Cindy Anthony's call, Casey Anthony eventually Anthony told him that "her daughter had been missing for a period of time," about a month, and that the last time she had seen Caylee was in the custody of the nanny, Gonzalez.
She agreed to show the deputies where Gonzalez's apartment was, rode with them to the apartments and pointed out a second-floor apartment, Fletcher testified. He said the apartment appeared vacant.
Amanda Macklin, community manager for the apartments, testified Wednesday afternoon that the apartment in question, number 210, was vacant at the time Anthony led deputies there. She said she researched the last occupant of the apartment, but that person was not named Zenaida Gonzalez -- and, in fact, a Zenaida Gonzalez had never lived in any apartment at the complex.
Prosecutors allege that Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and then suffocated her by putting duct tape over her nose and mouth.
Anthony's defense has claimed that the little girl drowned in her grandparents' pool on June 16, the day she was last seen, and that Casey Anthony and her father panicked and kept the death a secret. George Anthony has denied that claim in testimony.
Casey Anthony's defense attorney explains her behavior in June and July 2008 by saying she had been sexually abused as a child by her father -- and, to a lesser extent, her brother -- and was taught from a young age to hide her pain.
George Anthony has also denied abusing his daughter in previous testimony. Earlier Wednesday, her brother, Lee Anthony, testified. Neither side asked Lee Anthony, about sexual abuse allegations during his testimony on Wednesday.
A man named Jeff Hopkins testified that while he knew her from middle school, her claims of dating him and his introducing her to a nanny named Zenaida Gonzalez were fabrications. Hopkins, 26, said his name wasn't even Jeffrey Michael Hopkins -- the name Anthony had given as a wealthy suitor living in Jacksonville, with a son named Zachary.
Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, previously testified her daughter spoke often about Hopkins, describing him as a former coworker at Universal who had introduced her to Gonzalez, purportedly employed as a nanny for Casey Anthony's 2-year-old daughter Caylee. The two began dating, Casey Anthony had claimed.
After Caylee went missing June 16, 2008, Casey Anthony stayed away from her parents' house for weeks, telling her mother she and her daughter were spending time with Hopkins in Jacksonville, Florida, where he lived.
Caylee was not reported missing until July 15, 31 days later. The little girl's skeletal remains were found in December 2008 in a wooded area not far from the home of Casey Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony.
Casey Anthony, now, 25, is charged with seven counts in Caylee's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.
She has pleaded not guilty and denied harming her daughter or having anything to do with the little girl's disappearance or death. Defense attorney Jose Baez has said that once all the facts are known, it will become clear his client is innocent.
Hopkins said he had no children. He said he once worked at Universal Studios, in 2002, but was not there at the same time as Anthony. He described his relationship with Casey Anthony as "acquaintances," and said he had never lived in Jacksonville and had never met Caylee.
Asked by Baez whether all Anthony's stories were "one great fiction," Hopkins said, "Yeah, that's correct."
He said he ran into Casey Anthony in July 2008 at a restaurant, and the two exchanged pleasantries and phone numbers. He testified he received a couple of text messages from her inviting him to a nightclub shortly afterward.
Following Hopkins to the stand was Leonard Turtora, assistant manager of loss prevention at Universal Studios. Turtora testified that after he was contacted by authorities investigating Caylee's disappearance after she was reported missing, he searched the Universal Studios database and found Anthony had not worked there since 2006 -- and then worked for a third party, Colorvision, that operated on Universal property.
According to testimony, Anthony claimed to work as an event planner at Universal Studios until after Caylee was reported missing.
During the police investigation, lead detective Yuri Melich called Anthony and put her on a speakerphone with Turtora, who testified she insisted she worked there and gave a Thomas Manley as her supervisor. Manley also was not found in the database. During the call, Melich asked her if she was an event planner for marketing or entertainment, Turtora testified, and she said a little bit of both. "I knew that couldn't be true," Turtora said.
Eventually, Anthony was forced to own up to the lie after detectives brought her to Universal Studios and met Turtora there. She directed them to a building Turtora said he knew was not an events building.
"Melich began to look around and asked if we were in the events building," Turtora said. "Ms. Anthony looked at me, put her hands in her back pocket and stated, 'I don't work here.'"
The names of Juliette Lewis, given by Anthony as another coworker, also was not found in the database, nor was a Zenaida Gonzalez. Anthony had told authorities after Caylee went missing that Gonzalez had a seasonal ID for Universal but was working only as a nanny.
Melich was called back to the stand Thursday. On Wednesday, he testified about a written statement from Anthony and an interview he conducted with her in the early morning hours of July 16, just after Caylee was reported missing. A recording of that interview was played for jurors Wednesday.
Anthony told him in the interview Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, Caylee's nanny, had kidnapped the child. She told Melich she had met Gonzalez through a friend, Jeffrey Hopkins, and that Gonzalez had also watched Hopkins' son.
Asked whom she had told about the kidnapping, which supposedly had occurred 31 days earlier, Anthony said in the interview she had told no one besides Hopkins and Lewis. Asked for their phone numbers, Anthony told Melich she didn't have them at present but could find them.
Authorities were never able to find the nanny. They did find a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, who claimed she had never met Caylee or Casey Anthony and later sued for defamation.
Asked by Melich during the interview why she hadn't notified authorities for the 31 days Caylee had been missing, Anthony said, "I think part of me was naive enough to think that I could handle this myself, which obviously I couldn't. And I was scared that something would happen to her if I did notify the authorities or got the media involved, or my parents, which I know would have done the same thing. Just the fear of the unknown. Fear of the potential of Caylee getting hurt, of not seeing my daughter again."
In her written statement, Anthony told authorities she had looked for the little girl every day for a month, and "after 31 days, I know that the only thing that matters is getting my daughter back."
"I have lied and stolen from friends and family to do whatever I could, by any means, to find my daughter," Anthony said in her written statement to Orange County, Florida, Sheriff's Office. "I avoided calling the police or notifying my family out of fear. I have been, and still am, afraid of what has, or may happen to Caylee."
Prosecutors allege Anthony was not looking for her daughter during the month she was missing. Instead, she was staying with her boyfriend, spending time in Orlando with numerous friends, attending parties, going shopping and hitting nightclubs, including participating in a "hot body" contest, according to testimony.
Her former boyfriend, friends and acquaintances have all testified that she did not mention her daughter being missing during that time and that they noticed nothing different about her demeanor.
On cross-examination Wednesday, Baez tried to get Melich to say that he considered Anthony a suspect and her story untrue from the outset, but Melich denied that.
Earlier Wednesday, Orange County sheriff's Cpl. Rendon Fletcher told jurors that after he arrived at the Anthony home in response to Cindy Anthony's call, Casey Anthony eventually Anthony told him that "her daughter had been missing for a period of time," about a month, and that the last time she had seen Caylee was in the custody of the nanny, Gonzalez.
She agreed to show the deputies where Gonzalez's apartment was, rode with them to the apartments and pointed out a second-floor apartment, Fletcher testified. He said the apartment appeared vacant.
Amanda Macklin, community manager for the apartments, testified Wednesday afternoon that the apartment in question, number 210, was vacant at the time Anthony led deputies there. She said she researched the last occupant of the apartment, but that person was not named Zenaida Gonzalez -- and, in fact, a Zenaida Gonzalez had never lived in any apartment at the complex.
Prosecutors allege that Anthony used chloroform on her daughter and then suffocated her by putting duct tape over her nose and mouth.
Anthony's defense has claimed that the little girl drowned in her grandparents' pool on June 16, the day she was last seen, and that Casey Anthony and her father panicked and kept the death a secret. George Anthony has denied that claim in testimony.
Casey Anthony's defense attorney explains her behavior in June and July 2008 by saying she had been sexually abused as a child by her father -- and, to a lesser extent, her brother -- and was taught from a young age to hide her pain.
George Anthony has also denied abusing his daughter in previous testimony. Earlier Wednesday, her brother, Lee Anthony, testified. Neither side asked Lee Anthony, about sexual abuse allegations during his testimony on Wednesday.