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| Laci's sister, housekeeper to take stand tomorrow Laci Peterson's half sister and her housekeeper are next up on the witness stand tomorrow where they will testify in the double murder case against Laci's husband Scott Peterson. Her younger sister, Amy Rocha, cut Scott Peterson's hair the day before Laci disappeared on Christmas Eve. Laci and Scott went to Salon Salon together that day. Rocha may testify about whether the two seemed happy The housekeeper, Marguerite Nava, is scheduled to be on the stand at 9 a.m. with an interpreter. She cleaned the Peterson's ranch-style house on Covina Avenue the day before Laci disappeared. Modesto police reportedly smelled bleach in the house on Christmas Eve when they responded to the 911 call about Laci's disappearance. The housekeeper will likely testify about what products she used and which rooms she cleaned. Earlier on Thursday, Scott Peterson's defense lawyer continued to hammer away at the testimony of a prosecution witness who says a hair found in Peterson's fishing boat most likely belonged to his wife. During the second day of the preliminary hearing, Peterson sat quietly at the defense table in front of his parents and family, gesturing a quick hello to his mother as he entered. He is charged with two counts of murder for the death of his pregnant wife and unborn son whose bodies washed up along the San Francisco Bay last April. Prosecutors believe Peterson killed his wife, put the body in his fishing boat and trailered it behind a truck to the Berkeley Marina and dumped her body in the bay. Prosecutors hope that the hair found in the boat will prove that. But defense lawyer Mark Geragos challenged the science that suggested the hair found in the boat was Laci's. FBI biochemist Constance Fisher tested the hair for a substance mitochondrial DNA, a substance that is less reliable for identification than nuclear DNA. The hair had no follicle, therefore no nuclear DNA. Geragos called the reliability of the mitochondrial DNA a "raging debate'' in the scientific community, but Fisher downplayed that assertion. "If it's a debate, I wouldn't call it a big one,'' she said. She did concede the mitochondrial DNA "can never be used to point to an individual to the exclusion of all others.'' Geragos said, "It's designed to eliminate people, not identify people.'' "That's true,'' Fisher said. The hair matched the DNA from saliva taken from Laci's mother Sharon Rocha, who would share the identical mitochondrial DNA with her daughter. For that reason Fisher said there is a high likelihood the hair belonged to Laci. PRELIMINARY HEARING INDEX ALIBI-WITNESS LIST HOME INDEX INCONSISTENT STATEMENTS EVIDENCE-NEWS WIRETAPS |
| PRELIMINARY HEARING - DAY 2 Thursday, October 30, 2003 |
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| LACI & CONNER May The Truth Be Told |