Laci Petersons Family on the Shanann Watts Case
[This story first aired on May 1. It was updated on December 18.]
In a California court this week, in that location was a hearing in a sensational murder case that nigh think ended about 20 years agone.
In 2004, Scott Peterson was convicted and later sentenced to death for killing his pregnant wife Laci and dumping her body in the San Francisco Bay. But at present there's a new twist in the case.
In 2020, California's highest court overturned Peterson's death sentence. In December 2021, he was re-sentenced to life in prison without parole. Peterson's supporters want him to be retried on all charges, proverb they have new show that could exonerate him.
"Scott did not get a fair trial," Peterson's sis-in-police, Janey Peterson, tells CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti.
Janey Peterson maintains law did not look difficult enough at others or consider a connection to Laci'southward death and a burglary that happened across the street from the Peterson's home. "The wrong person'due south in prison," she says.
Authorities are not commenting, only Jon Buehler, one of the original detectives on the case, disagrees.
"There's cypher that's come out that'southward fabricated me change my view that Scott got a fair trial and that Scott is the one who killed Laci," he tells Vigliotti.
"20 years later, this example still holds a lot of interest," says Jack Leonard, senior editor of investigations at the Los Angeles Times. "More often than not because it remains an enduring mystery.
CHRISTMAS EVE 2002
The infamous San Quentin prison house is the concluding stop for men on expiry row in California, and where our story begins. Considering that'south where Scott Peterson remains backside bars.
For years, the Peterson murder mystery captivated America.
SHARON ROCHA | LACI PETERSON'South MOTHER [at press conference]: Laci and her unborn child did not deserve to die.
Peterson was ultimately bedevilled of murdering his significant married woman Laci and their unborn child Conner. He was sentenced to death.
But Scott Peterson'due south expiry sentence has since been thrown out and several questions still remain. Some people believe he is innocent – that he was railroaded, fifty-fifty framed. Others say there is no question he is guilty.
It was just on the other side of the aforementioned bay nearly 20 years ago, the bodies of Laci Peterson and her unborn kid done upwards on shore.
On Christmas Eve 2002, Laci Peterson was outset reported missing by her family.
GRETCHEN CARLSON [CBS News report]: Constabulary in Modesto, California, have a mystery on their hands. A woman who is eight months meaning has been missing since Tuesday when she left home to take her domestic dog for a walk.
It happened in the city of Modesto, in California'south Central Valley. Scott and Laci Peterson lived here on a repose residential street.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Christmas Twenty-four hour period morn, about ix o'clock, I get a phone call … I was a police detective at Modesto Police Department.
Detective Jon Buehler worked the example from the first.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Laci was as almost as pure a victim as y'all can get.
She was virtually 8 months pregnant when she disappeared.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: We went over to the Peterson house, which is when I first met Scott.
And the detective remembers noticing something odd about Scott'due south beliefs.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: He was a fiddling bit – he but didn't seem interested.
Before the lord's day rose on Christmas Day, police interviewed Peterson:
Constabulary: You have no thought where Laci is?
SCOTT PETERSON: I practice non.
POLICE: You guys didn't have whatever bug? Marriage problems?
SCOTT PETERSON: No.
Police force: Everything'south good?
SCOTT PETERSON: Mm-hmm.
Scott told police force that Christmas Eve day he left Laci solitary and went off a fishing trip. He said when he got home Laci wasn't there – just their dog McKenzie.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: McKenzie'due south there in the forepart yard expanse, the street surface area with a leash on that's kind of muddy. And he'south thinking that this is kind of strange. Why would that be? His theory was that she had gone downward into the park and had been walking the dog and something happened down there, abduction or something like that.
Constabulary immediately started a search.
NEWS Report: Officers returned in force this morning combing the park and creek banking concern on foot and on horseback. Relatives, friends, and neighbors joined in distributing fliers and searching the park.
Just Buehler saw no sense of urgency from Scott Peterson:
Police force: You have any questions?
SCOTT PETERSON: No, I hateful I've asked you a couple times what to do, um, so I have the answers to that.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Oftentimes, a victim who'south left behind is firing tons of questions at us. … And we didn't get any of that from him.
The response from everyone else shut to Laci was very different.
SUSAN CAUDILLO | SCOTT PETERSON'Due south SISTER: We're searching nosotros're looking and we're going to find you.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Everybody was going crazy. Everybody was impatient.
SHARON ROCHA: Whoever has her, please, please, please, let her get. Bring her back to united states of america…"
DENNIS ROCHA | LACI PETERSON'S FATHER [sobbing]: Please … let the states have her back.
Family, friends – the whole community mobilized immediately to join the search for Laci.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Sharon Rocha, Laci's mom, her stepdad, Ron Grantski, her friends … her brother Brent, her sister Amy. They just saw this whole globe coming down. They were always struggling to hold back tears.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: But when it came to Scott, he always would hold dorsum a little chip. He wouldn't bear witness you all of his cards.
LOCAL NEWS Written report: Officers began a search of the couple's home late last night …
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: We knew nosotros had to focus on him from the start … considering that'due south the way you work a homicide.
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press conference]: Nobody's been ruled out. That's what we're trying to practise right now.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Because generally, there's going to be somebody with motive and generally, the motive is going to be somebody close.
On the morning of Laci'southward disappearance Scott told police he drove to a boat launch about 90 miles away from his home. He said he wanted to accept his brand-new gunkhole out on the water to go fishing for sturgeon, but he never caught a single fish. As he collection home, he called Laci and left a message on her phone:
SCOTT PETERSON [voicemail]: Hey, beautiful. I just left a message at home 2:fifteen. I'm leaving Berkeley. I won't be able to get to Vella Farms to get the basket for Papa. I was hoping you would get this message and go on out there. I'll encounter you lot in a bit, sweetie. Dear you lot. Adieu.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: it seemed like a very scripted message. … It merely it seemed phony to me.
Skeptical detectives too wondered why Scott would have gone angling in the start place. It was Christmas Eve and his married woman was eight months pregnant. Peterson told investigators he had originally planned to golf game that 24-hour interval but decided to go fishing because of the chilly conditions.
SCOTT PETERSON [police interview]: It seemed too cold to go play golf at the club, then ...
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: You lot got a guy who … said it was besides cold to golf, but information technology ain't too cold to go line-fishing. Are yous kidding me?
Day subsequently day, the search widened, and the story spread.
DENNIS ROCHA : Whoever has Laci. The advantage is 500 k. Take the money, bring my girl back safety … and accept the coin and go get abroad gratuitous.
Jack Leonard: Get-go of all, you had an bonny looking couple. Why would – a significant adult female suddenly disappear when she'south got plans to be with her family unit? And it was Christmas Eve, so there'south zip else going on in the news. Then, this attracted attention, get-go of all, from local news, and so national, and then it went global.
But hopes for finding Laci Peterson alive were fading.
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press conference]: We however don't have any significant lead into finding Laci Peterson …
SHARON ROCHA: Delight don't surrender on us.
JACKIE PETERSON | SCOTT'S MOTHER: Delight ship Laci back to us.
And police continued to play shut attending to Scott Peterson.
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [to reporter]: Our discoveries during the investigation take resuscitated the revisiting of the Peterson residence with a 2nd search warrant.
They also asked him to accept a polygraph. He refused.
Ret. Jon Buehler: Scott told us that he wouldn't take the polygraph … And and then that arched our eyebrows a little flake that he wouldn't take this thing.
GLORIA GOMEZ |NEWS Written report]: Recently authorities released photos of Peterson'south pickup and boat, hoping someone could back up his story.
Both Scott and Laci's family stood with him.
LEE PETERSON | SCOTT'Due south FATHER: There is no fashion in god's dark-green earth that he is, you know, even remotely involved in this thing.
SHARON ROCHA: Nosotros feel Scott has nothing to exercise with it.
LEE PETERSON: We're looking for Laci, and we're gonna find her.
Then it looked like in that location was a break in the case.
POLICE Printing CONFERENCE: We're received a tip yesterday …
Detectives discovered in that location had been a break-in just beyond the street from the Peterson dwelling house. One witness told constabulary she believed that burglary happened the aforementioned forenoon Laci disappeared.
Police quickly put that clue to rest.
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press briefing]: We're confident that we take the people in custody for the burglary and they are not connected with the missing of Laci Peterson.
Then, nigh a month subsequently Laci went missing …
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press conference]: She is prepared to give a statement.
This case took a dramatic plow.
Ret. Jon Buehler: The start big break we got in the case was of grade Amber coming forward.
AMBER FREY [at press conference]: We did accept a romantic relationship.
THE OTHER Adult female
SCOTT PETERSON [telephone recording]: I wanted to call you.
AMBER FREY: Thank you.
Amber Frey had no idea her fellow Scott Peterson was married with a pregnant wife. In 2005 she told "Within Edition" all nigh their love affair.
AMBER FREY ["Within Edition"]: He was looking for someone to exist with, someone to spend the rest of his life with. … You know, I was at a betoken in my life that I was ready to meet someone, besides.
Amber was 27 years old when she met Peterson. It was November 2002 – a month before Laci went missing. Amber says Scott told her he was a widower. They dined on strawberries and champagne and she was start to fall for him.
AMBER FREY ["Within Edition"]: It was existent for me. And information technology felt real for him, too.
Only after a friend saw the Peterson story in the news, he told Amber. And Bister called the police.
Detective Buehler and his partner raced down to Amber's home.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Her retrieve was fantastic. It was well-nigh like it was a script from a Hallmark TV show or something. She could recollect restaurants they went to and what they ate. … She could remember what Scott was wearing. She would call back what she was wearing.
And Amber had pictures.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler:Y'all know, Scott'south in a tux and Ambers in that crimson wearing apparel they're getting ready for the Christmas party.
That Christmas party was just a week-and-a-one-half before Laci would get missing. The detectives were stunned.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler:We had a guy who looked like the guy you lot want to marry your younger sis. … But at present we found that at that place was that chink in the armor.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler:Information technology doesn't mean that he killed Laci. Only what it meant to us is there was another side to him that had not been exposed before.
Investigators saw an opportunity. Maybe Amber could help them find out what happened to Laci.
AMBER FREY ["Inside Edition"]: They asked how I felt virtually tape-recording conversation with Scott … And I said "yeah."
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler:She had an investment, an emotional and a budding romantic investment in this guy … I think she saw it crumbling in front end of her.
The recordings would go part of a damning case against Scott, but commencement, Amber addressed the questions about her relationship.
Bister FREY [at press briefing]: Scott told me he was not married.
AMBER FREY [at printing conference]: I am very lamentable for Laci'southward family unit and the pain that this has caused them.
Laci'south family unit turned on him.
BRENT ROCHA | LACI'Southward BROTHER [addressing reporters]: I would like Scott to know that I trusted him. However, Scott has non been forthcoming with information regarding my sis's disappearance and I am only left to question what else he may be hiding.
The story sparked a media frenzy.
Jack Leonard: Information technology was huge. Information technology was wild. And it made the example even bigger. … You really had the ascension of the 24-hr cable news. … You had Larry King on there interviewing legal experts, including Nancy Grace.
Jack Leonard: Near from the kickoff, she was zeroing in on Scott.
NANCY GRACE ["Larry King Live"]: Why did he leave his wife alone, eight months pregnant, on Christmas Eve?
Scott Peterson gave an interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer while Laci was still missing. When asked about the wedlock, he appeared to refer to Laci in the past tense:
SCOTT PETERSON: We took care of each other very well. She was amazing – is amazing.
NANCY GRACE ["Larry King Live"]: E'er heard the phase a skid of the tongue?
And there was another interview Scott gave with so-CBS reporter Gloria Gomez:
GLORIA GOMEZ: Why would you leave Laci … lone to become angling on Christmas Eve?
SCOTT PETERSON: OK.
Scott explains that every bit a couple they had different interests:
SCOTT PETERSON: We have separate pursuits. … and being, you know, vii-and-a-half months pregnant she's not going to want to become out in a gunkhole.
Merely critics of Scott say the most surprising moment may be what happened when Scott's phone began to band during the interview. Laci was missing and Scott doesn't selection up the phone.
SCOTT PETERSON: Desire me to turn that off?
GLORIA GOMEZ: Yeah, what is that?
SCOTT PETERSON: That's my phone, unfortunately. I idea it was off. [Scott gets upwards] … Yeah, it's kind of going crazy isn't it.
Gloria Gomez: He didn't hesitate to turn information technology off and some would say that why, if you're a concerned husband, if your wife is missing, yous know, you would take that cell phone clinging to you and every call would be an urgent call.
Then, more 3 months afterward Laci disappeared, in San Francisco Bay the bodies of Laci and Conner washed up simply a few miles away from where Scott Peterson said he was fishing.
With the discovery of the bodies, detectives decided to move quickly.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Our concern was maybe he'southward going to head for the border.
Government finally caught up with Scott at a San Diego golf form. He told them he was supposed to play a round with his begetter. He also had virtually $fifteen,000 in cash and his hair was dyed blond.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: He had his brother's driver's license … in the car with him, 2 or three cell phones. And then, you lot know, not the normal stuff you have if you're going downwards to the local Winn-Dixie to get groceries.
POLICE PRESS CONFERENCE: Scott Peterson has been arrested. He is in the custody of Modesto Police Section detectives.
Just over a year later on in Redwood Metropolis, California, Scott Peterson went on trial. The trial had been moved almost xc miles from Modesto because of the huge amount of publicity.
Peterson had a high-priced Hollywood dream squad of attorneys led by Marc Geragos, famous for defending celebrities like Michael Jackson.
MARC GERAGOS [at trial]: This is a capital example. I'm worried about my client'southward life.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What did the state say they believed happened?
Michael Cardoza: Which office of the trial? [laughs] They changed their story a couple times.
Attorney Michael Cardoza also worked on Scott Peterson's case. And though he was not part of the court room defense squad he says the prosecutors' theory of what Scott did to Laci was confusing.
Michael Cardoza: First, it was he killed her the dark before, put her in the rug, put her in the truck, took her to the warehouse. Took her to – Berkeley and dumped her in the bay. And so later it was, "Yes, I estimate we actually don't know when she was killed, where she was killed. But nosotros practise know he did it." Well, come on, guys. Brand upward your heed.
Merely the example against Scott would go a lot clearer when prosecutors started playing recordings – the ones Amber Frey managed to secretly make.
Amber FREY [phone recording]: Hello.
SCOTT PETERSON: Infant?
Amber FREY: Yes.
SCOTT PETERSON: Hey.
Bister FREY: Oh, my goodness.
THE DAMNING Telephone CALLS
SCOTT PETERSON [telephone recording]: Bister are your in that location?
AMBER FREY: I'chiliad hither.
SCOTT PETERSON: Bister.
AMBER FREY: I wish y'all could hear me. … Happy New year's day.
Merely about everyone who was inside the courthouse at the time agrees it was the tape- recorded phone calls between Amber Frey and Scott Peterson that really grabbed the jury:
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: … I'm almost the Eiffel Tower, the New Years' commemoration is unreal.
That's Scott Peterson – ane calendar week afterward Laci went missing – on the phone with Amber Frey pretending he'due south calling from Paris when regime say he was really in Modesto while the search for Laci was still going on.
Michael Cardoza: Amber Frey. Just. That's what turned that trial … It was the pretext phone calls that Amber Frey fabricated to Scott Peterson.
Jonathan Vigliotti: They were pretty damning.
Michael Cardoza: There's no question. … That's what inverse this trial.
Equally jurors listened, Bister confronts Peterson about Laci:
AMBER FREY [phone recording]: I deserve to understand an explanation of why y'all told me yous lost your wife, and this was the first holidays you'd spend without her? That was December 9th – you told me this and how all- of-a sudden your wife's missing? Are you kidding me? …
SCOTT PETERSON: I never cheated on you – I never did.
Bister FREY: You're married. How do you figure you lot never cheated on me? Explicate that i to me.
After the jury heard those calls with Amber, attorney Cardoza says everything changed.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, you're saying the emotion, the high emotion here drowned out the facts that were introduced past the defense?
Michael Cardoza: That emotion was and then loud, they could hear zip else.
And so, with crowds gathered outside and no cameras allowed in court, on Nov 12, 2004, a verdict: We the jury, in the higher up entitled crusade, find the accused, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the crime of murder of Laci Denise Peterson.
Michael Cardoza: When the guilty verdict came back, you could hear the oversupply outside – when you lot were in the courtroom – cheering. Cheering. You don't think the jurors heard that? What kind of effect did that accept on the next phase of the trial, the expiry.
Four months later, sentenced to death, the applause was even louder.
Just within the courtroom, it seemed to Laci'south family that Scott hardly responded.
Harvey Kemple | Laci's Uncle: It was just like always, no emotion. No cipher. The human is a definite psychopath. He is getting exactly what he deserves.
Later sentencing, some of the jurors lashed out at Peterson:
RICHELLE NICE |JUROR [to reporters]: He is a jerk and I have one comment for Scott: You expect somebody in the face when they're talking to you.
MIKE BELMESSIERI |JUROR [to reporters]: Well, Scott came in with a great big smiling on his face, laughing. It was just another day in paradise for Scott, another day that he had to become through emotions. But – he'due south on his style home, Scott figures. Well, judge what, Scotty…
RICHELLE NICE: …San Quentin'southward your new home.
MIKE BELMESSIERI: …And it's illegal to kill your wife and child in California.
Michael Cardoza: Juror number 7 – Miss Squeamish. … Listen to what she says. … Yous've just sentenced a man to decease and yous're that assuming in your statements? You'd think you'd be a little introspective nearly that considering there's null worse, nothing more ultimate, nothing more than last than taking someone'due south life.
Michael Cardoza: Scott Peterson, I accept no stance on whether he'southward guilty or not guilty. Only I do know Scott did not get a fair trial. He absolutely did not.
Scott Peterson's attorneys filed appeals and nearly 16 years later on his conviction, a conclusion.
Last summer, as Scott sat behind bars in San Quentin, the California Supreme Court threw out his expiry judgement.
Pat Harris: … The Supreme Court said, "He is going to get a new trial on the decease penalty phase."
Pat Harris was part of Scott's defence force squad in the original trial and he continues to represent him.
Pat Harris: They adamant that the judge had made a error in how the jurors were selected based on the death penalty part of the trial.
The result of that fault, Scott supporters say, was that the jury was stacked confronting him with pro death penalty jurors.
Peterson'southward team is also arguing that it's not merely his death penalty that was all wrong. They say Scott deserves a completely new trial to determine guilt. The reason: that juror number 7 – Richelle Dainty.
Pat Harris: According to i of the jurors who was interviewed, he said that … she walked into the jury room and said, "What are we waitin' for? Let's become rid of this guy."
Prissy declined "48 Hours"' request for an interview. Harris maintains that Dainty was biased from the beginning and when they were picking the original jury Nice was not forthcoming about her own history.
Pat Harris: Information technology's pretty articulate … that she lied to us straight to our face almost her own situation.
Prospective jurors filled out a questionnaire asking if they had in the past been in a lawsuit and if they had been crime victims. And Nice checked "no".
Pat Harris: And we've come up to larn that in fact … there were issues in her own – circle of people. And there were restraining orders.
In fact, Nice was involved in ii domestic disputes in the past. Only prosecutors say when Overnice filled out that questionnaire she didn't lie, she but didn't think her by experiences were relevant to the questions and didn't see herself as a victim. Now a lower court will consider if Peterson will get a complete retrial. And his defenders are set up.
Janey Peterson: Every piece of information we notice out about this day further confirms that Scott is innocent.
Scott'south sis-in-constabulary Janey Peterson says in that location are witnesses who claim they saw Laci very much alive later Scott had already left for his fishing trip that day.
Jonathan Vigliotti: And you think this is enough to prove his innocence?
Janey Peterson: Admittedly.
SUPPORT FOR SCOTT
Jonathan Vigliotti: Where are we right now?
Janey Peterson: This is our family business … we accept a back office hither that nosotros've dedicated to the case files –
Jonathan Vigliotti: Oh, wow.
Janey Peterson – for Scott'due south case.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Then, this is really the state of war room, here?
Janey Peterson: Yes. Aye.
And Scott's sister-in-law Janey Peterson has been at war for well-nigh 20 years at present. Even though Scott has only been granted a new trial on the capital punishment, Janey is gearing up to evidence his innocence.
Pat Harris: Janey is the heart and soul of the – the instance.
Janey Peterson: I'm not talking about emotions. I'm talking about prove. Everything on this lath is a fact. … in that location'due south no scenario of guilt for Scott.
Much of the case for Scott, she says, comes down to the timeline – what happened the morning Laci disappeared.
Janey Peterson: If Scott Peterson is guilty, what fourth dimension did he commit this offense? … He'due south on decease row for the murder of his wife and child. And no one has ever said what fourth dimension he did this law-breaking, how he did this crime, or the series of events of how he carried out this criminal offense that fits the evidence.
Janey Peterson [pointing to evidence board]: Basically, the twenty-four hour period starts on the left side…
According to Scott, that morning he and Laci had breakfast and watched Martha Stewart.
Law: You lot recall what office you saw?
SCOTT PETERSON: … cookies of some sort – they were talking about what to do with meringues.
Scott told police Laci told him she was going to clean the house and then walk their domestic dog, McKenzie. He told them that he left the house around nine:30 a.m. He said he went to a nearby warehouse where he had an office and sent an e-mail from his computer, before setting off with his gunkhole to the Berkeley Marina.
The prosecution argued that Scott had killed Laci old earlier he left the house that morning time.
Janey Peterson: The country asserts that – Scott murdered Laci and that he loaded her body in his pickup, drove it to his warehouse.
But if Laci was seen live afterward Scott left the firm, Janey says the prosecution's case falls apart.
Janey Peterson: In that location's an abundance of evidence that shows that Laci was alive when he left for the day.
Jonathan Vigliotti [pointing at evidence board]: What does this show hither?
Janey Peterson: The pinkish squares are all the people in the neighborhood who reported seeing Laci or McKenzie that morning.
Janey says nearly of these witnesses reported the sightings betwixt ix:45 and 10:thirty in the forenoon – later Scott said he left the business firm. She says so much depends on these witnesses, but the defence force never called them to defend Scott at his trial.
Jonathan Vigliotti: If so many people saw Laci, claim to accept seen Laci after that point … Why didn't the defence bring them to the stand so that we could hear from their oral fissure what they saw?
Janey Peterson: I call back in that location were – multiple factors that played into it. … you had people who, as fourth dimension went by, thought that maybe what they saw wasn't relevant to the instance.
Pat Harris: There's been a lot of criticism considering we didn't phone call some witnesses who saw Laci that twenty-four hour period.
Scott Peterson's attorney Pat Harris.
Pat Harris: The original thought process at the time was … a number of the witnesses who saw her didn't have great – memories or had contra – were contradicting each other.
Police Detective Jon Buehler says none of the witnesses were actually sure if they did in fact encounter Laci.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: There were three girls in the neighborhood, 2 of which were significant at the fourth dimension … and two of them having dogs walking in the neighborhood … So, information technology would be existent like shooting fish in a barrel for somebody to mistakenly see one of those 3 girls equally beingness Laci.
Still, Janey Peterson says there is a witness who helps prove Laci was live after Scott left that morn. It was the mailman.
Janey Peterson: What the mailman said is that, when I went by the Peterson house the morning of Dec 24th, I went by there between 10:30 and 10:l. … the gate was open, and McKenzie was not on the property.
Janey says that's because Laci was out walking McKenzie. If McKenzie had been home, she argues, he would take barked at the mailman – considering he always did.
Janey Peterson: … this dog, in detail, barked at that mailman every single twenty-four hour period, whether he was backside the gate or in the firm.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, what y'all are saying is during this fourth dimension, Laci had McKenzie and they were –
Janey Peterson: On a walk.
And according to Janey, if Laci was out walking her dog, and so Scott – who was in his role sending an e-mail – could non have killed her. Just when information technology came time to testify, the mailman didn't have a articulate recollection and said "nothing out of the ordinary" happened that day.
Perchance more importantly to a new defense case though, is what Janey believes actually happened to Laci. Instead of Scott killing his significant wife, she says it's more than likely information technology was those burglars who robbed the house but across the street.
Janey Peterson: There'southward too many unanswered questions about that burglary to fix information technology bated.
The day Laci disappeared, December 24, the homeowners left to go on a trip around 10:30 in the morning. Scott Peterson and his team believe that Laci really confronted the burglars and something bad happened. To prove it, they point to what they call the "Aponte tip."
Janey Peterson [pointing at prove board]: This is the Aponte tip ... that was the telephone call that was overheard by Lieutenant Aponte at Norco Prison house.
Lieutenant Xavier Aponte was a corrections officer. He called in a tip about a phone recording he had heard about a month subsequently Laci disappeared.
Janey Peterson: And he said he had an inmate who was on the phone with his brother in Modesto discussing the fact that Laci had encountered the burglars across the street from her house.
Janey Peterson: When we heard this, we all thought, "Wow, possibly – maybe this'll requite us some answers as to what happened to Laci."
Merely recollect, law dismissed the break-in early on on:
DOUG RIDENOUR | MODESTO P.D. [at press conference]: We do not believe at this fourth dimension that there's any connection with the missing of Laci.
Here's why:
Pat Harris: The police figured out who did it. … They asked the culprits, "Well, when did you lot exercise this?" And the 2 gentlemen that were arrested said, "Oh, it was – Dec 26th, the day after Christmas."
Not on Dec 24, when Laci went missing, but two days afterwards. Peterson'due south defence isn't buying it.
Pat Harris: On December 26th, there was a line of media … reporters standing outside the Peterson dwelling upwardly and down that street. There is no way in hell you could burglarize a house with all those people continuing out there.
But police force say the burglars bankrupt in through a back door on the 26th, out of sight of the street and whatsoever reporters who may accept been there.
As for the tip near an inmate phone telephone call from prison, prosecutors say the phone telephone call is merely hearsay. Still, Peterson's attorney says if Scott gets a take a chance at a new trial, that break-in will be front end and center. And so volition their theory of the crime: that Scott Peterson was actually framed for his married woman's murder.
Janey Peterson: What better mode to exit of problem than get put the trunk where the married man was?
WAS SCOTT PETERSON FRAMED?
In a 2017 A&E documentary, Scott Peterson spoke nigh the moment he heard the word "guilty."
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: I was staggered past it. I had no idea it was coming.
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: … and I only had this weird sensation that I was falling forward.
Those thoughts seem starkly different from courtroom reports that describe Peterson every bit "emotionless."
JUROR [at printing conference]: Scott had no emotion on his face, Scott was beingness Scott.
And according to his lawyer, that lack of outward emotion injure Scott from twenty-four hour period one.
Pat Harris: I call up the biggest problem I have is … what I phone call the "he didn't deed correct" evidence. There is no such affair equally how to human activity. There's no playbook on how to deed when your wife has been murdered. … No affair what you lot practise, when you lot've built the narrative in your listen that he's guilty, whatever Scott did was gonna be interpreted through the lens of he's guilty …
Pat Harris: It was a terrible investigation from the starting time infinitesimal.
Harris says authorities had tunnel vision. He claims they never looked at other possibilities, or even the logic of their own theories.
Pat Harris: We did an experiment which nosotros filmed.
The defense squad loaded weights into a boat.
Pat Harris: We took the exact weight – We had the gunkhole, similar … We recreated it, did a video. And sure enough, when the body was dumped over, the boat flipped. We had a video of this. The gauge refused to let information technology in.
Only the Supreme Court said that the judge was correct not to let it in. They said the defense had used a different boat, a different motor, in different weather, and i of their own employees who stepped on the side of the boat to let in h2o and allow the boat to swamp. They even pointed out that the original judge offered the defense a chance to redo the experiment with the original boat and someone who was not a defense employee. But the defense force declined. Still, Janey says if given a chance, the defense will present other exonerating evidence.
Janey Peterson: Nosotros have an ongoing investigation that we don't discuss publicly. But I guarantee you that Scott will never be convicted of capital murder again in a court of constabulary.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Some of the almost damning prove is where Laci and her unborn child were found. They done up very close to an expanse where Scott Peterson was fishing. Are you saying that'due south but coincidence?
Janey Peterson: I'm non proverb it'southward a coincidence. I'thousand – I would fence it was on purpose.
Jonathan Vigliotti: On purpose?
Janey Peterson: On purpose.
They claim that Peterson was actually framed for the murder, and the real killer or killers held on to Laci'southward torso, eventually dumping information technology into the San Francisco Bay.
Janey Peterson: Her trunk wasn't taken to the bay December 24th. The bay wasn't sealed off as a crime scene. …In that location are multiple points of access directly to the water, 24 hours a twenty-four hours. I think they took Laci, had Laci, realized the national attending that this instance was getting, realized they were in problem. What ameliorate style to become outta trouble than go put the trunk where the married man was?
Jonathan Vigliotti: Who is they in this scenario?
Janey Peterson: Well I – I tin can't become past the burglary.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: The two burglars that were involved in that both told consistent stories that were backed up past other independent witnesses.
Detective Jon Buehler, one of the original investigators, says burglars had cipher to do with Laci'due south murder. And the thought that Laci was kidnapped in broad daylight in that neighborhood just doesn't make sense.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: Well, how come nobody saw Laci become abducted? … nobody saw an abduction in broad daylight where a girl had a dog, and the canis familiaris would be barking, and a girl would exist screaming. Tell me how that is going to happen because I don't see information technology.
As for the thought that Scott was framed …
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: What is the likelihood that somebody is going to housebreak Laci, and then all of a sudden, the media has intense scrutiny and attending to it. And and so they're going to accept her 90 miles to San Francisco Bay, and they're going to put her in the verbal same area that Scott said he was fishing in? All the while nosotros're doing searches up there, all the while that the media is camped out over at that place, that y'all've got cops and deputies and other agencies over there looking into this.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: You lot want to effort and make that stretch with me that somebody is going to drive from Modesto to Berkeley to take a body out in that location in the midst of that? Well, I judge possible. But yous know, there'south nevertheless people that believe the earth is flat, too.
The District Attorney is non commenting on the defense's theories, merely at Peterson'southward trial, contrary to what the defence force argued, prosecutors laid out their relatively clear theory of the crime: that Laci had been murdered in the home either the dark before or the morning she disappeared. And they focused on all the falsehoods Peterson had told.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: We knew that he was able to prevarication adequately easily.
Everything from the big lies he told to Amber Frey …
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: It's pretty awesome, fireworks in that location at the Eiffel Belfry.
SCOTT PETERSON [phone recording]: I have – I've lied to you that I've been traveling.
… to the little lies prosecutors say he told most the morn Laci vanished. Retrieve he said he left home around nine:30 a.m.:
Constabulary INTERVIEW: OK, so and so about 9:30 you left?
SCOTT PETERSON: Mm-hmm [affirms].
But that Martha Stewart segment on meringues he talked about watching with Laci?
SCOTT PETERSON: Nosotros were watching her favorite show, "Martha Stewart."
That didn't come on until 9:48 a.thousand.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: You have to dismiss so much coexisting evidence in this instance to believe that Scott didn't practice this.
Ret. Det. Jon Buehler: In a circumstantial show example becomes like a big rope. It's got strand after stranded after strand. And when you get so many strands weaved together on this big rope, this rope is very, very strong.
Buehler remains as confident every bit he ever was in Peterson'south guilt. Just Scott'due south defenders are but as confident.
Jonathan Vigliotti: And so, are y'all maxim he'due south innocent?
Pat Harris: Yeah.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Or – you are.
Pat Harris: Yeah.
Pat Harris: Oh, he's innocent. … I would bet my life on information technology.
Both sides wait to come across if the court will allow Peterson'southward team a hazard to fight not only the death penalty, simply for his innocence likewise.
Until so, nosotros're left with an almost unspeakable tragedy – the murder of 27-year-old Laci and her unborn baby, Conner … and you have to wonder what's going through Scott Peterson's listen as he sits in prison house just a few curt miles across the bay from where their bodies washed ashore.
On Dec eight, 2021 Scott Peterson was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the deaths of his married woman and unborn child.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson. Michelle Fanucci is the development producer forth with Ryan Smith. Emily Wichick is the field producer. Lauren Turner Dunn is the associate producer. Richard Barber is the producer-editor. Phil Tangel is the editor. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Jonathan Vigliotti
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-peterson-convicted-killer-new-trial-48-hours/
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