Part 3
MCARDLE: We are desperately, desperately crying for help here. And I`ve spoken to maybe two officers that have been really, really nice and tried to help me. But they can only do so much. We need the police force to do what they need to do to help us find my niece.
And it`s just horrific. It`s -- one police station, "It`s not our jurisdiction." The next police station, "We can`t give you this information, because it`s not our jurisdiction." Well, damn it, whose jurisdiction is it?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s at least clarify whose jurisdiction it is. Who is handling the case? Somebody give us a call back. We`re going to stay on top of this and keep this story alive. Thank you, fantastic panel.
More on Kyron Horman next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: In the "Spotlight" tonight, a dramatic day ahead in Casey Anthony`s murder case. Her mom, Cindy, and her brother, Lee, are set to take the stand tomorrow. ISSUES will have full coverage of tomorrow`s highly anticipated hearing. Crucial evidence hangs in the balance here. Will a jury ever get to hear Cindy`s incriminating 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
C. ANTHONY: My granddaughter has been taken. She has been missing for a month. Her mother finally admitted she`s been missing. Get someone here now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your daughter admitted the baby is where?
C. ANTHONY: That the babysitter took her a month ago. My daughter has been looking for her. 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Imagine if Cindy`s own words helped convict her own daughter of murdering little Caylee, her own granddaughter. Prosecutors say the three 911 calls reveal Casey`s progression of lies after little Caylee vanished. But the defense says the calls are hearsay and should be kept out of the trial. What will the judge decide?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Welcome back, fantastic panel. But first to "In Session" correspondent Jean Casarez.
Jean, what can we expect from tomorrow`s big hearing?
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": The big thing tomorrow is going to be the 911 calls. The defense is making a concerted effort to try to keep them out of the trial. They don`t want the jury to hear these calls.
But the prosecution is firing back, because they`re saying, No. 1, we only want the first one and the third one. And the first one we don`t want it for the truth of what Casey is saying; we want it for the impact of Casey Anthony to hear it. Because the prosecution says it wasn`t until after that first call that Casey developed the story of Zenaida Gonzalez, and that showed her consciousness of guilt. And that`s the pivotal issue right there.
The third one they say, if we offer it for the truth, it`s an excited utterance, that Cindy said the dead body in the car, that she was talking to law enforcement unexpectedly, spontaneous statement, and that is truthful.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dr. Dale Archer, the reason the prosecution wants these 911 calls in, is it 99 percent of communication is not just about the words; it`s about the passion with which you say them? When the mother says, "There`s something wrong here," it really tells the whole story without having to tell the story.
ARCHER: Well, there`s that, Jane, but also there`s the fact that, when you`re under stress and duress, you do say a lot of things that you wouldn`t normally say.
But here`s the deal: they are usually true. When you`re stressed, you don`t have time to think about a lot. You usually say the first thing you think about, and usually that`s accurate.
So you know what? I think these tapes are real, and I think the emotion is real. And I think that they are hugely powerful for the prosecution. Big, big damage control for the defense.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Mark Eiglarsh, you`re the former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. I mean, some of the headlines from these tapes: it smells like a dead body in the damn car. My daughter admits now that the babysitter took the child a month ago. And apparently there`s also references to her having taken the car when she shouldn`t have taken the car. In other words, it wasn`t really her car to take. It was her mom`s car.
How is this going to help the prosecution, and do you think it`s going to be allowed in?
EIGLARSH: I think it will be allowed in. And I think it`s going to help the prosecution. Not for all the reasons that you mentioned. Those are like No. 2, No. 3, No. 4.
The No. 1 reason is that the defense wants the jury to think that the person sitting behind the accused always believed her, always supported her, and always thought that there was nothing fishy about the story. From the 911 tape, we`ve all concluded, my God, Cindy even questions her own daughter.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hold on...
EIGLARSH: And that`s what you get out of it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: More on the other side. Is Cindy going to be able to handle it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Head-spinning developments in the case of missing Oregon boy, Kyron Horman. Was his disappearance a carefully planned plot? That`s what his distraught mom believes. She says she`s haunted by warning signs and believes Kyron`s stepmom, Terri, plotted his disappearance.
Meantime, Kyron`s dad is taking Terri to court as a new search gets under way for the missing child.
Plus, just when you thought it couldn`t get any more obscene. Yet another alleged Mel Gibson audiotape takes it to a whole new level.
You`ll hear the latest in a dramatic series of vicious tirades. Tonight, do these tapes reveal a star who could be a danger to himself?
Tonight, Casey Anthony`s lawyers frantically preparing for a huge day in court tomorrow. We`re going to cover it here on ISSUES. They want Cindy Anthony`s desperate chilling 911 calls dropped. The defense says Cindy was acting when she said her daughter`s car smelled like a dead body. They say she wanted law enforcement to come to her house in a hurry. That`s why she said that.
But George Anthony also later said the car smelled like a dead body. Check this out.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY`S FATHER: I got within three feet of my daughter`s car. And the worst odor you could possibly smell in this world. I`ve smelled that odor before; it smelled like a decomposed body.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And George told that to police at the station. Will that 911 call be dropped?
Straight out to Holly in Arkansas, your question or thought, ma`am?
HOLLY, ARKANSAS (via telephone): Well, first of all, I love your show.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.
HOLLY: What I want to know is, not an everyday person, I know Casey Anthony`s dad has smelled dead bodies but an average person would not know what it smelled like. So how does her mother know what it smells like when she called 911 that day?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, think one of the reasons is that everybody, when they smell that particular smell, it`s almost instinctive. Even if you`ve never smelled a dead body before, it`s a new and frightening smell that --
MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A former nurse, too. She`s a former nurse.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead, Dr. Dale.
DR. DALE ARCHER, CLINICAL PSYCHIATRIST: Yes. I think you hit the nail on the head, Jane. It`s in our DNA. It is absolutely instinctive. It is stored. And when you smell that smell, even if you never smelled that smell before, you know, first of all, you know it`s something bad, and you know it`s associated with death. I agree with you on that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We will be watching tomorrow to see if Cindy Anthony can keep her cool on the witness stand. Remember this?
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s all I have.
CINDY ANTHONY, MOTHER OF CASEY ANTHONY: You know, you slandered me on TV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop.
CINDY ANTHONY: And you perjured yourself with this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop.
CINDY ANTHONY: Because she`s not Fernandez. So there you go. You want to fight it? Go for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. That was a civil deposition. But Jean Casarez, you cannot act like that in criminal court. Do you think Cindy will keep it together tomorrow on the stand?
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": I do. I do. This is a court of law. Judge Belvin Perry, the chief judge is presiding at this point in the trial. And I definitely think, but it will be a dress rehearsal, I think, for both sides because this is a star witness for the prosecution. It will be interesting to see how she does or how the questions are fielded.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I mean, really, this is a preview of the trial.
CASAREZ: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is a huge day tomorrow because the defendant`s mom, who is at the center of the storm, is going to take the stand and be grilled. It`s really extraordinary.
Now, Casey`s brother, Lee, is also expected to testify tomorrow. Will he be able to continue acting like the good brother? Remember, Casey has purportedly accused him of fondling her breasts. This came up in a letter that was released in the document dumps. Now he`s going to have to get up on the stand and defend his sister?
That`s got to be emotional torment, Dr. Dale Archer.
ARCHER: Yes, I think so. You know, I`m going to be very curious to see what type of tack Cindy in particular takes. Because I think that her testimony and that tape could be absolutely -- just a huge blow against her daughter. And she said all along she doesn`t think she did it. She supports her 100 percent. So she`s going to have to come up with some explanation if that tape is allowed. And I`m going to be very curious to see what that is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nick, New York, your questions or thoughts, sir?
NICK, NEW YORK (via telephone): Hello, Jane, it`s an honor to speak to you again.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.
NICK: Hello?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, hi. What`s your question, Nick?
NICK: Yes. The question that I have is that, I`m having a lot of problems with, you know, I don`t want to rush to judgment. But I have a problem as far as like Casey Anthony, like her actions when her daughter was missing. I mean, first of all, she goes dancing at bars and she buys beer at Target.
I mean if anybody`s child is missing, I mean, you would be upset, like you couldn`t eat. Like you would be going to the police stations every day; it`s just that -- it`s just her actions. I have a lot of problem with Casey`s actions the thing is that it`s --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`re looking at the pictures right here, by the way, Nick, of Casey`s so-called dirty dancing. I believe this is during the time that her daughter Caylee was missing. She later explained that she was going to nightclubs to look for her daughter.
It doesn`t look like she`s looking for her daughter there, Mark Eiglarsh.
EIGLARSH: Jane, that is going to be the centerpiece of this trial. Not only was she out dancing, but she got a tattoo. And it`s called "the good life", living the good life. Who does that when their child is missing? She`s not conducting any search.
So DNA evidence, perhaps that might be called into question; but these actions, reprehensible -- no way.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Today was also a very big day for the defense`s dream team of forensic experts. They put on gowns, they put on masks and a den of crucial pieces of evidence. And they did it firsthand. They paid special attention to Casey`s car.
Remember this? Investigators found traces of chloroform. They found evidence of human decomposition in the trunk. Along with a hair that purportedly corresponds to some Anthony family member but showed signs of decomposition. The only person who was dead in the family that it could apply to would be Caylee Anthony, according to prosecutors.
Jean Casarez, what do you know about what the defense dream team did today with their much heralded examination, physical examination of the evidence?
CASAREZ: You know what`s so interesting, Jane, the defense is really targeting into the areas that they don`t want in this case. The 911 call is one. This car is another one.
Now, Dr. Lee, Henry Lee, already made an assessment of that car. He even found, I think, a hair or two that forensic evaluators on the side of the prosecution had not found. But they`re going to try to disassociate Casey Anthony and the decomposition. That`s going to be their focus from that trunk because the air samples showed signs, according to the prosecution, of decomposition.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Mark Eiglarsh, there was a huge battle over how this examination of the physical evidence could occur. Remember, the defense didn`t want anybody from the Sheriff`s Department there.
I read today that the sheriff`s department was actually videotaping them. And that if they wanted to talk amongst themselves, they had to go away in a separate room. Does that sound like putting pressure on the defense so they can`t really effectively analyze this evidence because they know eyes are upon them?
EIGLARSH: Well, that`s what the defense would argue. I`ve argued that before. But what they`re saying is they`re simply maintaining the integrity of the evidence. The defense is going to question every single piece. And they don`t want anything disturbed.
So they`ve got to keep their eye on them. It`s their position. They want to videotape, make sure nothing was touched. Jose didn`t take something off something and put it over here. And, you know, I understand why they`re doing it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Carol, Texas, your question or thought, ma`am?
CAROL, TEXAS (via telephone): Hi, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.
CAROL: I would like to -- way back when this first started, I really, really, really watched it. Casey Anthony had stated that her brother had sexually abused her, as well as her father. And then she recently got a letter stating that her father was poking fun that she`s getting fat in jail.
And I want to know if her little dream team, now that one of her good lawyers is no longer on the team, if they`re going to pull this, you know, she was sexually abused. They were spending all this time on little -- the little girl; she didn`t want that to happen.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good question. We don`t know where these trials go. This is runaway freight train. And as we saw with other high-profile cases like the O.J. Simpson case, you never know where it`s going to take us. It`s going to be an adventure. We just hope justice is the final stop.
Thank you so very much, excellent panel.
Meantime, so many of us are completely outraged about the Gulf oil spill. So where is the outrage from celebrities, like the ones who were screaming during Katrina? ISSUES viewer Mike Andrews is going off on his own ISSUES rant. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE ANDREWS, VIEWER: The day-to-day American, I`m not sure if they`re relating to what`s happening down there. What I would like to see, I know this is small, and a lot of people might not agree, but I want to see more celebrities onboard with what`s going on.
You know what I`m saying? I want to see -- you know, they can`t fix the problem, I understand that. There`s very little they can do to actually effect the issue in terms of stopping the oil. But we all know how important it is to be aware, how important it is for people to know what`s going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Mike, way to go. Thank you for sending in your ISSUES rant.
Are you at home as outraged about an issue that you see on this show? Send us a video rant. It can be about any story that gets your blood boiling.
Send your ISSUES rants to Jane@cnn.com; please try to make it 30 seconds or less, speak loudly. Use your outdoor voice and speak into your web cam. And make sure there`s some good lighting so you look fabulous.
We want to hear from you. Send them in and we`re going to air the most passionate ones live.
All right. We`ve got to ask, the Mel Gibson drama continues.
And we`re first going to go to Kyron, was Kyron`s kidnapping carefully planned. Tonight cops return to the scene of the crime. Those stories next.
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