| LACI & CONNER'S FAMILY "Keep Your Chin Up or Laci Won't See your Face From Heaven" Jennifer and Allen * Toronto, Canada * Guestbook |
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| JOE PETERSON SUSAN PETERSON CAUDILLO |
| December 1, 2004 Susan Caudillo, Peterson's half-sister, took the stand after her father, Lee Peterson. When asked how a death sentence verdict would affect her, she replied. "I know it would kill my parents," she said. "The bottom line is I don't think my parents will make it if he goes." |
| December 3, 2004 On the fourth day of the penalty phase, it turned briefly to Scott Peterson's love for fishing — a strategy legal experts said could backfire. Joe Peterson said his younger brother took up fishing at age 5 and "always loved being around the water, being on the shoreline." Joe appeared to attempt to bolster his brother's claim that he was on a spur-of-the-moment fishing trip on Christmas Eve when his wife went missing. The witness showed jurors snapshots of his brother with a rod and reel as a young boy and agreed with Harris' description of the defendant as a lifelong "unconventional fisherman." "Yeah, he would bring a lot of different lures, lots of different setups," he said, adding that his brother often wandered further out in the surf than anyone else and liked to take his own approach to angling. Defense lawyer Pat Harris displayed a picture of a young Scott Peterson holding a fishing rod. Legal analysts questioned the move. Prosecutors ridiculed the fishing trip and said it was a cover story for dumping his wife's body in the San Francisco Bay. "Testimony should not remind them any more than necessary of this underlying crime," said Dean Johnson, a former prosecutor and trial observer. Joe Peterson also described for jurors how he and Scott always wanted "to please our parents ... wanting to do the best we can do." He began to cry and wiped his eyes with a tissue. Scott Peterson also wept, wiping his eyes. Jurors listened with grim expressions. One sat impassively with his arms crossed over his chest. Another appeared to be doodling in her notebook. When jurors found Peterson guilty of the two murders Nov. 12, they rejected his claims of innocence. However, panelists are permitted to consider any lingering doubts about his guilt as they decide whether he should receive death or life in prison without parole for killing his wife, Laci, and the son they planned to name Conner. Joe said he taught Scott how to play baseball, took him for rides in his new car and used him as target practice while serving up tennis balls. Their bond grew stronger as Scott matured and worked for the family packaging business that Joe ran. And when Joe had three children of his own, Scott showed up at their soccer and volley- ball games, helped teach his teenage niece to drive and took the boys on fishing trips. "They were just enthralled with him," Joe Peterson said. "They would ride in his truck, use his fishing gear, wear his hats. ... They were so close -- they are so close." Much of Joe Peterson's testimony seemed designed to raise those doubts. Asked how his brother's situation was affecting his teenage children, he said Despite the jury's verdict, he and his children found it inconceivable that his youngest brother could have been convicted of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, "They've taken it very hard." "They've can't believe something like this can happen," Joe Peterson said as he wiped tears from his eyes. "They ask about how their uncle can be locked up." "They ask, 'Why would somebody think he could do this?'" he said. Asked whether he could imagine his brother having committed the crime, Joe Peterson said, "Not my brother, absolutely not." Experts cautioned that dragging out testimony so close to Christmas could hurt the defense. "It reminds them that just a couple of years ago on that very day, in cold blood, he murdered his pregnant wife and dumped her in the bay," said former San Francisco prosecutor Jim Hammer. Prosecutors contended in the guilt phase of the trial that Peterson killed his wife because he wanted out of his marriage, but didn't want to be burdened with alimony and child support. Joe Peterson testified extensively about Lee Peterson's divorce from his first wife. He described the end of the marriage — which occurred before Lee Peterson met his second wife and Scott's mother, Jackie — as amiable. "Through the divorce, for us kids, they kept it low-key. There wasn't any arguing or struggles that spilled over onto us kids," he said. There was no shame or bitterness in the divorce, he said, adding, "Today when [Lee and his first wife] see each other, they hug." HOME INDEX LACI CONNER LACI'S ALBUMS TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST LACI'S FAMILY PICTURES |
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