Judge in Casey Anthony Trial Says Child May Have Been Accidentally Killed With Chloroform
Atty. Belvin Perry Jr., the judge who presided over Casey Anthony's murder trial, said the mother may have accidentally killed her 2-year-old daughter after using too much chloroform.
The former judge talked to Orlando Sentinel this week to tell about his theory. According to Perry, it is possible that Anthony used too much chloroform while trying to pacify Caylee, causing her death. He said considering all the evidence presented at the 2011 trial that garnered worldwide attention, the chloroform theory is the one that makes the most sense to him now.
Perry said at the time of the child's death, chloroform was used to quiet people because anesthesia was not yet commercially available. "You have a child that can become cranky, that you want to go to sleep. That is a simple way to do it. What we tend to forget is, chloroform was used to render people unconscious long before we had anesthesia," he explained.
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At the end of the trial, Anthony was convicted of misdemeanor counts of lying to law enforcement but was acquitted of first-degree murder. The convicted lied in court when she told the jurors that her child accidentally drowned in the family pool. However, it was discovered that she used chloroform to quiet her child and then suffocate her by putting duct tape over her mouth.
In 2011, the child was reported to be missing. Her remains were found five months later in the woods near Anthony's residence. That time, the authorities failed to establish the cause of her death.
Perry said if the jurors had come to the same conclusion as his at the time of the trial, Anthony might have also been convicted of second-degree murder or manslaughter. However, he stressed that the accidental use of chloroform was just his theory.
