Anthony was fined $1,000 and sentenced to the maximum term of four years for each of the misdemeanor counts of lying to law enforcement officers investigating Caylee’s disappearance and death. Anthony showed no visible emotion yesterday as her sentence was being read, but had been smiling and talking to her lawyers beforehand.
As the hearing was taking place inside the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando yesterday, a small group of protesters outside rallied against Anthony’s acquittal on murder charges. One sign read, “Arrest the Jury.’’
Her lawyers have said she has received numerous death threats since she was acquitted of the most serious charges Tuesday.
The four counts of lying that Anthony was convicted of occurred when she falsely claimed that her daughter had disappeared, that she was employed at Universal Studios when she did not work there, that she had left Caylee with a baby sitter when there was no baby sitter, and that her daughter had called her on the telephone the day she was reported as missing.
Anthony’s lawyers had sought to have those charges combined into a single criminal act, but Judge Belvin Perry Jr. of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court ruled against the motion.
During the nearly six-week trial, prosecutors said Anthony rendered her daughter unconscious with chloroform before suffocating her by placing duct tape over her nose and mouth. Afterward, prosecutors said, she dumped the girl’s body in a wooded area, where it was found about six months later not far from the Anthonys’ house.
The defense argued that Caylee drowned accidentally in the family swimming pool and that the death had been concealed by Caylee’s grandfather, George Anthony, which he denied during testimony.
The jury, which had been sequestered for the trial, reached its decision to acquit Anthony on charges of murder and aggravated child abuse in less than 11 hours. If convicted of those crimes, Anthony would have faced a possible death sentence.
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