ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Taxpayers are going to have to pay Casey Anthony's defense bills. The court officially declared her indigent Friday afternoon (read order).

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JUDGE'S ORDER: Strickland Grants Indigence Status
VIDEO REPORT: Taxpayers Saddled With Casey's Defense
CASEY ARRIVES: See Images | Raw Video
INDIGENCY HEARING: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Images
BILL SHEAFFER: Analysis Of Casey Hearing
INDIGENCE DETAILS: Motion | Fees | Application

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Casey's lawyers were in court Thursday fighting for the state to pay for their defense. Friday, they got what they wanted.

Casey has already spent $275,000 on her defense. Much of that money came from a TV network deal, but now she's out of cash.

The judge said Friday that he reviewed defense attorney Jose Baez's cost ledger and said Casey meets all the legal standards to be declared indigent for the purposes of cost.

The defense told the judge Thursday it brought in a total of $275,000 for Casey's defense. Baez had already filed paperwork with the clerk indicating he got $90,000 of it for his fee and co-counsel Andrea Lyon got $22,500, but used all of that for expenses, and that he paid public relations woman Marti Mackenzie $10,000.

Behind closed doors, Baez apparently explained how he spent the other $152,500 that was left.

Baez reluctantly revealed Thursday in court that he had gotten $200,000 through Casey's deal with ABC for Casey's photos and videos of Caylee, $5,000 from a donor he didn't disclose and another $70,000 through an unusual contribution from his former co-counsel Todd Macaluso.

Coincidentally or not, Lyon said her DePaul University Law Clinic had raised $70,000 in donations for Casey's defense.

Regardless of exactly how the money was spent, taxpayers will now pay for Casey's experts, investigators, and other costs, which her new lawyer J. Cheney Mason said Thursday could amount to about $200,000. The cost of her lawyers, all of whom appear to currently be working for free, is not covered under this order.

JAILHOUSE LETTERS COULD HURT DEFENSE

More information came out Thursday about two inmates Casey befriended while in jail. Sources tell Eyewitness News that Casey may have written as many as 50 letters to one of them. Eyewitness News has also learned that those letters were illegally passed between inmates by a corrections officer.

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VIDEO REPORT: Casey's Letters Passed Illegally In Jail
'SECRET' MOTION: Judge Unseals | State's Motion

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Thursday afternoon, on the courthouse steps, Eyewitness News asked Casey's team whether they knew about the letters and they did not have much to say.

"I'm not going to comment on any of that until the court has an opportunity to hear our arguments," lead attorney Jose Baez said.

In public, Casey has kept her mouth shut abut what happened to her daughter Caylee, but new evidence in the case show she found confidantes behind bars.

Eyewitness News broke the story Thursday when a new document (read it) revealed an investigation involving two other inmates and one corrections officer. They say she wrote at least 50 letters to an inmate, possibly a woman named Robyn Adams, who was also incarcerated in the Orange County jail.

Adams is in now federal prison for her participation in the drug trade.

The letters could be released in 15 days if Casey's law team does not fight it.

Eyewitness News has learned the letters do not contain a confession, but they do have information regarding the case. Sources who have read the letters say what is in them could be damning to Casey's defense.

A corrections officer is being investigated, because she allegedly facilitated the friendship by passing the letters along. The jail said it cannot confirm that assertion, but if the investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement turns up enough evidence to warrant an internal investigation it will conduct one.

"Also significant, because it's not a matter of jailhouse snitch coming forward to say that she allegedly said something to them. These letters are in her own handwriting," WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said.

On Thursday, it was also revealed that Casey's defense team has received about $275,000 from the ABC television network for pictures and videos of Caylee. They will have to present an itemized breakdown of that money before the judge will declare Casey indigent. That decision could be handed down Friday.

"GAME CHANGING" ATTORNEY INTRODUCED AT CASEY HEARING

At an indigency hearing Thursday morning in the case against Casey Anthony, there was a major shake-up in the defense team. Renowned criminal defense attorney J. Cheney Mason, who is based in Orlando, has now joined the defense team (visit his website).

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CASEY ARRIVES: See Images | Raw Video
INDIGENCY HEARING: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Images
BILL SHEAFFER: Analysis Of Casey Hearing
INTERVIEWS: Casey's New Attorney | Jose Baez
TEAM COVERAGE: Casey In Court, New Attorney

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"I was looking all over for a Perry Mason. The best I could do was Cheney Mason,” Casey's lead attorney, Jose Baez, told the media after Thursday’s hearing (watch full interview).

Now, Mason will be added to the team assembled by Baez. He's there with death penalty expert Andrea Lyon and former member of the OJ Simpson dream team, Linda Kenney Baden.

“You do not come any larger than J. Cheney Mason,” WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said. "He's going after an acquittal, not just to get her off a death sentence."

Mason has 39 years of experience as a criminal defense lawyer and a largely winning record.

“This is the most significant event for the defense since the discovery of Caylee’s body," Sheaffer said.

Mason was awarded the highest honor in the country in 2004 by National Criminal Defense Attorneys and has been successful in defending 50 first-degree murder cases.

“He has a great deal of talent and a great deal of credibility,” Sheaffer said. “This is a game changer.”

Thursday, Mason said defense lawyer Jose Baez asked him to join the defense team and he agreed, saying it will be "fun." WFTV asked him if he's a "game changer."

“I don't know. I guess when a jury says ‘not guilty’ we'll find out,” he replied (watch full interview). "This case is going to be fun to try, and we will walk out of here with Casey in arm. Stand by."

Mason said he's putting off retirement to do this and said he's already amassing a team of others who are willing to work for free, as he is, to give Casey a fighting chance against what's becoming a tougher and tougher case for her.

“In the end, no matter how talented the lawyer is, the facts are what the facts are. He cannot alter those facts. He has to work with them,” Sheaffer said.

This isn't the first high-profile case Mason has been involved in. He helped former astronaut Lisa Nowak get a plea that kept her out of jail and a felony conviction off her record. Nowak was accused of trying to kidnap a romantic rival after driving to Orlando from Texas.

Mason also successfully represented Lou Pearlman in cases against boy bands N’Sync and The Backstreet Boys. That was before Pearlman was exposed as a con-man and convicted of cheating banks and investors out of $300 million. Mason dropped out of that case before it ended.