The Prosecutor's Case .. continued

All of you, I know you live here, obviously live here in the Bay Area. I have been here, of course, this whole time as well. I have driven through your neighborhoods. Your neighborhoods here are just like the neighborhoods that these folks lived in Modesto, your normal, everyday, middle class, middle of the road place. It's not some big scary place where pregnant women are getting snatched off the street.

What happened to Evelyn Hernandez?

That's not what's going on. That's not the evidence you heard. That's nothing that you saw about Modesto.

Candlelight light vigil, this tells you kind of about Modesto. For example, I mean this is New Years Eve, 2002. 800 to a thousand people show up to show their support and prayer and candlelight, and everything else, for a woman they have never even met. This isn't some scary, horrible place. But you want to know what this guy is doing on December 31st, 45 minutes before that vigil is supposed to start?

It's set to start at 5:00 o'clock. Everyone else is there helping to get this set up. They are dragging the stage out. They are doing what they have to do.

This is what he does. This is what he's doing 45 minutes before the vigil is supposed to start for his wife and missing son. Go ahead and play that December 31st 1618, Amber to, It's really funny. That's what he said. I'm not even playing that call for you just to highlight the Europe trip. We have been over that ad nauseam. You know why I played that call? Listen to his demeanor, and then put it in the context with what's going on in Modesto at that time. He's laughing. He's happy.

How is your New Years going? Amber asks. It's great. I'm having a great time.

My wife and kid are gone. That, to him, is a good thing. It's his demeanor that's important. And in the context of where this was, 45 minutes before 800 to a thousand people showed up there to memorialize his missing wife.

Demeanor isn’t evidence. Where is the evidence of homicide?

At the vigil, remember Mike Wilson helped. Remember, they helped move the stage out. Mike Wilson tells him, you know, Scott you really need to go and be with your family. He says, no, I'm happier right here. Happier down here with some guy moving the stage? His own family was up on the stage. Lisa Krueger said he was smiling. Remember Ken McCall said he seemed to be in a good mood, somewhat jovial. So much so that he thought it was kind of weird. He chose not to speak to him that day. You know, there is no playbook for grief. That's what people have told me when I talked about this. I agreed with that. Everybody grieves differently. Nobody grieves like that. That's just not true. Grieving, true, you want to see true grief, please like at that picture of Sharon Rocha. That's true grief. Look at those people. That's after the vigil is over. That's true grief right there, like somebody ripped their heart out.

This is just the opinion of Distaso – it is valueless as evidence.

That's not what you heard from that phone call with the defendant.

Now look at what the defendant looks like on that day. Yeah. He's feeling the pain there, isn't he? You know. Remember that call the defense played in their case? It was on the day of the defendant's arrest, April 18th, when he was supposedly going to go down and play golf, I guess at Torrey Pines.

Who goes down and plays golf when potentially your wife and unborn son have been found up there in the San Francisco Bay? You know. It would take a team of horses to hold you back to get up there to find out what's going on. Not this guy. I'm going to go, you know, he ends up not playing golf that day.

According to the phone call he is too concerned about how he is going to look in the press. I don't want a picture of me playing golf in the press. That's all he's concerned about. Not like they might have found my wife.

IF they had found Laci, would nobody bother to mention it – or would the news flash around the world?

Now, ask yourself. Is this the reasonable behavior for a man who didn't commit this crime, who is innocent? No way. That's not reasonable behavior. If it's not, then I have proven this case, and this man is guilty. Now, ask yourself this. Is it reasonable behavior for a man who did commit this crime?

Absolutely. Two interpretations. The one reasonable, one unreasonable. You must reject the unreasonable interpretation.

The unreasonable interpretation is that a man with no motive and a blameless record would kill the person he loved most in the world. THAT is unreasonable.

Here is some things he said about, sayings about Laci. One, Brian Ullrich, all I want for Christmas is my wife back. Well, apparently my porn and my girlfriend too. Private life, public life. Lies.

Talk about the porn channels. Do those mean anything, that he was getting porn?

Who cares if he was getting porn. Doesn't mean, that doesn't mean anything.

Finally a true statement. No, it doesn’t matter. IF he was guilty, he would have gone around with a bible under his arm and would have never ordered XXX channels.

You want to know what's important about that? It's that he got it on January 8th, got the Playboy Channels. Who cares if he got the Playboy channels.

That's not the argument. It's being upgraded on the January 25th to the Ecstasy Channel.

I don't care if he watches porn. Watch all the porn you want. You know what is important about that? The important thing is, he knew Laci was never coming home to see him watching those channels. Laci shows up on his doorstep on January 13th. Oh, honey, you were gone. My sex drive was so overactive I had to get the porn channels. Yeah, right.

They weren’t coming back to that house. Distaso is getting his own theories mixed up.

No. He got, he got those channels because he knew she was not coming home and he's moving on with his life. He created a fantasy life in his head, and he made it his reality. That's what's important about that stuff. He tells Diane Sawyer though, private-public. Public life, we had a glorious marriage. That's what he said. Glorious marriage. That's what he said.

He tells the Amber, though, on January 6th, she asked him, this is before the confrontation, did you have any problems of your own, Scott? She is kind of, at this point, wanting him to kind of own up to some of this stuff. Do you have any problems? No, no problems. She said, really? He says, yeah. No. This is a long call I was going to play for you. I'm not going to. It's too long on January 8th where they are talking about whether or not Laci and Scott went to bed in separate beds that night. And he never answered her.

She says, finally she says something to the effect of, let me tell, I'm going through in evidence pretty much from my memory. If I say something wrong, go with the way, like the judge said, go with what you remember and what you heard. Or, better yet, check the transcripts, or get it read back. I don't want to say anything here that's incorrect. If I do, I want you to go with what you remember. That's important.

But on this January 8th call, she said something to the effect of, did you go to bed in separate beds? I'm not going to answer that. Silence. You know. She keeps pumping him for it. Finally she says, why? It would too painful. Do you think it's going to be too painful to hear that you went to bed with your wife that night? I know you are married. Oh, no. He said something to the effect, you probably think the opposite. They didn't go to bed together that night.

He tells of the public statements about Conner, public and private. And in public he says, remember what he says about the baby's room to all those media folks. Can't go in there. Not going in there until there is a little guy to put in there. Can't, you know. That door is closed to me. It's not true.

Because when they went back there on February 18th, he turned that place into a storeroom. Go ahead play that video. It is on the 26th, the way Laci left it.

This is what it looked like when they went back. Can't go in there unless there is a little guy to put in there. Again, there is two lives, right?

Who used the room for storage? No evidence that it was Scott – once again all supposition.

Public and private.

Here's what he says to Amber Frey on January 1st. She asked him if he wants, she says, do you want another child? Because they have been talking about, you know, he wanted to have a vasectomy. Aiyanna, her child, is enough for me.

I don't want any more. Here's, look what he says. This is January 1st, midnight call, January 1st. She is asking him if he wants another child seven days after his wife and unborn son have gone missing. This is what he says. Go ahead and play that part. Just not my thoughts currently.

Who could even speak those words if he's not guilty? Seriously, I mean let's just throw all this argument I have made, and throw all the emotions out, throw everything out of this case. How can he speak those words? Could any of you?

You are all reasonable people. Could any of you?

Where, where we left off, we were kind of talking about at one point the two lives of the defendant. What I'd like to talk about now is kind of the defendant's manipulation of the media. Really, his using of the media.

What we've heard in this trial is a couple of things here. Either the defendant is manipulating the media, is keeping them around and keeping them on the hook, that's what he told Gloria Gomez. I'm paraphrasing, but he basically said: You know, it's kind of a conscious decision for us to keep, keep the media around; or, on the other hand, the problem with that is either, either that's the truth, or the media is hunting him and driving him out of town. You can't have it both ways.

If the media drove him out of town, then he didn't purposefully keep them on the hook. If he purposefully kept them on the hook like he says, then the media had no, no impact at all on his, on why he did in January the things that he did. And that's the simple fact.

Now, look at it logically. This is a guy who goes on Good Morning America, you know, which is what, a national television show, probably viewed by millions of people, and he wants, he wants you to believe that he's somehow afraid of the media and they're hunting him and driving him out of town. I mean that's ridiculous.

Apparently Distaso has not been told about the “Man or Monster” billboards.

He also goes, right in that same time period, Good Morning America he's on, and then he goes on, he gives two that you saw. Let's see, Gloria Gomez and Ted Rowlands interviews. Two local interviews. So this is a guy who is so afraid of the media that they're driving him out of the town, that he's going to give interviews that are going to be broadcast around the entire world.

I mean, again, that just not consistent, that's what the defense is, it's what they want you to believe. They're trying to explain why he's doing all the wacky things he's doing. Selling his house. Selling Laci's car.

After the MPD stole his truck.

Getting a post office box. Breaking his lease. All because the media is hounding him.

It's just not true. That's a fact.

How many, you know, you are all reasonable folks. You people, I would think, would be kind of nervous about going on Good Morning America. But you've seen him. He wasn't nervous a bit. He looked her right in the eye and told a bald-faced lie.

This is not a guy who is intimidated by, really, anybody, or anything. He's certainly not intimidated by the media.

The reason he did those things is it was part of the plan. He's still working the plan. The plan was, remember at the end of January he's going to come back and start up again with Amber? He's still working the plan. He's taking off out of Modesto.

What is the plan? Where is the evidence?

Who of any reasonable person, your wife and unborn son, your pregnant wife, I guess I should call her, call Laci that, goes missing on December 24th. Who is going to want to put their house up for sale on January 14th? Who is going to want to put their house up for sale, and as he told Brian Argain, his friend, Hey, on January 22nd, Hey, what about selling my house? Hey, can we keep it quiet?

How can anyone be convicted on psychobabble from a lawyer with an axe to grind, a lawyer with NO evidence of guilt?

I'm not making any of this up. It's all in the transcript: Can we keep it quiet.

Then he talked a little bit more, and he says: Hey, you know, can I sell it furnished?

So he's not only going sell his house, the media, of course, is driving him out of his house. This is what he told Gloria Gomez, I guess what he wants everyone to believe. But he's not only going to sell Laci's house and car, he's going to sell all of her stuff. You know, honey, you know, what if miraculously, let's assume he's innocent, which there's no evidence, the evidence is overwhelming he's guilty, but take his story for a second and let's assume he's innocent, what's he going to tell her if she shows back up: Oh, honey, you know, I know it's a little odd, but, you know, a couple weeks into this I decided to sell the house, and, well, all your stuff, too.

The reason he's doing all these things is because he knows she's not coming back. And he's just separating his life from Modesto, his life from Laci, his life from Conner, and he's starting anew. It was all part of the plan that he started way back in October.

Before we leave that, I do want to play one clip. Actually, a couple clips for you. Here's a clip of the defendant as he's being interviewed by Detective Brocchini the night this happened. Before you play that, John, let's put this into perspective.

This is the night that Laci Peterson allegedly got abducted. This should be the most horrible event that he has ever experienced in his entire life. It would be for any of you. It would be for any of all of these people out here. It would be for me. It would be for anybody sitting at that defense table, except for him. That's the way it should be.

And let's take a look at what his demeanor was on that night. I only pulled a small segment out, but you know what, I would actually suggest that you go back and watch this whole interview if you have any question at all about this, because it's a very telling interview. And pay attention to how he looks.

Go ahead.

Calm, cool, collected, chuckling at times. Where, where is any concern at all? Oh, she told me what she was going to do for the day. You know, no big deal. Yeah, she's gone. No big deal.

Now, let's look at the, what, when Scott Peterson wants to present this false image to the public, let's show how he portrays that. I mean, this guy is like a master actor there. Go ahead and show me the next clip, the Good Morning America clip.

He can turn the tears on when he wants to, though, can't he?

Let's talk about the, into January, the trips to the Berkeley Marina, what those mean. You saw there was a number of them. January 5th, 6th, the 9th.

This is the chart for the 9th. The 26th, the 27th. And let's see what, what did the defendant do with those trips.

Let's actually put this in perspective first. Why is the defendant going to the Berkeley Marina? Remember he had never been there before. This is, the fishing trip was supposed to be his first time there. So this is not a place he frequents all the time

Why were the MPD searching it? Scott knew his wife wasn’t there – her car was still where it was when he left. The search proved him correct – she wasn’t there until the bodies were dumped in April.

.So let's go with what was kind of insinuated by questioning, I guess, or what Mr. Peterson's version would be: Well, I'm going there to see if somebody saw me. I guess, you know, whatever, let's take that for a second.

Well, if you're going to do that, don't you think you'd stop at the office and talk to somebody? Don't you think you'd go and look for that maintenance man who saw you? Don't you think you'd do any of those things? Don't you think you'd spend more than a couple minutes there?

He knows during this time, what's the real reason he's going there? Let's don't pull any punches. What's the real reason he's going to the Berkeley Marina. And doing what he does, there's the GPS track. He comes down, drives around to the lookout, drives back around to the lookout.

He's there for just minutes. You know, he drives in, checks it out, drives back around, checks it out. That's what he's really doing. He knows the police is searching the Berkeley Marina. He doesn't call them up and say: Hey, you guys searching the Berkeley Marina? Anything I can do to help you?

You didn't hear any evidence of that at all. All you heard was he made these secret, surreptitious trips out there to check up on them. I mean, he wants to know if they're looking in the right place.

You heard the testimony where the anchor was found. That was found down, I'm pretty sure it was testified to it was down at the end of the Berkeley Marina there. Well, that's, they're not looking in the right place. So he's satisfied on that trip.

You know, let's look at what he did. He, on January 5th he hops in that silver Subaru, a car that's not associated with him at all. Hops in there, changes his clothes you heard after doing his, the two lives things again, doing his little public thing, going around, laying out flyers, doing that. And then all of a sudden goes in, changes his clothes, jumps in that silver Subaru, and bam, he drives straight to the Berkeley Marina. He drives just around this overlook here, and bam, straight back to Modesto.

I mean, that's a long trip to go, remember he was driving 85, 90 miles an hour. That's a long time to spend a couple minutes out at that overlook at the Berkeley Marina. He's not going there to look for anything. He's not going there to help anybody. You're going there to check up on the cops and see what they're doing. That's why he did it.

January 6th, well, this time in a little more surreptitious fashion. He actually drives his Land Rover. Remember we heard Oh, he can't, the reason he sold the Land Rover is because it was so tore up.

That is ridiculous. Go back and listen to some of that or have read back to you some of that surveillance folks' testimony. He drove that Land Rover all over the place. The there was nothing wrong with the Land Rover at all. The only thing the police did to it when they seized it is pulled the headliner out to test it. That doesn't affect the way the car drives at all. He was driving it all over the place.

But not on January 6th. He drives to the Enterprise Rent a Car place, rents a red Honda, bam, back out to the Berkeley Marina. Spends a couple minutes there.

And remember they lost him downtown sometime in Berkeley. He's not a guy who's going out to these areas to look for, you know, to talk to people, to do anything other than check on what's going on. He goes again on the 9th in a rented car. Remember it was that Dodge, I think it was a Dodge that day. No, Chevy S-10.

On January 11th, remember when he was lying on all those calls, remember what he did that day? He rented a silver Saturn and went out to, remember what he did. Jill, Agent Henry testified to this. He goes out to the Land Rover.

Remember he was looking underneath it, he walks all the way around it, he looks under it again.

What do you think he was looking for? He's not a stupid man. He knows, you know, he made the surveillance. He knew they were following him. He was looking for a tracker. That's why he wasn't driving the Land Rover. That's why he kept renting cars, why he kept going out there in cars that weren't associated with him.

On January 26th he drove his Land Rover out there. And then on January 27th, remember he drove out not to the Berkeley Marina, I should have brought that chart out, but I didn't. He drove out here to the frontage road to look out at the Bay and see where, that's what the GPS showed. He's not going to find the maintenance man for the Berkeley Marina out there on the frontage road.

Go back and, and, you know, look at those boards. The GPS tracks are clear as day on there. You can see exactly where he went. And that's, that's the reason why he was doing those trips.

Now, let's talk about the, some of the physical evidence and other evidence that you heard in this case. Let's talk about, first, Laci walking.

Were we trying to present to you that Laci was an invalid, that she couldn't walk anywhere? Of course not. There's no evidence to support that at all.

The question is was Laci walking on December, on a cold morning on December 24th with a big dog. I mean, that's the question.

Vivian Mitchell saw her as did her husband – after Scott left.

And let's look at what the evidence was. Well, she had been walking in November, on November 6th and November 8th. It's in her medical records. And she got dizzy and I think she said she almost threw up or almost passed out, or something like that, in the park.

You heard from all her friends. You heard from Rene Tomlinson that she felt big. She was taking it easy. Stays Boyers said on November 14th Laci told her she stopped walking. Terry Western said that Laci told her on December 14th that she was tired a lot, it was hard to walk. Sharon Rocha testified to the same kinds of things. And even Karen Servas, the neighbor, who saw Laci last, I think it was the last time, she might have seen her on the 23rd, but saw her on the 22nd when she was in the backyard and the defendant was mowing the lawn, she said that Laci told her she felt really tired and she almost fell into the pool because she got dizzy.

Now, is that the kind of person that's going to go out on Christmas Eve morning and to go walk a big dog? It's just not. I mean, that's a simple fact.

The only person who testified differently than that, the only one, is the defendant's mother, Jackie Peterson. And she testified that she and Laci had done that walk down to the beach and had walked, you know, two hours kind of up and down the hills in Carmel.

Well, you saw Mrs. Peterson testify, and you saw her medical condition, which she had at the time, and is it reasonable for you to believe that that happened?

Is it, I mean, really, is it reasonable?

It's just not. You know, Laci and Mrs. Peterson did probably drive around town, they probably drove down to the beach, they probably drove up to the shopping center, but those folks were not walking around Carmel up and down those hills for two hours. It just didn't happen.

Yet the testimony stands. It did happen – and Distaso has no witness to prove it didn’t.