Casey Anthony case: Prosecutors argue jury should hear 911 calls

Prosecutors in the Casey Anthony case filed a document Wednesday laying out arguments for letting jurors hear 911 calls made at the very start of the child murder case in July 2008.

Anthony's legal team has argued that dozens of statements made by her friends and family amount to hearsay and should be kept out at her trial scheduled for next year.

But in Monday's nine-page filing, Assistant State Attorney Linda Drane Burdick argues that the 911 calls made by Cindy Anthony, the defendant's mother, should be heard. The prosecutor contends that the calls help show the progression of stories Casey Anthony told to explain the disappearance of her daughter Caylee Marie.

Anthony is charged with killing the 2-year-old, whose remains were found in woods in December 2008, months after her disappearance and the 911 calls.

Cindy Anthony's first call to authorities on July 15, 2008, chiefly involved reporting her daughter for a stolen car.

The second call is longer and more detailed. During the call, Cindy Anthony tells a dispatcher the child has been missing for a month. And she says she wants Casey Anthony arrested for stealing the car and money.

By the third call, Cindy Anthony is crying. "I found out my granddaughter has been taken," she tells the dispatcher. "She has been missing for a month. Her, her mother finally admitted that she's been missing."

Later in that call, she says, "There's something wrong. I found my daughter's car today and it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car."

Still later in the call, Cindy Anthony says that her daughter admitted that the child had been taken by a nanny a month earlier.

The calls show how "the defendant 'created' the kidnapping story after denying there was any problem locating Caylee Marie Anthony," Burdick states. "These fabrications demonstrate consciousness of guilt on the part of the defendant …"

Casey Anthony's defense team earlier filed an extensive memo detailing arguments why the 911 calls and other statements should be excluded.

In one document, the defense noted the 911 statements should be excluded because they're "testimonial."

Because it is a capital case, "unreliable hearsay evidence must be excluded," Anthony's team argued.

In early May, Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. said he would rule on the hearsay issue later on in the case.

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I had no clue the State had to get approval so the jury can hear the calls. (I find it hard to believe that there are people that haven't heard them).

Those calls are a huge key piece of evidence. I would like to see the State play those calls and then call Cindy Anthony to the stand. Or, even better..play them while she IS on the stand with the camera watching her every move and twitch. One thing we do know, she won't be

The defense claims that they should be excluded because they are "hearsay"...I just don't get that...Why would they be hearsay when it is clearly Cindy talking, and then Casey herself telling the dispatcher how stupid it was for her to look for Caylee herself for 31 days...They will come in, I think...Judge Perry hasn't fallen for any of their crazy rationale up to this point...