| LACI & CONNER "Today, Nov. 1, is All Saints Day and closing arguments. Laci is guiding Rick Distaso" JUDY ~ CA ~ GUESTBOOK |
| In closing, prosecutor says parenthood pushed Scott Peterson to kill Nov 1, 2004 Scott Peterson killed his pregnant wife because fatherhood threatened his "fantasyland" double life as a "rich, successful, freewheeling bachelor," a prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments Monday in his capital murder trial. Prosecutor Rick Distaso said the fertilizer salesman strangled or smothered his 27-year-old spouse, Laci, in their home on Dec. 23 or Dec. 24, 2002, so he could be free of the lifetime of responsibilities the child would bring. "He didn't want adult married life. He didn't want Conner Peterson," Distaso said, referring to the child Laci Peterson was carrying. The prosecutor said Peterson had long maintained two lives — "the perfect husband" in public and in private, a cad grudgingly tolerating his marriage — but the birth of his first child and the expense of raising the boy or paying child support jeopardized the secret side he treasured. "The reason he killed Laci was that Conner Peterson was on the way," Distaso said. "If it was just Laci, he could do this two lives thing." Peterson, 31, faces the death penalty if convicted of the murders of his wife and unborn son. His lawyer, Mark Geragos, is to deliver his summation Tuesday and the jury is slated to begin deliberations Wednesday. During the five-month trial, prosecutors hinted at several reasons the 32-year-old wanted his wife dead, including Peterson's rising debt and his affair with a massage therapist, Amber Frey, but Distaso's three-hour summation was the first time they fully articulated a motive. The money troubles were peripheral, Distaso said, and Frey was not a motive, but a symbol. "Amber Frey represented to him freedom," he said. "Freedom is what he wanted." Flashing a series of snapshots of Peterson cuddling with his mistress on a large projection screen across from the jury, Distaso said, "This is the life Scott Peterson wanted." He stopped on a picture of Peterson in a Santa Claus hat laughing as Frey sits giggling in his lap, saying, "This is what he wanted." In the front row of the courtroom, Laci Peterson's brother, Brent Rocha, nodded adamantly and stared in the direction of the defendant, who never moved his gaze from the jury. How she died Prosecutors were tightlipped about the specific circumstances of the murders throughout the trial, but Distaso told jurors Monday he believed Peterson asphyxiated his wife in their home before she went to bed on Dec. 23 or as she dressed on Christmas Eve morning. He noted that such a death would leave no forensic evidence. There was none found in their home. He said Peterson put his wife's body in the bed of his pickup, drove her to his fertilizer warehouse, loaded her into his fishing boat, attached homemade cement weights, covered her with a boat cover and drove her to the San Francisco Bay. At the bay, he said, Peterson left the cover partially on to obscure her body and motored into the bay where he dumped her body. Distaso admitted that he could not say when or exactly how the killing occurred, but, he told jurors, "I only have to prove that he did it." It was not a complex plan, he said. He turned toward the court gallery and noted it was filled with reporters from across the country, "as if we are here for some big murder mystery." "We're not. It's a very simple case," he said. "It's a simple case where a man murdered his wife." Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. Her husband told police he was 90 miles away fishing in the San Francisco Bay when she vanished. Her body and that of her fetus washed up on the bay shore four months later. Distaso told the jury that the location of the bodies — just over a mile from where Peterson admitted fishing — is "the one fact that cannot be refuted, no matter what anybody says." "You can take that fact to the bank and you can convict that man of murder," Distaso said, pointing across the courtroom to Peterson. He ridiculed Peterson's fishing trip alibi, noting that the lures he said he fished with remained sealed in their packages and his rod was not even assembled. "The reason all this doesn't work is because Scott Peterson didn't go fishing Dec. 24," Distaso said. "He went to dump his wife's body in the San Francisco Bay." He said Peterson initially planned to put himself far away from the crime scene — golfing at his Modesto country club, but was forced to change his alibi when workers spotted him bringing his boat back into the marina. "The defendant had no choice but to go with that," he said. 'The betrayal aspect' Distaso's summation relied heavily on the many audio and video tapes and photos in evidence. He began by playing a 20-second home video of Laci smiling as she cooked in the kitchen. The clip, played once before, is the only time jurors heard Laci Peterson's voice. "I think that's the biggest part of this case: the betrayal aspect of Scott Peterson," Distaso told the jurors as the petite brunette giggled on the screen behind him. "Laci had no idea what was coming. In fact, she probably trusted him more than anyone else." Distaso placed on the screen a photo taken of the 27-year-old mother-to-be at a Christmas party 10 days before her disappearance. Her husband backed out of the party at the last minute, saying he had a business meeting. In reality, he was attending a holiday formal with Frey. "This is one of the most telling pictures," Distaso said. The victim, he said, was "making the best of it. It pretty much describes Laci Peterson's life in December 2002." Distaso then placed a second picture beside the snapshot: a shot of her headless torso on the bay shore. Three female jurors appeared near tears and a male juror turned toward Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, who sat in the front row. Distaso ticked off a list of Peterson's suspicious behaviors in the wake of his wife's disappearance. He told jurors the defense was likely to argue that there were many ways to grieve, but that "nobody grieves like this." He showed a photo of Sharon Rocha looking drawn and stricken at a candlelight vigil the week after her daughter vanished. "That's true grief," he said. "It's like somebody ripped your heart out." He then flashed a photo of Peterson at the vigil, smiling broadly. Rocha, in the front row of the courtroom, stared at the photo and began weeping. Forceful closing Anticipating Geragos' summation, Distaso reminded jurors that the defense had questioned police officers about a host of reported sightings of Laci Peterson after her husband is alleged to have killed her, but failed to call a single one of those tipsters to the witness stand. "Because what they were going to say was not credible, that's why," he told jurors. Distaso argued that for Peterson to be innocent someone had to frame him by placing his wife's body in the exact spot he fished. Who, he asked, would frame "an unsuccessful fertilizer salesman from Modesto?" Distaso was criticized early in the trial for putting on a disjointed and passionless case, but in his summation, the mild-mannered former Army JAG officer was forceful and compelling. He raised his voice to near a shout at several points as he described Peterson as a selfish liar. "Scott Peterson doesn't love anybody but himself. He didn't love Laci. He certainly didn't love his parents," he said, jabbing his finger toward the defense table. During his questioning of witnesses, Distaso was painstaking and formal, but in his summation, he spoke quickly and more informally to the jury. Dismissing one part of Peterson's story, he said, "I mean give me a break." About another, he waved his hand in the air and said, "Whatever." Jim Anderson, a former Alameda County prosecutor who specialized in death penalty cases, said Distaso showed the necessary anger for a prosecutor. "I call it controlled fury," he said. "His face is flushed, his voice is angry." Jim Hammer, a former San Francisco prosecutor who has followed the case since the beginning, said he felt he was seeing Distaso for the first time. "It's almost like he had his hands tied behind his back during the trial itself," Hammer said. "Rick's been dying for five months to get this story out and finally did." The normally loquacious Geragos, by contrast, lodged only one objection the entire day. He sat quietly beside his client taking notes occasionally. Chuck Smith, a defense attorney and former prosecutor, said Distaso's summation left the Geragos with the task of presenting not just small pieces that pointed to innocence, but "a coherent overall theme." "This was the challenge thrown down by Distaso today," he said. He said he expected the defense lawyer to emphasize "reasonable doubt, reasonable doubt, reasonable doubt," and accuse the prosecution of engaging in "rank speculation." "He's got his work cut out for him," Smith said. Geragos' summation begins Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. ET. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST AUTOPSY WIRETAPS |
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