Did Casey Anthony do it? Probably, but not on purpose, trial judge says

ORLANDO, Fla. — Nearly six years after Casey Anthony was found not guilty in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, former Orange County Judge Belvin Perry has spoken out about the case and what he believes really happened.

“The most logical thing that occurred, in my eyesight, based on everything I know about the case, was that (Anthony) did not intentionally kill her daughter,” Perry told WFTV. “I think based upon the evidence, the most logical thing that happened was that she tried to knock her daughter out by the use of chloroform and gave her too much chloroform, which caused her daughter to die.”

Caylee disappeared in 2008 and Anthony led investigators on a wild goose chase in search of her daughter, only to claim later at her murder trial that Caylee drowned the day she disappeared.

In 2011, after a high-profile trial, a jury found Anthony not guilty in her daughter's death.

Jurors, though, convicted her of lying to law enforcement officials. Perry did not see a problem with the murder charge being filed against Anthony.

“The question was asked, ‘Was there sufficient evidence to submit the case to the jury on the theory of murder in the first degree?’” Perry said. “The answer to that question is yes.”

Perry, who presided over Anthony's trial, is a legal analyst for WFTV.

In the end, though, he wasn’t convinced that Caylee’s death was a purposeful act.

“To me, that was the most logical thing, looking at the totality of the entire situation,” Perry, said. “There was never any evidence of abuse of the daughter that was documented, that was presented anywhere.”

The overlooked evidence in the case, Perry argued, was computer searches for “chloroform” and the assertion of experts that the substance was found in Anthony’s car trunk.

“Considering the high levels of chloroform that was found in the trunk of the car, that was my logical deduction for what happened,” he said. “That’s just a theory. The only person that actually knows what happened is Casey Anthony.”

Cox Media Group