Roy Kronk, Orange County utilities worker, makes a prepared statement on Friday, December 19, 2008, about being the person last week who found the remains of Caylee Marie Anthony in Orlando, Florida.
It’s shaping up to be a long week for the jurors in Casey Anthony’s murder trial. Yesterday, judge Belvin Perry, Jr. kept court in session until 7 pm after delays over the weekend slowed the trial’s progress. But today, they were treated with first hand information about how Caylee Anthony’s body was discovered.
Anthony’s defense lawyers played a tape for the jury that showed private detectives searching the area where Caylee’s body was eventually found. In the video, which was shot weeks before Caylee’s body was discovered, men in suit pants and button-down shirts tromp around the woods, examining garbage and poking towels into the ground. Jose Baez is trying to establish that Caylee’s body was not in the area just weeks prior to its discovery, which fits with the defense theory that Caylee drowned and Casey’s father, George, dumped the body months later.
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When the trial opened this morning, Baez grilled George about his relationship with Krystal Holloway (aka River Cruz), a woman who volunteered to help find Caylee when the toddler went missing and with whom George reportedly had a romantic affair. Baez asked George if he had ever told Holloway that Caylee’s death was an accident that “spiraled out of control.” George denied making this statement and repeatedly referred to Holloway as a friend, one of many people that he “needed in his life.” Baez also called Casey’s mother, Cindy, and her brother Lee to the stand to ask questions about the search for the missing toddler.
The defense then called Roy Kronk, the Orange County meter ready who found Caylee’s body, to the stand. Baez has previously insinuated that Kronk “is a morally bankrupt individual who actually took Caylee’s body and hid her,” before “discovering” the body in hopes of receiving an award.
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Anthony’s lawyers first asked Kronk about his interest in the case. He testified that his roommate regularly watched news reports about Caylee being missing, but that they rarely discussed the case. They then questioned him about the day that he discovered what he thought was a skull and reported the finding to the police. Kronk was relieving himself in the woods (the lawyers seemed very uncomfortable addressing this issues, saying, “You were taking a you-know-what“) when he saw something white and called the non-emergency police hotline. The testimony was more dramatic than most have been in this trial, with Kronk appearing frustrated and asking the lawyers several times, “Which day are you referring to?”
By the time Judge Perry called a break for lunch, Anthony’s defense was still in the middle of questioning Kronk, and so far his testimony has shown little new light on the defense’s theories. The trial will continue at 1:30 pm Eastern.
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