Dozens wait to get into end of Casey Anthony trial

Brian Maher, who lives in Orlando, has been in the courtroom 12 days, and wants to be there for the verdict.

Robin Wilkie traveled all the way from Minnesota and has been a witness to the Casey Anthony trial every day.

The two are among several dozen people in line on this steamy, sticky afternoon for tickets to Monday's proceedings, which may or may not be the day when a verdict finally comes in the high-profile murder trial.

Lawyers made their closing arguments this afternoon, after which the case will be in the jury's hands. Deliberations could take hours or days, and should jurors find Anthony guilty of first-degree murder, they will reconvene for more testimony, after which they would have to consider whether she should be sentenced to die or life in prison. That penalty phase could take days, or even longer.

While many people will spend their July 4 grilling or getting ready for fireworks, many others would rather sit in a courtroom and watch the drama unfold.

"If anyone deserves the death penalty, it's her," said Wilkie, who traveled to Florida more than a month ago to be in the crowd for the trial, in which Anthony is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

She has watched the jury closely and hopes it votes for first-degree murder, meaning that Anthony planned to kill her daughter. But Wilkie doesn't see that happening.

"There are some holdouts," she said, speculating.

Wilkie said she envisions a guilty verdict and that the mother will spend the rest of her life in prison. She called Anthony the female version of Scott Peterson, the California man convicted of killing his wife and unborn daughter several years ago.

The Minnesota woman had high words of praise for defense attorney Jose Baez, whom she said she talked to for about 25 minutes recently after running into him at the hotel where she is staying.

"He is doing a phenomenal job. He's poking more holes in the prosecution's case than Swiss cheese," she said. "If I did something like this, I'd want Jose to represent me."

For Maher, his interest started out as a bet with a neighbor, who's an attorney, about whether he could land a courtroom seat.

After spending one day at the trial, maher was hooked. He has all of his trial tickets on his refrigerator.

He's a long distance truck driver who had neck surgery recently and is at home recuperating.

"It's killing my whole rehab time," Maher said, wearing a neck brace as he waited in line today.

He, too, thinks Anthony will be found guilty – "there won't be no death penalty," though, he added.