Casey Anthony's 52-year-old mother broke down in tears on the witness stand Tuesday as she testified about the foul smell in her daughter's vehicle during the sixth day of her 25-year-old daughter’s trial for the first-degree murder of her daughter, two-year-old Caylee Anthony.
"Casey's purse was on the front seat and Caylee's baby doll, her favorite doll, was in the car seat like it was sitting where Caylee would have sat," Cindy Anthony said, describing the interior of her daughter's Pontiac Sunfire after it was picked up from an Orlando towing company.
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"Caylee's doll smelled like the car so I took it out," Anthony continued. "I sat the doll down and I went and got a Clorox wipe and I wiped the face and hands. The body was soft and so it smelled pretty bad ... I sprayed Febreze all through the car thinking that might help the odor ... I used pretty much a whole can of Febreze."
Cindy Anthony was called to the stand by state prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick. The veteran district attorney played several 911 calls for the jury while Anthony was on the stand, including the now infamous call Cindy Anthony placed on July 15, 2008, after being told by her daughter that Caylee had been missing for 31 days.
"There's something wrong. I found my daughter's car today, and it smells like there has been a dead body in the car," Cindy Anthony told the dispatcher.
Anthony, a nurse, testified that she is familiar with the smell of human decomposition and said that the odor in the car "was like something I had never -- it was pretty strong," she said.
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A tearful Cindy Anthony became so shaken during her testimony that she had to be escorted out of the courtroom by a deputy sheriff so that she could compose herself.
The jury also heard a recording of a call Casey Anthony made to her parents from the Orange County Jail on July 16, 2008. During the call, Anthony can be heard complaining that her mother did not defend her when she appeared on television with a local news station.
"Nobody in my own family is on my side. They just want Caylee back, that’s all they’re worried about right now," Casey Anthony said.
During cross examination by Casey Anthony's defense attorney, Jose Baez, Cindy Anthony described her daughter as a "very loving, very caring mother," and said that she never saw her mistreat Caylee.
Last week, Baez told the jury Caylee died on June 16, 2008, when she drowned in her family's swimming pool. He also alleged that Casey Anthony's father, George Anthony, was the one who found his granddaughter's body. George Anthony has since denied the allegation.
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Casey Anthony Trial
The only other witness called to the stand Tuesday was Casey Anthony's former friend, Amy Huizenga.
Huizenga said she and Anthony met at the end of 2007 and became "very close friends." She described the relationship between Anthony and her mother as turbulent and said that Casey Anthony had once described her mom as crazy.
"It was hard. Her mom was continually agitated with her," Huizenga said. "I remember she told me her mom had told her she was an unfit mother. She was extremely upset about that."
Huizenga also testified about a text she received from Casey Anthony on June 27, 2008, in which she mentioned having car trouble and complained about a dead animal being stuck under her car, causing a bad odor.
Casey Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.
The trial continues Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.
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