| DEFENSE CALLS FINAL WITNESS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2004 As the final defense witness, Modesto police officer Michael Hicks told jurors today about a burglary that occurred at the house of a Peterson neighbor on Dec. 26, 2002, two days after Laci Peterson vanished. A confidential informant told police that Steven Wayne Todd burglarized Susan and Rudy Medina's house, across the street from the home and Laci and Scott Peterson. Hicks found Todd, who immediately admitted being involved in the crime. "First thing, he said he would tell you about the burglary but he had nothing to do with that missing woman with the baby ," defense attorney Mark Geragos said, reading from Hicks' report. Hicks said Todd unraveled a detailed account of his crime, telling him that he moved a safe from the house to the front yard before seeking the help of Donald Glenn Pearce about 6:30 or 7 a.m. on Dec. 26, 2002. Pearce, who unlike Todd had access to a car, drove to the Medinas', where Todd placed the safe in the car, Hicks said he was told. They brought the safe to the home of Pearce's mother, where he was living at the time, and pounded it open with a sledgehammer and other tools, Hicks said. Both men were later convicted of burglarizing the Medinas' house, but also received an overwhelming endorsement from Modesto police for their complete cooperation in the matter. Geragos appeared to be working to persuade jurors that Todd and Pearce could have been responsible for Laci's Dec. 24, 2002 disappearance. He has contended that someone abducted her while she walked the family dog around her neighborhood. Defense attorneys have alternately suggested that Laci Peterson was abducted while interrupting a burglary or by transients while walking her dog in nearby East La Loma Park. An official rush to judgment blinded authorities from pursuing the real killers, lead defense attorney Mark Geragos has said. HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST WIRETAPS AUTOPSY |
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| LACI & CONNER MAY JUSTICE PREVAIL |
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