| Scott Peterson to stand trial for deaths of wife and unborn son PRELIMINARY HEARING SYNOPSIS November 18, 2003 The suspicion began with Scott Peterson's phone call that his pregnant wife was missing and it lasted up to the moment he was arrested four months later -- hair dyed, packed for a trip and with a pile of cash in the car he bought using a fake name. Prosecutors who encircled Peterson in a loose-knit web of circumstantial evidence won the battle Tuesday to have him held for trial on two counts of first-degree murder for the death of his wife, Laci, and her unborn son, charges that could bring the death penalty. Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami said he found ample cause to believe Peterson committed the crimes and there was sufficient evidence they were intentional, deliberate and premeditated. Peterson, 31, being held without bail, faces arraignment Dec. 3. At that time, his lawyers also plan to present a motion to dismiss the charges and ask to move the case out of Modesto. Peterson smiled and waved to his parents as he left the courtroom following the ruling, which was anticipated by the defense because prosecutors only had to show probable cause. Defense lawyer Mark Geragos said the rules of a preliminary hearing, which allowed police to testify about witness statements without the witnesses themselves being subject to cross-examination, helped prosecutors meet that low threshold of proof. "The standard, unfortunately, in California, and I say it jokingly, is 'Is the defendant breathing?"' Geragos said. There were no opening statements or closing arguments and prosecutors offered little context to the clues that investigators, family members and DNA experts testified to over 11 days as they provided glimpses at the evidence police have amassed in 27,500 pages of reports since Laci Peterson was reported missing on Christmas Eve. Geragos has complained that police tried to pin the crime on Peterson from the beginning and failed to investigate leads that could have led to other suspects. The defense contends Laci Peterson was abducted and they have promised to find the "real killers," something on which they shed little light as they declined to call any witnesses. Instead, the defense sought to devalue each small piece of evidence. Peterson's repeated returns to San Francisco Bay, where he said he was fishing when his 27-year-old wife vanished, coincided with news reports that police were searching the waters there, Geragos showed. He said police failed to follow up on tips that suspicious people were hanging out in the park near the Peterson house the day she disappeared. Officers said Peterson was cooperative in the early stages of the investigation and never tried to dissuade his girlfriend from talking to police. But police said their efforts to eliminate the fertilizer salesman as a suspect were fruitless. Suspicion has been cast on him since he phoned his in-laws Dec. 24 after returning to an empty home from an impromptu fishing trip. Officers said Peterson found it strange that his wife was gone. Their dog was in the backyard with its leash on and her car was in the driveway. He said he ate some pizza, washed his fishing clothes, took a shower, and dressed for dinner before calling his mother-in-law, Sharon Rocha. "He didn't say she wasn't home or he couldn't find her. He said 'missing,"' Rocha testified. In their effort to present enough evidence to have Peterson held for trial, but not enough to give their case away, prosecutors omitted some of the most important details: where they believe Laci was killed, what weapon was used, how her body was disposed of and why her husband allegedly wanted her dead. Lawyers and witnesses have been under a gag order, making it difficult to get explanations of the evidence, but there were plenty of hints where it was leading. Testimony continued to return to a mop and bucket that Peterson said his wife used the morning of Dec. 24 to clean the kitchen floor. Police believe Laci Peterson was killed the night of Dec. 23 or early the next morning, probably in her home. A maid testified she had mopped the floor Dec. 23. Evidence of Peterson's extramarital affair with a Fresno massage therapist provided a possible motive. He bought his fishing boat two weeks before his wife disappeared -- the same day he told his girlfriend that he "lost" his wife and was going to be spending the holidays without her for the first time. And then there was the fishing tale. Peterson had told his sister-in-law that he planned to golf Christmas Eve. But the next morning he changed his mind. He said it was too cold to golf, so he made a spur of the moment plan to drive 80 miles to the Berkeley Marina for an afternoon of fishing on nippy San Francisco Bay in the new boat he hadn't told his family about. That evening, however, he couldn't tell officers what he was angling for. His fishing license appeared to have been purchased the previous day. In the only piece of physical evidence presented, prosecutors offered a hair found in pliers in his boat that was similar to his wife's tresses, according to experts. Peterson told police he wasn't having an affair, but later acknowledged his romance with Amber Frey, who cooperated with police and recorded her phone conversations with Peterson. When the bodies of Laci Peterson and the fetus of a boy washed ashore in April, two miles from where Peterson said he was fishing, police closed in. He was arrested near his parent's home in San Diego on April 18. He had just paid cash for the red Mercedes he was driving. He bought the car using his mother's name, insisting to the seller that his parents gave him a girl's name like the tortured subject in Johnny Cash's hit "A Boy Named Sue." He had bleached his hair, grown a beard and was carrying nearly $15,000 cash and his brother's driving license. The car was packed with camping gear. He was about 30 miles north of the Mexico border. PRELIMINARY HEARING INDEX ALIBI-WITNESS LIST WIRETAPS HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT AMBER EVIDENCE-NEWS AUTOPSY INDEX |
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