Casey Anthony release protester says, "Caylee became America's sweetheart"
(CBS/WKMG/AP) ORLANDO, Fla. - Despite not knowing Casey Anthony's official release time, more than a dozen television trucks and a few scattered protesters were there when she was released from jail a few minutes after midnight Sunday, 12 days after Anthony was acquitted of murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
Pictures: Casey and Caylee Anthony, personal photos
Anthony, wearing a hot-pink T-shirt with blue jeans, left the jail at 12:14 a.m. with her attorney, Jose Baez. She was given $537.68 in cash from her jail account and escorted outside by two sheriff's deputies armed with semi-automatic rifles. Neither Anthony nor Baez said anything to reporters and others gathered outside, reports CBS affiliate WKMG.
While Anthony and Baez said nothing to those gathered outside, the protesters had plenty to say to the Florida mother.
Jessica Wiggins of Clearwater, Fla. waited outside Saturday with her four children for four hours to protest Anthony's release. She held a sign that read "This is your way of justice for Caylee. No Bella Vita."
"I want to let everyone know they are letting a baby killer out," Wiggins said.
"Her child meant so little to her that she couldn't even report her missing or report what happened, if it was truly an accident," Wiggins said of why the case bothered her so much. "She just could care less."
Prosecutors alleged that Anthony suffocated her daughter with duct tape because motherhood interfered with her desire for a carefree life, but her lawyers said the girl drowned in an accident that snowballed out of control.
Some of the jurors who acquitted Anthony said they believe she bears some responsibility for her daughter's death but that prosecutors failed to prove that she murdered the child.
"The verdict was nonsense. Without a shout (sic)of a doubt she was guilty based on everything," said Florida resident Ed Philstine, who had been outside the jailhouse at 11 p.m. Saturday waiting for Anthony's release.
Melissa Jeffrey, who went to the memorial site and left a teddy bear before coming to the jailhouse, held a sign saying "Justice for Caylee, karma for Casey."
"She was a little girl that needed justice and needs someone to look out for her." Jeffrey said. "She became America's sweetheart."
Anthony had remained in jail to finish a four-year sentence for lying to investigators. With credit for the nearly three years she'd spent in jail since August 2008 and good behavior, she had only days remaining when she was sentenced July 7.
Anthony's whereabouts for her first week of freedom were a closely guarded secret Monday, known only to a select few as she tries to start a new life after being acquitted. Cheney Mason, one of her lawyers says an elaborate plan as made to protect her from people with "the lynch-mob mentality."
Reporting by Lisa Meyer-Steinhaus and Peter King.