| Expert testifies on hair found in pliers in Scott Peterson's boat July 22, 2004 A state scientific expert on hair began testifying this morning. Jurors heard testimony from prosecution witness Rodney Oswalt, a criminalist with the California Department of Justice, about a hair found in a pair of pliers on Peterson's boat. Oswalt told jurors that the hair fragments varied in color and condition. "What I noticed on the longer hair fragment ... nearest the root end was that it had what appeared to me to be a broken or torn end," he said. "It looked as though it had been torn or some how crudely sheered." By comparison, he said, the end of the other piece of hair was "mashed, splayed or frayed," indicating it "was mechanically damaged at that point." Detectives have testified they found a single strand of hair on the boat, but when they opened the evidence envelope several months later, two hairs were present. Prosecutors contend the hair simply split in two, but Oswalt said it clearly was two separate hairs. Geragos suggested police botched the collection process, possibly even contaminating the evidence, and pointed out that the prosecution's own witness didn't support their theory. Still, Oswalt said the two hairs "could have" come from Laci Peterson. The fragments are an important part of the prosecution's case against Peterson. They believe it shows the man's wife Laci was in the boat police believed was used to dump the woman's body in the San Francisco Bay. Prosecutors claim Laci never knew about the boat her husband purchased weeks before she vanished so he could use it to dispose of her body. RODNEY OSWALTS TESTIMONY AT PRELIMINARY HEARING HOME INDEX LACI SCOTT TRIAL ALIBI-WITNESS LIST EVIDENCE-NEWS PRELIMINARY HEARING EVIDENCE PHOTOS |
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