Casey is charged with, among other things:
First degree murder (specifies premeditation)
Aggravated child abuse
Aggravated manslaughter of a child
I'm no lawyer, but if I were on the jury, it sounds to me like the aggravated child abuse is the qualifying factor for first degree murder. If presented with what we have seen so far, I would see this particular piece of evidence as the duct tape being premeditation and forethough, with the heart sticker as an afterthought and feeling of guilt by KC. The Winnie the Pooh blanket proves only one thing to me. KC is a lazy biotch, and that's what was there at the time. It does not, to me as someone who would potentially be on a jury of her peers, provide any excuse for the forethought of a child who has endured her mouth being taped up with duct tape.
I'm not sure how many of you have endured any kind of hazing or harassment, but as someone who has been through a bunch of not-so-much-fun hazing/harassment when I got to my first submarine, I can tell you that duct tape is not fun. One of the things that used to happen to nearly everyone who reported for duty on a submarine, at least back when I was in, was a thorough "taping" job by the rest of your division. It took 10 guys and 12 rolls of duct tape, and one guy with a polaroid (I still have the photo around here somewhere!) to tape me up...and duct tape is terrible to remove. It takes skin and hair with it, no matter how carefully you try to remove it. I imagine I lost a great deal of DNA that day on that tape! Of course, they did put a sign on me that said "Do not open until Xmas!" so no one would help me out, and they were kind enough to tape a box cutter (closed) into my mummified hand so I could try to cut myself out (unsuccessfully!).
I can't imagine using duct tape on a child's mouth, and any sane individual on a jury will not be able to help but to imagine the terror in the little girl as her mother applied that tape to her mouth. The heart over the tape just tells me that KC is a cruel .