Casey Anthony’s Ex-Fiancé Says Casey Is Now Free to Party
Casey Anthony’s ex-fiancé, Jesse Grund, expressed outrage over the verdict that the jury reached declaring Casey innocent of first-degree murder, child abuse, and manslaughter.
“I was angry and shocked by the verdict,” he told Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today. “It’s obvious from the evidence that was presented that Casey was the last person to see Caylee alive and her body was dumped in the woods.”
Caylee Anthony was last seen on June 16, 2008, with her mother, Casey, who lied for 31 days in regards to the whereabouts of her daughter before Cindy Anthony finally reported Caylee missing in July.
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The toddler’s remains were found in the woods near the Anthony family home in December 2008, nearly six months after her disappearance. By that time, only dry bones were left, making the case difficult to solve for prosecutors who accused Casey of suffocating her daughter with chloroform and duct tape, and dumping her in the nearby woods.
Grund told NBC that the prosecution made a mistake in trying to present the Anthony family as a cohesive, loving group.
“They are not a cohesive group. That family was a carnival of dysfunctionality. Most families in America are dysfunctional and have their problems. Theirs was worse. All it took was a defense to show a little bit of how dysfunctional they were to start poking holes in the prosecution’s case.”
The defense brought up in their opening statements that George Anthony, Casey’s father, molested Casey at a young age, that he cheated on his wife with a search volunteer, and that Casey’s brother, Lee Anthony, sexually harassed her.
Additionally, Cindy was caught lying on the witness stand when she told the court that she was the one who searched for chloroform on the family computer, not Casey. The state later revealed that records showed Cindy was actually at work, and not at home during the time of those searches.
“Cindy’s example of lying, as I’ve always said, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Casey had to learn her behavior from somewhere.”
When asked what Grund would say to Casey if he were to talk to her now, he responded, “I would tell her that she needs to repent because at the end of the day she is going to have to answer to why Caylee isn’t on this earth anymore.”
Casey, 25, will be sentenced on Thursday for her four counts of lying to law enforcement.
Where will Casey go from here? No one really knows, but Grund knows for certain where she won’t be headed.
“There’s no way Casey [will go] back to that household. Cindy and Casey have had an adversarial relationship the entire time she has been alive. Being part of the family the way I was, there is no way Casey goes back to that home. There’s no way they have any semblance of a normal family life.”
“Right now she has everything she ever wanted,” he concluded.
“She’s going to have money. She’s going to have people at her doorstep asking for her, wanting her. She’s going to have that partying lifestyle that she so craved.”
