Casey Anthony trial timeline

Casey Anthony cries during the prosecution's opening statement at her murder trial at the Orange County Courthouse on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, in Orlando, Fla. Anthony is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter. If convicted, she could face the death penalty. "Caylee Marie Anthony was not kidnapped. No one else benefited from the death of Caylee Marie Anthony. Caylee's death allowed Casey Anthony to live the good life, and the end of this case you will have no problem deciding that Casey Anthony killed her daughter. Casey Anthony is guilty of murder in the first degree," Prosecutor Linda Burdick said in her opening. Prosecutors say Anthony murdered Caylee by suffocating her with duct tape.

The defense's opening that same day contained two bombshells. First, attorney Jose Baez (seen here on the right), claimed that Caylee Anthony accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool while home with Casey and Casey's father George. Second, he claimed that the reason Casey reacted so strangely to her daughter's death, was that she had been abused as a child by her father. George Anthony denies abusing Casey.

Casey Anthony stares after a spectator interrupts during jury selection in her trial at the Pinellas County Criminal Justice Center in Clearwater, Fla. Friday, May 20, 2011. Anthony is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008. (AP Photo/G — AP Photo/Red Huber

On Friday, May 27, testimony centered on the smell coming from Casey Anthony's car, where prosecutors say she hid the body of her daughter Caylee after murdering her. Casey Anthony's father George testified that he smelled a very strong odor that "concerned" him. He explained that he had smelled a similar odor previously and it was very distinct - the smell of a human corpse. He said he found a white bag with a pizza box and maggots in it when he opened the trunk of the car. Tow yard manager Simon Birch testified earlier that day that Anthony's car smelled of human decomposition when it was towed in June 2008.

Casey Anthony's mother Cindy cried while prosecutors on May 31 played the 911 call she made reporting her granddaughter Caylee missing. Cindy told the dispatcher that Caylee had been missing for a month and said of Casey's car, "It smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car." This photo was taken on her first day of testimony, Saturday, May 28, 2011.

On Wednesday, June 1, Casey Anthony cried as she listened to her brother Lee testify. He said that Anthony's car smelled "offensive."

On June 2 and 3, tapes documenting jail-house conversations between Casey Anthony and her parents after she had been detained following the disappearance of Caylee were shown to the jury. In the videos, she called Caylee the point to their family's star and said the 2-year-old had the best traits from her and from Casey's parents and brother. Anthony had tears in her eyes at times while watching the video from July 2008.

On June 8, 2011, Sgt. Kevin Stenger, the head of computer crimes at the Orange County Sheriff's Department, testified that someone specifically searched for the word "chloroform" on the Anthony family computer three months before Caylee went missing.

Casey Anthony became ill Thursday, June 9, 2011 when evidence photos of Caylee's body were shown to the court, halting the trial early. Anthony began to rock back and forth, breathe deeply and hold her head in the palm of her hand as Dr. Gary Utz of the Orange/Oseola county Medical Examiner's Office showed pictures including graphic photos of Caylee's skull.

Casey-Anthony-6.10.jpg — AP Photo/Joe Burbank

On June 10, 2011, Anthony broke down when John J. Schultz, a professor of anthropology, testified about the condition of Caylee's remains. He told the court that Caylee's bones had been chewed on by wild animals.

On June 14, Judge Belvin Perry chastised defense attorney Cheney Mason, after Mason objected when Perry told the court that the defense would present its case. Mason told Perry that the defense is not legally obligated to present any evidence at all and they may or may not, but Perry set that expectation with the jurors. According to Perry, Mason's co-counsel had repeatedly told the judge that the defense would be presenting evidence, and Mason eventually admitted to Perry that the defense was indeed going to do that. Mason told Perry that the defense is not legally obligated to present any evidence at all and they may or may not, but Perry set that expectation with the jurors. "I will take it that I cannot trust one thing your side says anymore," Perry told Mason in the sidebar. This photo is from June 15, 2011.

On June 13, FBI forensic examiner Elizabeth Fontaine testified about the duct tape found with Caylee Anthony's skull and said she observed what appeared to be heart-shaped glue residue about the size of a dime on one of the pieces. Fontaine testified that testing the tape for fingerprints destroyed the residue and no photo was taken of it. On June 14, another agent said that heart-shaped stickers were found in Casey Anthony's bedroom.

A photograph of a tattoo that Casey Anthony received by tattoo artist Bobby Williams while her daughter Caylee was reported missing is displayed on a monitor after being entered into evidence during day 18. — Pool,AP Photo/Red Huber

On June 15, prosecutors called Bobby Williams to the stand, who testified that he gave Casey Anthony a tattoo reading "Bella Vita" while Caylee was missing. "Bella vita" means "good life" in Italian.

On June 16, the defense called its first witnesses. The beginning of the defense's case focused on a reexamination of forensic evidence the prosecution had used to link Casey to Caylee's death.

Fight breaks out among people in line hoping to get tickets to get into courtroom to watch Casey Anthony murder trial in Orlando, Fla. early in the morning on June 17, 2011. — CBS,WKMG-TV

A fight broke out among people in line hoping to get tickets to get into courtroom to watch the trial early in the morning on June 17, 2011. The fight - the second in the course of the trial - prompted a change in the procedures used to select who is chosen to get into the courtroom.

Dr. Tim Huntington, forensic entomologist, testified for the defense on Friday, June 17, 2011, saying that the odor in Casey Anthony's car was from a bag of trash, not a dead body.

On Monday, June 20, 2011, Judge Belvin Perry warned the Anthony defense and prosecution today that he is getting fed up with "gamesmanship" during the trial. He then abruptly halted court that day with no witnesses having been called.

Mark Lippman, a lawyer for Casey's parents, reportedly told CNN's "AC360" on June 22 that they do not believe that Casey is "innocent." He later denied the report, saying the next day that George and Cindy Anthony just want to know the truth about what happened to Caylee, and that "AC360" did not use his entire statement.

On June 23, Casey's mother, Cindy, delivered bombshell testimony where she claimed it was she - and not Casey - who performed computer searches for the word chloroform. Cindy Anthony said that she did the searches because one of the family's two Yorkshire terriers was acting listless and she believed that chlorophyll or chloroform might have been to blame.

An image projected on a courtroom monitor on Friday, June 24 showed Cindy Anthony, left, and her granddaughter Caylee at the family pool at their home. Defense attorneys showed jurors several photos of Caylee and Cindy in the family's pool that they hope bolster their argument that the toddler drowned and wasn't murdered.

Casey Anthony's brother Lee broke down in tears on the witness stand on Friday, June 24 when he recalled not being at his niece Caylee's birth. Lee Anthony said he was hurt that his family did not include him in Caylee's birth and he chose not to go to the hospital when Caylee was born.

On Wednesday, June 29, the defense called George Anthony back to the stand and questioned him about his suicide attempt, suggesting that he was driven to it by guilt. The prosecution then entered into evidence George's suicide note, which made no mention of knowing what happened to Caylee and made no suggestion that his granddaughter's death was an accident.

Roy Kronk, a meter reader for Orange County, testifies during the Casey Anthony murder trial at the Orange County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 28, 2011, in Orlando, Fla. Anthony, 25, is charged with killing her daughter Caylee in the summer of 2008. (AP Photo/Red Huber, Pool)

The defense team called George Anthony's alleged mistress Krystal Holloway as one of their final witnesses on Thursday, June 30. Holloway told the court that she had an intimate relationship with George Anthony and said that he told her Caylee's death was an accident.

The defense called Casey Anthony's mother, father and brother back to the stand to question them on pet burial techniques used by the family as their final witnesses on Thursday, June 30. Before they rested, though, Judge Belvin Perry asked Casey Anthony if she had decided that she didn't want to testify and if she had made that decision herself. She said she had, and the defense rested its case.

Spectator Matthew Bartlett was chastised by Judge Belvin Perry after flipping off prosecutor Jeff Ashton on Thursday, June 30. Although the jury did not see the gesture, Perry found the man guilty of criminal contempt of court and sentenced him to 6 days in jail and fined him $400.

CaseyAnthony7.1.jpg — AP Photo/Red Huber

Judge Belvin Perry unexpectedly called an indefinite recess Friday July 1, 2010 so the defense could take depositions of witnesses the prosecution planned to call during its rebuttal case.

Closing arguments grew contentious Saturday, July 2, 2010 when defense attorney Jose Baez pointed to prosecutor Jeff Ashton and called him, "That laughing guy over there" when Ashton appeared to chuckle at a point Baez was making. After reviewing video of the incident Ashton said, "I was smiling behind my hand. I wasn't laughing. I wasn't nodding. I was doing my best to make sure that nothing I said or did was seen by the jury."

On Tuesday July, 5, after over 10 hours of deliberations, the jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of murder, aggravated child abuse and manslaughter in the death of Caylee. She was found guilty of four lesser counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.