AndreyPopov/iStock/Thinkstock(ORLANDO) — Casey Anthony may have accidentally killed her daughter when she tried to quiet the toddler, the judge who presided over Anthony’s 2011 trial told the Orlando Sentinel.
Former Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr., told the Sentinel in a phone interview this week that he did not find fault with the verdict that acquitted Anthony of first-degree murder in Caylee Anthony’s death. Still, he said, some evidence showed Anthony had searched the Internet for information about using chloroform as a sedative.
Casey Anthony was charged with first-degree murder after her daughter went missing in 2008. The infant’s remains were found five months later. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, but the mother was later acquitted.
Authorities were unable to determine the cause of Caylee Anthony’s death. Prosecutors said Anthony used chloroform and then suffocated her daughter by placing duct tape over her mouth. Defense lawyer Jose Baez argued that the child drowned in a family pool and someone else had hid the body.
“There was a possibility that she may have utilized [chloroform] to keep the baby quiet,” Perry told the Sentinel, “and just used too much of it, and the baby died.”
“That’s just one of the many theories as to how [Caylee] tragically met her death,” he said. “As I’ve expressed, the only person that really knows what happened was Casey.”
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