ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – Casey Anthony was released from a Florida jail on Sunday to resume the life on the outside interrupted three years ago when she was charged with the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
Casey Anthony exited the jail escorted by guards wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying rifles and stepped into a black SUV, one of two waiting vehicles, a few minutes after midnight on Saturday.
Anthony was acquitted by a jury on July 5 of culpability in Caylee's death. Since then, her future has been the subject of much speculation, but with no publicly known facts beyond her jail departure date.
Pool reporters inside the jail saw Anthony and her attorney Jose Baez whiz by them in the lobby and exit through the front door in a matter of about 12 seconds.
"She was just tunnel vision on that door," said Tony Zumbado, an NBC News cameraman. Anthony's only words were "thank you" to a jail sergeant, he said.
"When she walked out, she had a smirk on her face," said Zumbado, who interpreted the expression as relief.
"She looked to me like she might be nervous or holding back tears," said Matt Sedensky, an Associated Press reporter in the pool.
He quoted jail officials as saying Anthony -- wearing the tight hair bun seen during her trial, a bright pink shirt, jeans and bright blue sneakers -- left with the $537.68 remaining in her inmate account.
Two backup plans to take her out of other jail doors were scrapped when officers determined she could safely depart through the front, Sedensky said.
Some TV reports showed footage of a plane at an Orlando executive airport that they said Anthony had boarded and which then left for an unknown destination, but the reports could not be immediately confirmed.
CROWD WAITING
A crowd of several hundred had been waiting since midafternoon for the release, and many of its members rushed into the street trying to follow Anthony as she was driven away, briefly blocking the eastbound lanes of a six lane road.
Lori Richards, 54, of Daytona Beach and three friends had set up a tent at 3 p.m where they huddled through a brief lightning storm.
"We're here to support Caylee and we want them (the public) to boycott anything Casey or any of the Anthonys do," Richards said.
Casey Anthony's parents and brother had testified at the widely telecast trial.
Many in the crowd at the jail came with signs for and against Casey, and some periodically chanted Caylee's name.
A large police presence included the sheriff's mobile command center, five horse-mounted officers and at least 20 uniformed officers on foot, many wearing bullet-proof vests. Three news helicopters hovered overhead.
Anthony's safety is no small matter. Her trial revealed gruesome details of Caylee's death and the disposal of the toddler's remains in trash bags in swampy woods. There was also plenty of evidence of Casey Anthony relishing her life, partying and shopping, after Caylee died.
Even Casey Anthony's lawyer Baez acknowledged her outward lack of emotion over the death was "bizarre."
Her acquittal was met with shock and derision by much of the public, egged on by outraged television commentary.
Charles Greene, Anthony's defense lawyer in a related civil defamation lawsuit, told a judge on Friday that he had received seven threats against her that day.
Much speculation has focused on whether Anthony will try to live quietly out of the public eye, or seek out attention, and just what sort of person she is.
She stopped accepting jail visits from her parents long ago. An attempt by her mother Cindy Anthony to visit her both right before the trial began and just after the verdict were rejected.
Lawyer Greene told a judge that psychologists who examined Anthony at the jail this week found her mentally unstable after the ordeal of the trial, according to opposing lawyer Keith Mitnik.
Mitnik is suing Anthony on behalf of Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, whose life the suit says was ruined after Anthony initially lied to detectives that a woman by that name had kidnapped Caylee.
(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jerry Norton)
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