Casey Anthony Trial: Will She Testify Before Defense Rests on Thursday?

June 29, 2011 — -- Casey Anthony's lawyer said that he expects to wrap up her defense on Thursday, but it is still unclear if the Florida woman accused of murdering daughter Caylee will take the stand and testify.

Judge Belvin Perry also warned the court to be ready to work through the July 4 holiday weekend. He said it will be up to the jurors how much they want to work this weekend, but it is believed they will want to work since they are sequestered.

"I wouldn't make any plans for Sunday or Monday," Perry told the attorneys.

The announcement about the trial's progression followed an emotional day of testimony by George Anthony where he dealt a blow to his daughter's defense by saying she was the last one to see Caylee alive and by offering details about his 2009 suicide attempt.

Who's Who in the Case Anthony Trial

The defense so far has used the testimony of others to try and bolster their theory that Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and that George Anthony, Casey Anthony's father, helped dispose of the body. They claim that the 25-year-old mom hid the death like she hid years of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of her father.

George Anthony adamantly denied those claims today and with a pained voice revealed details about a suicide attempt he made just weeks after learning that Caylee's remains had been discovered in a wooded area near the Anthony family home in Orlando, Fla.

"My emotional state even through today is very hard to accept that I don't have a granddaughter any more. But for that particular day [Jan. 22, 2009]…it just felt like the right time to go and be with Caylee," he said.

He said that he attempted suicide with a mixture of medications and beer and described writing an eight page suicide note.

"I wrote this specific letter to my wife Cindy to tell her how I felt and how I didn't want to be in this world anymore," he said.

At another point, when the jury was out of the room, George Anthony said, "I needed to be with Caylee. I believed I had failed her."

Video of George Anthony Sparring with Jose Baez

The prosecution offered George Anthony's suicide letter in an attempt to rebut Baez's suggestion that Caylee's grandfather tried to commit suicide out of guilt for some role he may have played in her death.

George Anthony told the jurors that in August 2008, he bought a gun in hopes of intimidating Casey Anthony's friends and associates to tell him Caylee's whereabouts and that he would then use the gun to kill himself.

Casey Anthony's Case Hurt By Her Father's Testimony?

During a morning of contentious questioning, Baez argued that George Anthony attempted to shift the focus of law enforcement to his daughter from the moment Caylee was reported missing and that his experience as a former police officer helped him do it.

But George Anthony's answers may not have helped his daughter's case.

"Definitely something happened to Caylee, she's no longer with us and Casey was the last one I'd seen with her…one and one adds up to two no matter how you try to spin it," George Anthony said.

Casey Anthony could face the death penalty if she's convicted of first degree murder.

At another point, George Anthony told the court, "I didn't want to believe back then that my daughter could be capable of taking the life of her daughter."

Updated evidence photos from the Casey Anthony murder trial

George Anthony insisted that his behavior was that of a panicked grandfather and father.

"Was I upset and falling apart at the moment? Absolutely. My family was being torn apart…and for you to say I was doing something wrong, I'm upset," George Anthony said to Baez at one point.

George Anthony Says Car Smelled '100 Percent' of Human Decomposition

In another blow to his daughter's defense, he reiterated that Casey Anthony's Pontiac Sunfire smelled "100 percent" of human decomposition and he told jurors that his daughter "has a tendency to live on the edge." He briefly sobbed describing the pungent smell from the car.

"I could smell it three feet away from the passenger side...yeah it smelled like decomposition, human decomposition," George Anthony said. "I can close my eyes at the moment and I can smell that again. How dare you try to tell me I did something differently than what I did."

The more the defense grilled him, the more George Anthony fought back.

"You're trying to take this joy of my life away from me and you can't do it anymore," he told Baez.

Casey Anthony didn't cry during her father's testimony and at times shook her head in disagreement.

This afternoon, the defense attempted to use an expert on grief to explain Casey Anthony's hard partying and lies in the 31 days her daughter was missing and only she knew.

The Florida woman cried throughout the expert's testimony who described young people who experience loss as "reluctant grievers" who often party and engage in retail therapy after experiencing loss.

Upon cross examination, the expert conceded that nearly anything can be viewed as grief. When prosecutor Jeff Ashton described a hypothetical situation similar to Casey Anthony's behavior in the summer of 2008 when Caylee disappeared, the expert said it sounded like a "woman in crisis" and not necessarily in grief.