11-12-2004, 09:37 PM
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Scott Peterson convicted of murder
First-degree verdict could bring death penaltyBREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:30 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2004REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Scott Peterson was convicted Friday of murdering his pregnant wife and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay in what prosecutors portrayed as a cold-blooded attempt to escape marriage and fatherhood for the bachelor life.
Peterson, 32, could get could get the death penalty. He was convicted of one count of first-degree murder for killing his wife and one count of second-degree murder in the death of the son she was carrying.
Family members intensely waited in the courtroom, and hundreds of onlookers gathered outside to hear word of the verdict.
The verdict came after a five-month trial that was an endless source of fascination to the tabloids, People magazine and the cable networks with its story of an attractive, radiant young couple awaiting the birth of their first child, a cheating husband and a slaying for which prosecutors had no witnesses, no weapon, not even a cause of death.
The jury of six men and six women will reconvene Nov. 22 to begin hearing arguments on whether Peterson should die by lethal injection or be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Turbulent trial
The verdict followed seven tumultuous days of deliberations in which two jurors were removed for unspecified reasons and the judge twice told the panel to start over.
On Wednesday, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi dismissed the foreman, a man in his mid-40s who has medical and law degrees. The judge did not disclose his reasoning. Juror No. 5 was replaced by an alternate whose future son-in-law now owns a restaurant that Scott and Laci Peterson once owned in San Luis Obispo, and the newly reconstituted jury began deliberating that day.
That action came a day after the removal of another juror who apparently did her own research on the case, violating the judge’s order to consider only evidence presented at trial. Each time a juror is dismissed, the panel must begin deliberations anew.
TIMELINE Peterson disappearance timeline
Dec. 24, 2002
Getty Images
Laci Denise Peterson, a substitute teacher, vanishes Christmas Eve in Modesto, Calif. She is nearly eight months pregnant, due to give birth to a baby boy in February.
Her husband, Scott Peterson, is questioned about her disappearance but never named a suspect, telling police he saw his wife the morning she disappeared as she left their house to walk the dog. He says he went fishing that day at the Berkeley Marina on San Francisco Bay.
Dec. 31, 2002
Nearly 1,400 attend a New Year's Eve vigil for Laci Peterson.
Jan. 22, 2003
Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie Peterson, tells MSNBC's Dan Abrams that she disagrees with implications that her son was uncooperative with police in the investigation.
Jan. 24, 2003
Modesto police produce a 28-year-old Fresno woman, Amber Frey, with whom they say Scott Peterson had an affair. Frey makes a formal statement, saying Scott Peterson led her to believe he was single and apologizing to Laci Peterson's family. Police say Frey is eliminated as a suspect.
Feb. 4, 2003
Scott Peterson trades in his wife's SUV for a new vehicle.
Feb. 5, 2003
Laci Peterson's family holds a press conference to discuss news that Scott Peterson sold his wife's SUV and announce upcoming searches.
Feb. 10, 2003
Family and friends hold a candlelight vigil to remember Laci Peterson on the date her son, Connor, was to have been born.
Feb. 15, 2003
Two searches take place in the Lake Don Pedro area near La Grange, Calif.
Feb. 22, 2003
Search takes place in the New Melones Reservoir area near Sonora, Calif.
March 6, 2003
Modesto detective announces that the Peterson investigation has cost the department more than $250,000 in overtime.
April 13, 2003
Body of an unidentified baby is found in the grassy shallows along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay.
April 14, 2003
A dog walker comes upon the remains of a female body in a shoreline park in Richmond, Calif., about a mile south of where the infant body was found.
April 15, 2003
Authorities say autopsies are inconclusive and DNA analysis is required to identify the bodies and determine if they are related.
April 18, 2003
Scott Peterson is arrested at the Torrey Pines golf resort in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla. The California attorney general announces that DNA testing has established with more than a billion-to-one certainty that the bodies found along the San Francisco Bay shore were Laci Peterson and her son. Authorities say Scott Peterson will be charged with two counts of capital murder with the special circumstance of double homicide, which would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
April 21, 2003
Scott Peterson pleads not guilty to two counts of murder alleging that he "intentionally, deliberately and with premeditation" killed his wife and their unborn child.
April 23, 2003
Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton says during the taping of a TV show that he will seek the death penalty if Scott Peterson is convicted.
May 2, 2003
Prominent Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos, who has represented celebrities and served as a television commentator in coverage of Laci Peterson’s murder, says he will defend Scott Peterson. Geragos waives a bail hearing for Peterson that had been scheduled for May 6.
May 27, 2004
Twelve jurors –- six men, six women -- are picked for Scott Peterson's trial.
June 1, 2004
Opening statements begin in the trial.
June 23, 2004
Justin Falconer, a juror seen conversing with Laci Peterson's brother, is removed from jury service. The judge denies the defense’s request for a mistrial.
July 6, 2004
Testimony begins by witnesses who found the remains of Laci and Conner. The jury also sees horrific pictures of their decomposed bodies.
Oct. 5, 2004
Prosecutors rest their case after presenting 174 witnesses over 19 weeks.
Oct. 12, 2004
The judge delays the start of the defense case for a week.
Oct. 26, 2004
The defense calls its final witness.
Oct. 29, 2004
The judge in the case rules that the jury can consider convicting Scott Peterson of second-degree murder, which would not carry the death penalty. But the judge says jurors cannot consider convicting him of voluntary manslaughter.
Nov. 1, 2004
Closing arguments begin.
Nov. 3, 2004
Jurors begin deliberating.
Nov. 9, 2004
The judge removes a juror who reportedly violated his instructions by doing her own research into the case. An alternate juror is selected, and the jury is instructed to begin deliberations anew.
Nov. 10, 2004
The foreman is removed from the jury, and another alternate juror joins the panel. No reason is given for the removal.
Nov. 11, 2004
The jury takes a break from deliberations for the Veterans Day holiday.
Nov. 12, 2004
Jury convicts Scott Peterson of first-degree murder in the death of Laci and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son, Conner.
Husband quickly aroused suspicion
Laci Peterson, 27, a substitute teacher, was eight months pregnant when she vanished around Christmas Eve 2002. Four months later, her headless body and the remains of her fetus were discovered along the shoreline about 90 miles from the couple’s home in Modesto — not far from where her husband claimed he was fishing alone the day of her disappearance.
Peterson was soon arrested in the San Diego area, more than 400 miles from home, carrying nearly $15,000, his hair and goatee bleached blond.
Police never were able to establish exactly when, how or where Laci died.
At trial, prosecutors presented 174 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, from wiretapped phone calls to videotaped police interrogations, depicting Peterson as liar and a philanderer who was sweet-talking his girlfriend, massage therapist Amber Frey, at the same time he was trying to show the world he was pining for his missing wife.
Prosecutor Rick Distaso told the jury that Peterson, a former fertilizer salesman, could not stand the thought of being trapped in a “dull, boring, married life with kids,” and either strangled or smothered his wife and dumped her weighted-down body overboard from his fishing boat.
“He wants to live the rich, successful, freewheeling bachelor life. He can’t do that when he’s paying child support, alimony and everything else,” Distaso said. “He didn’t want to be tied to this kid the rest of his life. He didn’t want to be tied to Laci for the rest of his life. So he killed her.”
The jury heard how Scott Peterson had bought a two-day ocean-fishing license days before Laci Peterson disappeared, yet claimed his fishing trip was a last-minute substitution for golf because of blustery weather. Prosecutors also offered evidence suggesting that he used a bag of cement mix to make concrete anchors to sink his wife’s body into the bay.
Alternative culprit argued
Peterson never took the stand. His lawyers argued that he was the victim of a frame-up. They suggested that someone else — perhaps homeless people, sex offenders or suspicious-looking characters spotted in the neighborhood — abducted Laci Peterson while she walked the dog, then killed her and dumped the body in the water after learning of Scott Peterson’s fishing-trip alibi.
Peterson’s lawyers also offered evidence that the fetus may have died days or weeks after his wife’s disappearance, when he was being watched closely by the police and the media.
And they explained his lies and inconsistent statements about his affair and his activities around the time of Laci Peterson’s disappearance as the mutterings of a man in the midst of a breakdown over his missing wife.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos acknowledged that the jurors probably hated Peterson, but he pleaded with them not to convict him simply because the prosecution had made him look like a “jerk and a liar.”
Geragos also noted the lingering questions about how Laci Peterson died. “Maybe the logical explanation for the fact that we have no evidence of her struggling in that house, dying in that house is because it didn’t happen in that house,” he said.
In addition, Geragos said police found that someone had used a computer in the Petersons’ home on the morning Laci Peterson vanished — after authorities contend that she was already dead — to search Web sites for a scarf and a sunflower-motif umbrella stand. He suggested that the user was Laci Peterson.
Made for cable TV
The story proved irresistible to the cable networks, which almost every night brought in experts to pick apart the two sides’ legal strategies and expound on some of the soap opera aspects of the case, which included hours of secretly taped calls in which Scott Peterson spun out elaborate tales to Frey.
Frey herself testified, saying Peterson told her during their affair that he had “lost his wife.” But she said that in all their recorded conversations, he repeatedly professed his love for his wife and never said anything to incriminate himself in her slaying.
In January, the case was moved from Modesto to Redwood City after defense attorneys argued that Peterson had been demonized in his hometown to the point that he could not get a fair trial.
Edited By drusilla on 1100295473
Scott Peterson convicted of murder
First-degree verdict could bring death penaltyBREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:30 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2004REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Scott Peterson was convicted Friday of murdering his pregnant wife and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay in what prosecutors portrayed as a cold-blooded attempt to escape marriage and fatherhood for the bachelor life.
Peterson, 32, could get could get the death penalty. He was convicted of one count of first-degree murder for killing his wife and one count of second-degree murder in the death of the son she was carrying.
Family members intensely waited in the courtroom, and hundreds of onlookers gathered outside to hear word of the verdict.
The verdict came after a five-month trial that was an endless source of fascination to the tabloids, People magazine and the cable networks with its story of an attractive, radiant young couple awaiting the birth of their first child, a cheating husband and a slaying for which prosecutors had no witnesses, no weapon, not even a cause of death.
The jury of six men and six women will reconvene Nov. 22 to begin hearing arguments on whether Peterson should die by lethal injection or be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Turbulent trial
The verdict followed seven tumultuous days of deliberations in which two jurors were removed for unspecified reasons and the judge twice told the panel to start over.
On Wednesday, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi dismissed the foreman, a man in his mid-40s who has medical and law degrees. The judge did not disclose his reasoning. Juror No. 5 was replaced by an alternate whose future son-in-law now owns a restaurant that Scott and Laci Peterson once owned in San Luis Obispo, and the newly reconstituted jury began deliberating that day.
That action came a day after the removal of another juror who apparently did her own research on the case, violating the judge’s order to consider only evidence presented at trial. Each time a juror is dismissed, the panel must begin deliberations anew.
TIMELINE Peterson disappearance timeline
Dec. 24, 2002
Getty Images
Laci Denise Peterson, a substitute teacher, vanishes Christmas Eve in Modesto, Calif. She is nearly eight months pregnant, due to give birth to a baby boy in February.
Her husband, Scott Peterson, is questioned about her disappearance but never named a suspect, telling police he saw his wife the morning she disappeared as she left their house to walk the dog. He says he went fishing that day at the Berkeley Marina on San Francisco Bay.
Dec. 31, 2002
Nearly 1,400 attend a New Year's Eve vigil for Laci Peterson.
Jan. 22, 2003
Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie Peterson, tells MSNBC's Dan Abrams that she disagrees with implications that her son was uncooperative with police in the investigation.
Jan. 24, 2003
Modesto police produce a 28-year-old Fresno woman, Amber Frey, with whom they say Scott Peterson had an affair. Frey makes a formal statement, saying Scott Peterson led her to believe he was single and apologizing to Laci Peterson's family. Police say Frey is eliminated as a suspect.
Feb. 4, 2003
Scott Peterson trades in his wife's SUV for a new vehicle.
Feb. 5, 2003
Laci Peterson's family holds a press conference to discuss news that Scott Peterson sold his wife's SUV and announce upcoming searches.
Feb. 10, 2003
Family and friends hold a candlelight vigil to remember Laci Peterson on the date her son, Connor, was to have been born.
Feb. 15, 2003
Two searches take place in the Lake Don Pedro area near La Grange, Calif.
Feb. 22, 2003
Search takes place in the New Melones Reservoir area near Sonora, Calif.
March 6, 2003
Modesto detective announces that the Peterson investigation has cost the department more than $250,000 in overtime.
April 13, 2003
Body of an unidentified baby is found in the grassy shallows along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay.
April 14, 2003
A dog walker comes upon the remains of a female body in a shoreline park in Richmond, Calif., about a mile south of where the infant body was found.
April 15, 2003
Authorities say autopsies are inconclusive and DNA analysis is required to identify the bodies and determine if they are related.
April 18, 2003
Scott Peterson is arrested at the Torrey Pines golf resort in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla. The California attorney general announces that DNA testing has established with more than a billion-to-one certainty that the bodies found along the San Francisco Bay shore were Laci Peterson and her son. Authorities say Scott Peterson will be charged with two counts of capital murder with the special circumstance of double homicide, which would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
April 21, 2003
Scott Peterson pleads not guilty to two counts of murder alleging that he "intentionally, deliberately and with premeditation" killed his wife and their unborn child.
April 23, 2003
Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton says during the taping of a TV show that he will seek the death penalty if Scott Peterson is convicted.
May 2, 2003
Prominent Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos, who has represented celebrities and served as a television commentator in coverage of Laci Peterson’s murder, says he will defend Scott Peterson. Geragos waives a bail hearing for Peterson that had been scheduled for May 6.
May 27, 2004
Twelve jurors –- six men, six women -- are picked for Scott Peterson's trial.
June 1, 2004
Opening statements begin in the trial.
June 23, 2004
Justin Falconer, a juror seen conversing with Laci Peterson's brother, is removed from jury service. The judge denies the defense’s request for a mistrial.
July 6, 2004
Testimony begins by witnesses who found the remains of Laci and Conner. The jury also sees horrific pictures of their decomposed bodies.
Oct. 5, 2004
Prosecutors rest their case after presenting 174 witnesses over 19 weeks.
Oct. 12, 2004
The judge delays the start of the defense case for a week.
Oct. 26, 2004
The defense calls its final witness.
Oct. 29, 2004
The judge in the case rules that the jury can consider convicting Scott Peterson of second-degree murder, which would not carry the death penalty. But the judge says jurors cannot consider convicting him of voluntary manslaughter.
Nov. 1, 2004
Closing arguments begin.
Nov. 3, 2004
Jurors begin deliberating.
Nov. 9, 2004
The judge removes a juror who reportedly violated his instructions by doing her own research into the case. An alternate juror is selected, and the jury is instructed to begin deliberations anew.
Nov. 10, 2004
The foreman is removed from the jury, and another alternate juror joins the panel. No reason is given for the removal.
Nov. 11, 2004
The jury takes a break from deliberations for the Veterans Day holiday.
Nov. 12, 2004
Jury convicts Scott Peterson of first-degree murder in the death of Laci and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son, Conner.
Husband quickly aroused suspicion
Laci Peterson, 27, a substitute teacher, was eight months pregnant when she vanished around Christmas Eve 2002. Four months later, her headless body and the remains of her fetus were discovered along the shoreline about 90 miles from the couple’s home in Modesto — not far from where her husband claimed he was fishing alone the day of her disappearance.
Peterson was soon arrested in the San Diego area, more than 400 miles from home, carrying nearly $15,000, his hair and goatee bleached blond.
Police never were able to establish exactly when, how or where Laci died.
At trial, prosecutors presented 174 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, from wiretapped phone calls to videotaped police interrogations, depicting Peterson as liar and a philanderer who was sweet-talking his girlfriend, massage therapist Amber Frey, at the same time he was trying to show the world he was pining for his missing wife.
Prosecutor Rick Distaso told the jury that Peterson, a former fertilizer salesman, could not stand the thought of being trapped in a “dull, boring, married life with kids,” and either strangled or smothered his wife and dumped her weighted-down body overboard from his fishing boat.
“He wants to live the rich, successful, freewheeling bachelor life. He can’t do that when he’s paying child support, alimony and everything else,” Distaso said. “He didn’t want to be tied to this kid the rest of his life. He didn’t want to be tied to Laci for the rest of his life. So he killed her.”
The jury heard how Scott Peterson had bought a two-day ocean-fishing license days before Laci Peterson disappeared, yet claimed his fishing trip was a last-minute substitution for golf because of blustery weather. Prosecutors also offered evidence suggesting that he used a bag of cement mix to make concrete anchors to sink his wife’s body into the bay.
Alternative culprit argued
Peterson never took the stand. His lawyers argued that he was the victim of a frame-up. They suggested that someone else — perhaps homeless people, sex offenders or suspicious-looking characters spotted in the neighborhood — abducted Laci Peterson while she walked the dog, then killed her and dumped the body in the water after learning of Scott Peterson’s fishing-trip alibi.
Peterson’s lawyers also offered evidence that the fetus may have died days or weeks after his wife’s disappearance, when he was being watched closely by the police and the media.
And they explained his lies and inconsistent statements about his affair and his activities around the time of Laci Peterson’s disappearance as the mutterings of a man in the midst of a breakdown over his missing wife.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos acknowledged that the jurors probably hated Peterson, but he pleaded with them not to convict him simply because the prosecution had made him look like a “jerk and a liar.”
Geragos also noted the lingering questions about how Laci Peterson died. “Maybe the logical explanation for the fact that we have no evidence of her struggling in that house, dying in that house is because it didn’t happen in that house,” he said.
In addition, Geragos said police found that someone had used a computer in the Petersons’ home on the morning Laci Peterson vanished — after authorities contend that she was already dead — to search Web sites for a scarf and a sunflower-motif umbrella stand. He suggested that the user was Laci Peterson.
Made for cable TV
The story proved irresistible to the cable networks, which almost every night brought in experts to pick apart the two sides’ legal strategies and expound on some of the soap opera aspects of the case, which included hours of secretly taped calls in which Scott Peterson spun out elaborate tales to Frey.
Frey herself testified, saying Peterson told her during their affair that he had “lost his wife.” But she said that in all their recorded conversations, he repeatedly professed his love for his wife and never said anything to incriminate himself in her slaying.
In January, the case was moved from Modesto to Redwood City after defense attorneys argued that Peterson had been demonized in his hometown to the point that he could not get a fair trial.
Edited By drusilla on 1100295473
