andPosted on 01/06/2004 5:45:39 AM PST by runningbear
BURGLAR MAY TESTIFY vs LACI HUBBY
BURGLAR MAY TESTIFY vs. LACI HUBBY
By HOWARD BREUER
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January 6, 2004 -- MODESTO, Calif. - A convicted burglar who targeted neighbors of Scott and Laci Peterson around the time Laci disappeared may testify at Scott's murder trial to try to refute testimony from a potentially key defense witness.
Prosecutors filed documents yesterday seeking to allow Steven Wayne Todd, 37, to testify in the sensational case. Last February, Todd was sentenced to more than eight years for burglaries in December 2002.
Prosecutors may try to use Todd to undermine the defense's assertions that detectives zeroed in on Scott Peterson as a suspect early in the case, effectively rejecting other leads that could have led to Laci's true killer.
Possible defense witness Diane Jackson told police she was driving home at 11:40 a.m. Dec. 24. - two hours after Scott says he left Laci to go on a fishing trip - when she spotted something suspicious.
She said she saw three men, presumably Todd and accomplices, standing near a tan van across the street from the Petersons' home, making them potential suspects in the case.
Police insist that Jackson was wrong about the date and that the burglaries actually occurred Dec. 26, two days after Laci vanished.
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Superior Court, Stanislaus County
January 5, 2004
Declaration and Order for Production of Inmate/Witness from Deuel Vocational Institute
Superior Court, Stanislaus County January 2, 2004
Opposition to Motion for Change of Venue; Declaration of Dr. Ebbe Ebbesen, Mark Smith, Caitriona Goss; Points and Authorities in Opposition to Change of Venue
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Conflicting Polls to Be Presented in Peterson Change of Venue Hearing
Conflicting Polls to Be Presented in Peterson Change of Venue Hearing
A new poll contradicts an earlier finding that Stanislaus County residents weren't unduly influenced by media reports of the Laci Peterson case.
According to a report in The Modesto Bee, a survey authorized by defense attorneys found that citizens of Stanislaus County are more likely to have formed conclusions about the guilt or innocence of Scott Peterson than Bay Area and Southern California residents.
The survey was conducted by Stephen Schoenthaler, a criminal justice professor at California State University, Stanislaus. It questioned 1,175 prospective jurors in ten California counties about their attitudes on the case.
The poll found a wide disparity in results from Laci Peterson's home county and those elsewhere in California. The survey results indicate that nearly 70 percent of Stanislaus residents have formed a strong opinion in the case, compared to less than 50 percent of those living in the Bay Area and Southern California.
The defense is expected to use the results from the latest poll in a change of venue hearing scheduled for January 8.
On Friday, prosecutors with the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office filed a motion to keep the trial in Modesto. Based on the results of a survey conducted by a U.C. .......
Jacko Defense: He Wasn't There
Jacko Defense: He Wasn't There
What kind of defense is Mark Geragos putting together for Michael Jackson? How about: absentee molester?
The word is coming down that Geragos will use the specific dates mentioned in the charges filed against Jackson to exonerate the singer. Those dates — Feb. 7 to March 10, 2003 — will work in Jackson's favor, I am told.
The defense will reconstruct a timeline of Jackson's travels, primarily to Miami, to show that he was rarely in town or at Neverland when the D.A.'s office says he allegedly molested a 13-year-old boy suffering from cancer.
What is known already is that Jackson was in Miami on Jan. 16 last year for the funeral of Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb. Further, according to sources, he was also there on Feb. 6, the night ABC aired the Martin Bashir documentary "Living with Michael Jackson." He was then a guest of Miami lawyer Alvin Malnik.
The defense, I am told, will sketch out Jackson's trips through the six weeks in the police complaint, showing that Jackson was either in Miami or away and didn't have much access to the boy or his family.
Prosecutors will counter that the boy made a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., during that time, and that Jackson saw him there. But even if that turns out to be true, all nine charges against Jackson specify that they took place in Santa Barbara County, Calif., and not anywhere else.
One source close to Jackson suggested to me that possibly he'd been in the Miami recording studio The Hit Factory in early February. But a Hit Factory source went through the facility's 2003 schedule book and concluded for me that Jackson .....
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Books
Laci : Inside the Laci Peterson Murder
and
The Murder of Laci Peterson: The Inside Story of What Really Happened
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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