Casey To Be Offered Deal In Fraud Case

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Until now, Casey Anthony has never admitted to a shred of guilt, but Eyewitness News has learned there will be a plea deal in her check fraud case.

Casey still faces charges for murdering her daughter and the outcome of the plea deal could affect that case, as well.

Casey is accused of stealing her best friend's checkbook. She faces 13 felony charges for it, which, if not for this deal, could have landed her in prison for 65 years.

A plea deal in the check fraud case certainly could explain why the defense has not yet deposed the alleged victim, Amy Huizenga, and it explains why the judge is not demanding that the trial start first thing Monday morning. He was adamant about the case going on January 25, no matter what, and even mentioned a plea as a possibility in court during one of the last hearings.

Casey Anthony told murder detectives they would never trick her into a confession that she killed her daughter Caylee. That was the day she was indicted for first-degree murder.

Now, Eyewitness News has learned she will take some legal responsibility for allegedly cleaning out hundreds of dollars from the bank account of her ex-best friend, Amy Huizenga. The evidence is clear, including security videos, receipts and canceled checks, and Casey has paid back the $664.25.

The terms of the plea deal are not so clear and might not be until Monday afternoon.

“Would you be surprised if all of the terms were not hammered out before that?” WFTV reporter Kathi Belich asked legal analyst Bill Sheaffer (full interview).

“Absolutely. The defense in this case is not going to enter a plea to these charges without knowing what the situation is regarding adjudication of guilt,” he said. “There is some strong indication to me, from my experience, that a plea to these charges, if in fact there's an adjudication, may be an indication that the murder case may not go to trial."

Sheaffer says that's because the judge's ruling on whether to adjudicate or convict Casey of a crime, or withhold adjudication, would directly affect the defense's decision as to whether Casey would take the stand in her murder trial. If she were to have a conviction on her record, prosecutors could ask her about it and it would immediately affect her credibility in the eyes of the jurors.

“If this deal does not include a ‘withhold of adjudication,’ a decision has to have been made that we're not gonna put her on the witness stand,” Sheaffer said. “It is very early to start cutting yourself off as to how you're going to defend the murder case.”

Sheaffer says, if the defense has already decided Casey won't testify at her murder trial before it's even been scheduled, it could mean there's a possibility of a plea in the murder case, too.

Eyewitness News asked the defense's spokeswoman why the defense team has not deposed Huizenga yet and was told defense attorney Andrea Lyons said there would be no comment about that.

Eyewitness News asked the State Attorney's Office about a possible plea deal and the spokeswoman said the only discussions about the case will happen in court.

A hearing in Casey’s check fraud case is expected to be held Monday afternoon. That's where Casey will likely plead. Two motions in the murder case are also expected to be heard during that hearing on January 25. The murder trial is supposed to start this year, but no date has been set yet.

Casey Anthony’s death penalty attorney, who is an expert on death penalty cases, admitted on national television that she doubts a jury will clear Casey of her daughter's murder. Anthony's defense attorney went on a morning show again Thursday morning, talking about how the amount of publicity will prevent Casey from getting a fair trial.

“I'm scared for my client. I'm afraid that the fact that she's been pilloried in the press. I would liken this Meredith, to the Salem witch trials,” Lyon told Meredith Viera on the Today Show.

Defense attorney Andrea Lyon says she will keep trying to get the death penalty off the table, but she stumbled over her words when she said Casey didn't kill her daughter Caylee Anthony.

“It does put a lot of pressure on a defendant to plea bargain even when they didn't, when they didn't do it. She didn't kill her kid,” Lyon said.

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer (interview) says the evidence is what it is and that people have a right not to believe that Casey had good reason for not reporting her daughter missing for 30 days and to also not to believe her inconsistent story about leaving Caylee with a nanny who's never been identified.

"Quit whining and get to the defense of this case. The evidence is, the facts are what the facts are. If that is tried before a jury in Orlando, Tampa, New York City, or Timbuktu, the jurors are going to form their opinion based upon their view of that evidence," Sheaffer said.

Lyon has tried more than 130 homicide cases, defended more than 30 potential capital cases and taken 19 people through the penalty phase and, so far, she's won them all. However, Thursday, Lyon admitted she's not optimistic about her client’s chances.

"There’s always a presumption of guilt and the intense media scrutiny here, as far as I can see, has made it virtually impossible to get a fair trial and we’re rolling an even bigger stone up a bigger hill than you normally are," Lyon said.

Lyon seemed also to be doing damage control after Eyewitness News exposed her comments that female prosecutors are manly and that jurors on death penalty cases are killers, as she tries to sell her new book.

Andrea Lyon repeated the defense's mantra that the public won't find out until the trial why Casey is innocent, but, Sheaffer says, if they really had something convincing that could spring Casey from jail they would have brought it forward by now.

Casey Anthony’s high-profile death penalty attorney kicked-off the sale of her new book Tuesday.

Eyewitness News followed Andrea Lyon through each court hearing as she worked to build a defense that can save Casey Anthony from the death penalty for the murder of her daughter Caylee Marie Anthony.

Lyon's new book, "Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer," which doesn't focus on the Anthony case, is now heading to store shelves. The book explores Lyon’s first case in which she defends a mother accused of murdering her child.