Sharon Rocha walks into her living room and picks up her phone. It is the summer of 1994. The excitement she hears on the line can only come from one voice. "Mother," Laci says, "I have met the man I am going to marry. You've just got to get down here and meet him." Sharon asks if they have gone out yet. "Not yet, but we will." Sharon smiles as she listens. "I'll come visit you next weekend." Scott Peterson worked at Pacific Cafe in Morro Bay. Laci's neighbor worked at the same cafe, and Laci ended up there from time to time. Laci and Scott had a few brief conversations over a counter as she ordered coffee. One day, Laci wrote her phone number on a piece of paper, handing it to her neighbor to give to Scott. Thinking his friend was playing a mean trick on him, Scott crumpled up the paper and threw it in the garbage. After being convinced that it was no joke, he retrieved Laci's number from the trash. He called her soon there-after. Their first date that week was a deep-sea fishing trip. Laci had wanted to make a lasting first impression. She succeeded by developing horrible sea sickness. By the time Laci's mother arrived that weekend, she knew her daughter was falling in love. Mother and daughter parked their car at the Morro Bay cafe. By the time they reached the front door, Scott was outside, waiting for them. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Rocha," he said, shaking her hand. Then he looked at Laci and smiled uncontrollably. "Ma'am," he said, "I have your favorite table waiting for you." The women walked inside. Once Sharon and Laci had reached the table, Scott pulled out their chairs and seated them both. A dozen roses awaited each of them at the table. Sharon's were white; Laci's were red. Abba Imani prepares a special appetizer for the occasion. "He asked me to make a special appetizer for them," said Abba Imani, owner of the cafe. "Scampi, if I remember right, and he had some flowers on the table." Imani described Scott as a "very good worker, very responsible -- but most importantly, a very polite person. People really liked him." "She was in love from the beginning," Sharon said. Scott and Laci dated for about two years. They married in a warm ceremony held at a coastal-area hot springs. While finishing college, the couple opened a burger joint called The Shack. They sold the business 2 years ago when they moved to Modesto to start a family. +++++++ HOME INDEX EVIDENCE-NEWS INCONSISTENT STATEMENTS TRIAL NEWS ALIBI-WITNESS LIST LACI |
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