Casey Anthony Now: Judge Belvin Perry Says She Likely Killed Her Daughter By Accident

Belvin Perry, retired Florida judge who presided over the Casey Anthony trial, admitted that Anthony probably killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony by accident.

CASEY ANTHONY NOW

Perry told HLN that he believes Anthony overdosed the child with chloroform, which is banned in the U.S. as an anesthetic. “It’s quite evident that whoever did this, and more than likely it may have been Casey, used too much (chloroform),” he said, referencing the high levels of the chemical in the involved car’s trunk.

Caylee Anthony died in 2008, and the world witnessed her trial. In 2011, Anthony was found not guilty of first-degree murder, but guilty on four counts of providing false information to the police. The prosecutors of the case claimed Anthony killed her daughter with chloroform by covering her mouth and nose with duct tape, before dumping the body in the woods. The defense held that the 2-year-old drowned accidentally in the family pool, and that Anthony and her father tried to cover up the death.

Perry says that Anthony had two very different personalities while in court. “Casey in the presence of the jury was very calm, very easygoing, mild-mannered, in a very sympathetic-appearing person,” he said. But when the jury was present, “She was quite in charge, quite demanding and quite manipulative.”

While Perry believes he’s worked out that Anthony did in fact kill her child, he says he can’t be angry that the jury did not convict. “The jury did what the jury did and there are various views as to how this evidence could be perceived,” he said. “Thus, there’s a reasonable doubt. We don’t know. ‘We don’t know’ translates to not guilty.”

For her part, in 2012, Anthony told CNN: “Obviously I didn’t kill my daughter. If anything, there’s nothing in this world I’ve ever been more proud of, and there’s no one I loved more than my daughter. She’s my greatest accomplishment.”