| LACI'S NEIGHBOR SUSAN MEDINA - TESTIFIES JUNE 10, 2004 A muddy footprint on a kicked-in door. A hammer and a glove lying on a bed in the master bedroom. A purloined safe, cash and two guns. Jurors in the Scott Peterson double-murder trial heard all of these crime-scene details Thursday. But they were not a description of the Peterson home; they were details of a burglarized home across the street from Peterson's house. Susan Medina testified Thursday that homeless people used the neighborhood as a shortcut to get to a nearby park. Medina had installed a locking mailbox at her residence, due to her nervousness about the frequent presence of suspicious characters. Modesto police Sgt. Craig Wend told the jury that the homeowners' loss was extensive, but that the stolen guns were found and returned to them. The Medina's home had been broken into a few days after Christmas, within two days of Laci Peterson's disappearance. Medina's admission aided the defense's efforts to sow seeds of doubt that someone else could have kidnapped Laci. Susan Medina testified about a burglary at her home sometime between Christmas Eve and Dec. 26. Medina said she and her husband, Rodolfo, left their home on Dec. 24 around midday on a trip to visit family. When they returned, their home had been burglarized. They found their house completely ransacked, their safe, guns and expensive jewelry not unlike the baubles Laci had recently inherited,and other property missing, when they returned from a holiday trip Dec. 26. Defense lawyers have hinted that the burglars may have been involved in Laci's disappearance, but prosecutors hammered home the point that the Petersons' dog was found wandering alone in the street before the Medinas left their home, indicating Laci met her demise prior to the break-in. Police recovered much of the stolen property and arrested two men in the case, ruling out any connection to Laci's disappearance. Medina later testified she saw "nothing unusual" in the neighborhood that morning. She further testified that she glanced out the window at Peterson's house several times Christmas Eve morning and never saw any suspicious behavior. "You didn't see anybody drag anything out of the (Peterson) house? You didn't see anybody load anything into a truck?" defense lawyer Pat Harris asked. "No," Medina replied. "You could see directly what's going on at the Petersons' house in the driveway?" Pat Harris asked. "Correct," she replied. Medina said Peterson visited her house with an investigator hired by his former attorney several days after Laci vanished. Scott cried when discussing his missing wife..... "He was crying and he was really upset at that point," she said. Many of Laci Peterson's friends and family have described Scott as unemotional and indifferent in the days after his wife vanished. Prosecutor Dave Harris prompted the neighbor to recall that Scott’s private investigator was present. “So, with a defense investigator there, the defendant starts to cry for you?” Harris deadpanned. Judge Alfred Delucchi intervened when defense attorney Pat Harris objected. Medina helped Pat Harris paint a sympathetic picture of Peterson’s frustration with media and rude passersby who besieged the neighborhood. Motorists periodically screamed that he murdered his wife, and radio shock jocks from Los Angeles shouted similar things with a bullhorn, Medina agreed. “For several months, people were in his driveway, yelling things at him, following him around, absolutely making his life a total wreck for months?” Harris asked. Medina agreed. In addition to a detailed account of the burglary, Medina also said vagrants trooped through the neighborhood daily and sometimes caused problems, including going through her garbage and perhaps even stealing a potted plant from her yard. Her testimony hardly established a link between the transients, the burglary and the murder of Laci HOME INDEX LACI TRIAL NEWS ALIBI-WITNESS LIST SCOTT WIRETAPS |
| LACI & CONNER MY DEEPEST SYMPATHY TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF LACI AND CONNER! THEY ARE WITH GOD NOW! SHEILA KELLEY - FLORIDA - GUESTBOOK ENTRY |
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