Presumed Guilty: Casey Anthony: The Inside Story (70 page)

I thought it would be that way, but unfortunately, this case proved otherwise.

We were taken out of the courthouse by a SWAT team, who didn’t want us going out the front door because it was too crazy out there. We got into white vans under SWAT team cover. We were literally dropped off across the street in front of the Terrace 390 restaurant. It was a
very
short ride.

Once in the restaurant we were alone. The owners had closed it down for us, and we had a very badly needed drink. We figured, O
kay, let’s watch the media coverage
, and for the first time we really did that. We ordered champagne, and we had a toast, and Cheney said, “To the Constitution of the United States.” And we toasted the U.S. Constitution.

A crowd began to form outside the restaurant. There are few secrets anymore, as fifty media representatives, many with cameras, pressed their noses to the windows.

Geraldo Rivera was the only media representative I allowed in. He came in and gave me a hug and said he was proud of me. Cheney let in Jean Casares, but before I knew it, she was on her phone reporting what she was seeing inside, and I made her stop. This was for us, not for the media.

Other media people wanted to come in, but I said no. I wanted to be with the team, and this was our time to spend together in celebration. We loosened our ties and relaxed, and while we were chatting, members of the national media called me on my cell phone and each network said the same thing, “Jose, your first media interview is a big one. You can have any correspondent out there to conduct it. Name the person, and we’ll make it happen.”

I knew exactly who I wanted: the incomparable Barbara Walters. A few years earlier, I had watched her interview Tom Mesereau after he had won the Michael Jackson case, the biggest trial of the time, and I said to myself,
One day I’d like to be in that position. If I were to work hard, I would hope my talents would be recognized.

And here it was, a dream come true.

I didn’t hesitate to say I wanted the interviewer to be Barbara Walters, and not twenty minutes later I got the call, “Barbara wants to talk with you.”

Barbara and I spoke briefly on the phone, and she said, “We’ll fly you up tonight, and we’d love to have you here.”

I couldn’t believe it. I had been talking on the phone to Barbara Walters.

I didn’t have to be back in court for two more days for the sentencing, so that night I was picked up and I flew to New York, and I did my first—and only—posttrial interview with Barbara Walters.

Everyone came calling, everyone, but at the end of the day I thought,
The verdict speaks for itself. I’m not going to make the rounds and gloat. It’s not the right thing to do.

I wanted to be gracious in victory. I didn’t want to come across as a blowhard.

I
F YOU WERE TO ASK ME
whether Casey received a fair trial, my personal opinion would be no. A lot of his rulings would have come back on appeal. But having said that, what Judge Belvin Perry did extremely well was make sure Casey had a fair jury.

During jury selection he gave us ample time to interview the jurors, to speak to them. He also was very strict when it came to protecting the jurors from outside influences. He sequestered them, and he also kept up their mood and their stamina. He went out of his way to make sure this jury wasn’t influenced, and that was no easy task. It was a massive undertaking, and he did it with flying colors.

W
E RETURNED TO THE COURTROOM
for sentencing. Ashton wasn’t in attendance. As soon as the trial was over, he immediately announced his retirement. He retired literally within hours of the verdict. And then he flew to New York to do media appearances.

When we were celebrating at Terrace 390 after the verdict, one of the media people calling me informed me that Ashton was going to be on the
Today
show. I texted Linda Drane Burdick asking her if she knew.

“I know now,” she texted back.

What I ended up finding out was that even before the trial began, Ashton had hired Annie Scranton, a publicist, who three weeks before the verdict had booked him for the
Today
show. This appearance was supposed to be his victory dance. The idea was for him to fly the next morning after the verdict, and the only reason he wouldn’t be on the show was if there was a first-degree murder conviction, and then he would do the show after the penalty phase. There were rumors that early on in the trial she was going around looking for a ghostwriter for him.

Now I don’t have a problem with Ashton writing a book. I’d be a hypocrite if I did, but when I was trying this case, a book was the furthest thing from my mind, and it appears it was the
only
thing on his mind while trying this case. His book came out in November—the verdict was in July—so you can imagine how quickly they had to put it together.

What bothers me the most is that he had filed a motion accusing me of having a conflict of interest, when in fact there could be no more of a conflict of interest for a prosecutor—a minister of justice on a death penalty case—when you’re intention is to profit. I am appalled that someone had that much authority and was able to do what he did. And I’ll take it a step further. Hands down the thing that bothered me the most about Jeff Ashton was that he didn’t bother to show up for the sentencing.

If I had lost this trial, and Casey would have been convicted of first-degree murder, I would have had to turn over the case to Ann Finnel, our death penalty lawyer, and I wouldn’t have had a role in the penalty phase. It would have been the most difficult thing for me to do, passing all the “I told you so” guys in the media, the public, everyone, who were saying for months, “I told you she was going to fry.” But I would have done it. I would have gone to court, and I would have been there every single day. This guy didn’t even have the decency to show up and sit next to his team at sentencing. I felt horrible for Burdick and George, having to sit there without Ashton, who was in part responsible for the not-guilty verdict. He was off to New York making media appearances and book deals, instead of being at sentencing with his team.

It’s what cowards do—run away when they lose. They refuse to face the music. I can think of nothing worse to do to your team, and all I have to say about that is that Jeff Ashton, you’re a coward.

A
FTER THE VERDICT WAS ANNOUNCED
, the only person who called to thank me for saving Casey’s life was Lee Anthony. He called with a very touching message.

Afterward I said to Cindy, “You never even thanked me for saving your daughter’s life.”

“Yes, I did,” she said.

When in actuality, she hadn’t.

W
E WERE HOPING
J
UDGE
P
ERRY
would give Casey credit for time served rather than make her stay in jail for ten more days, but we had no illusions about that happening.

Sure enough, he gave her the maximum time, and she was released ten days later on July 17, 2011.

Now the hard part: where does she go from here?

CHAPTER 34

A PRISONER IN HER OWN FREEDOM

A
FTER SENTENCING, I had ten days to formulate a plan for getting Casey out of jail. I asked my California lawyer friend Todd Macaluso if he would fly his plane to Orlando so we could fly Casey out of the Orlando Executive Airport to someplace safe. There were too many crazies who were convinced she had killed Caylee while she danced the night away, and I feared for her safety.

I met a couple times with jail officials. We talked to the tactical-support team members, and they suggested that Casey and I wear bulletproof vests when leaving the jail.

“If you remember Timothy McVeigh,” said one of them, “every time he came and went, he wore a bulletproof vest.”

“She’s not Timothy McVeigh.” I replied sternly. Timothy McVeigh had bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City and killed more than a hundred people. Casey stood trial and had been found not guilty.

“No,” I said, “we’re walking out the front door, and you’re going to protect us.”

I had a meeting in our office with our entire staff to discuss how we were going to get Casey from the jail to the airport. In addition to avoiding an army of media, we knew we were going to also duck the surveillance of a half dozen helicopters.

To help us get away, the police agreed to shut down the John Young Parkway for three minutes once we left the jail to give us enough time to get on the highway, but I knew the media would stake out both sides of the highway, and getting to the airport wouldn’t be so easy.

William Slabaugh came up with the idea of our driving to a multilevel garage, where the helicopters couldn’t see us, driving a bunch of cars in the garage, and making them guess which car Casey was in as all the cars left the building.

Cheney’s building had such a garage and it was across the street from the courthouse. It was perfect.

We brainstormed and came up with different ideas. We talked of driving into the garage, walking out, and taking a different car to the airport. Or taking the elevator to a different floor and leaving in a different car. Or switching to a second car, sitting there for an hour, waiting until the media left, and then leaving.