SCOTT: I WEEP IN JAIL

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October 31, 2003 -- MODESTO, Calif. - Jail is a bummer to Scott Peterson, who says in letters to a pal that he's cried in his bunk over the deaths of the wife and son he allegedly killed.

"I am finding it so difficult to grieve for them here," he wrote in letters revealed by a local TV station.

"At night, I have my head buried in a blanket. I don't want the other inmates to see the tears."

Peterson's letters to a friend - written in pencil on a yellow legal pad - were reported by KTVU, a Fox affiliate in Oakland.

The suspect, held without bail in a solitary cell in the Stanislaus County Jail, said his grieving was especially difficult in the early hours of May 4, which would have been Laci's 28th birthday.

"I woke up early today to a crashing cell door. I figured it must be after midnight and, therefore, Laci's birthday," he wrote.

"I lay in this bunk dreaming about her, being able to hold her and Connor [his unborn son]. As the morning went on, all I could do was lay here in tears."

"You get to move around a room that is 8 feet by 20 feet without chains on," he wrote. "I try to spend as much time there as possible."

Word of Peterson's letters came as his lawyers battled in court yesterday to keep some DNA evidence out of his trial on grounds it was unreliable and may have been tampered with by cops.

The evidence - a strand of hair found in Peterson's boat, may prove the key piece of evidence that shows Laci Peterson, who was pregnant, was killed in the boat and dumped into San Francisco Bay.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos said the FBI should have matched the hair with a bone from Laci Peterson's body. But an FBI criminologist said that because the hair matches a DNA sample from Laci's mom, more tests aren't needed.

Yesterday was the second day of a hearing to determine if there's enough ..............

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Reporters pounce when someone such as attorney Gloria Allred, left in purple, talks about the case during a break. AL GOLUB/THE BEE

FBI DNA expert Candace Fisher testified about mitochondrial DNA testing; prosecutors are seeking to have it allowed as evidence.

Prosecutors indicated that they intend to call to the stand Laci Peterson's sister, Amy Rocha, and Scott and Laci Petersons' house cleaner.

Laci Peterson's brother, Brent Rocha, apparently won't be called to testify despite family members having said they were all tabbed as potential witnesses. Brent Rocha attended the entire proceeding Wednesday.

Judge Al Girolami ruled that Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Peterson's former girlfriend, Amber Frey, can remain in the courtroom as other witnesses testify.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos said he intends to call a DNA expert from Shields State University in New York.

FBI DNA expert Candace Fisher is expected to take the stand again today for continued cross-examination.

The DNA expert from Shields State University is expected to testify Monday, defense attorney Mark Geragos said.

Laci Peterson's family: Sharon Rocha (mother), Ron Grantski (stepfather), Dennis Rocha (father), Brent Rocha (brother), Amy Rocha (sister).

Scott Peterson's family: Jackie Peterson (mother), Lee Peterson (father), Susan Caudillo (sister), Joe Peterson (brother), Janey Peterson (sister-in-law).

Others: Gloria Allred, attorney for witness Amber Frey; Greta Van Susteren, Fox News TV personality

A cell phone or electronic data assistant clearly on vibrate went off at least three times in the media section during the morning session. A sheriff's deputy standing in the back of the courtroom told the bailiff he thought it was Fox News TV personality Greta Van Susteren's phone.

The judge has forbidden any broadcasts from the courtroom, and bailiffs repeatedly instructed attendees to turn off their cell phones.

During testimony by FBI DNA expert Candace Fisher, bailiffs handed a note each to Scott Peterson's parents, Lee and Jackie, on separate occasions.

The couple sat with other family members in the front row behind the defense table. All Scott Peterson's family members appeared to wear pins in the shape of a yellow ribbon overlaid with blue.

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Few members of the public lined up early Wednesday to get a seat in court on the first day of Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing. BART AH YOU/THE BEE

In the morning shadows of the Stanislaus County Courthouse, the rose garden provided great cover. Eldon Day peered through his binoculars, staring into the electronic media morass coagulated on 11th Street.

The 62-year-old Newman resident hoped to get a look at Geraldo Rivera or any of the other television celebrities he thought might be in town for Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Yet other than Day and a couple of Modesto Junior College students who snuck in to hobnob on media row, it was business as usual downtown on the first day of what could be a weeklong preliminary hearing.

And as they learned, there's really nothing interesting about being on the outside looking in.

This is Modesto -- not Los Angeles, where hundreds of people swarmed around the L.A. County Courthouse to stargaze at every proceeding during the O.J. Simpson trial.

This is Modesto, where working class folks aren't nearly as enamored with the national media as the national media is with itself.

Consequently, the opening day of the Scott Peterson hearing didn't cause nearly the problems authorities feared when they briefly considered shutting down a portion of I Street.

If you didn't already have a pass to get into the courtroom, there was little reason to be there. Only a few seats are available to the general public. The rest go to the families of Laci and Scott Peterson and the media.

With the number of media trucks the police anticipated, there was no better day to avoid going downtown unless you absolutely needed to be there. There were fewer people on the courthouse lawn Wednesday morning than on most other days.

Those who visited the civil court offices dealt with their business and didn't linger, as some often do.

The police did a commendable job of preparing for the media onslaught, using the future home of the Gallo Arts Center as a TV truck lot.

The Modesto Convention and Visitors Bureau set up a booth inside the media area on 11th, offering free coffee, doughnuts and sodas to the media. Kevin Shand said the bureau's intention is to convince the visiting media to do positive "sidebar" stories about Modesto while they're here.

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MODESTO -- Patrick the property manager came to get autographs. "Dan Abrams!" he blurted, lunging for the NBC correspondent.

Around the corner, Jerry the hot-dog stand owner hated to say it, but he was figuring to make money, perhaps double the usual take. Andy the social worker, who works nights, was drawn to this spot first thing in the morning -- a time he could be sleeping -- for reasons he couldn't quite explain, other than his burning curiosity.

They came here Wednesday on a perfect autumn day, gathering near a cordoned-off section of downtown Modesto. From a distance, the scene resembled a street fair with blue-and-white tents, portable bathrooms and clusters of spectators milling about.

Up close, there was no joy or celebration, only the trappings of a sensational murder case.

As fires raged in Southern California, garnering international media attention, this city of about 200,000 held its own in the week's news wars. Wednesday was the day the public and press had been waiting for in the legal proceedings against 31-year-old Scott Peterson, the former fertilizer salesman accused of murdering his wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner.

"Oh, the plot twists!" said 43-year-old Patrick Kelly of Tracy, who drove to Modesto to collect autographs for his 13-year-old son outside the Stanislaus County Courthouse. "It's not been cut and dried at all."

And so it hasn't. It remained so Wednesday, as prosecutors made no stunning revelations, presenting exhaustive scientific testimony about DNA analysis.

But there is more to come -- the preliminary hearing could last five days -- and there is little doubt that the death of a pretty young pregnant woman and her son will continue to captivate this city and the nation.

This much is also true: In 2002, the same year Laci disappeared just before Christmas, 454 women were murdered in California -- shot, stabbed, beaten, poisoned, drugged, strangled, burned, drowned, asphyxiated and otherwise eliminated. The year before, there were 445, with more than one-fifth between ages 20 and 29 -- young females, like 27-year-old Laci Peterson, just moving into womanhood.

But Laci's is the case people remember, that many follow like a communal mystery novel. So many journalists tried to attend this week's proceedings, but could not get courtroom seats, that an "overflow" audio area was set up across the street under a large white tent.

On the sidewalk, Jack Williams, a 71-year-old retired appliance repairmen from Modesto, was so mesmerized by the spectacle he brought his video camera to "take pictures for posterity."

The murders have been a lot to bear for this community, which was central in the disappearances and murders of four other women in the last four years. First came Yosemite sightseers Carole and Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso, kidnapped and murdered in 1999. Next came Chandra Levy, the young Modesto woman found murdered last year in Washington, D.C.

And then Laci, the dimpled expectant mother whose baffling disappearance had residents leaving their Christmas turkeys to join in the search.

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Defense attorney Kirk McAllister, center, walks into court followed by his client, Scott Peterson on Oct. 17, 2003. (Associated Press)

From the time the Modesto woman vanished Christmas Eve to the days in April when her remains and those of her unborn baby were found in Richmond, investigators have pieced together a strange mix of clues. Those leads, authorities said, point to the woman's husband, Scott Peterson, who was arrested April 18 and charged in her killing.

But defense lawyers using the same evidence and roundly different theories say the evidence not only exonerates their client, but also shows who really committed the brutal crime.

Both sides will begin using that evidence Wednesday at a preliminary hearing to convince a Stanislaus County judge that their theory is accurate. Only the judge can decide if there is enough evidence incriminating Peterson to hold him for trial on murder charges and special circumstances that allow prosecutors to pursue a death sentence.

Once off-limits, much of the evidence that is expected to be presented at the preliminary hearing has slowly filtered to the reporters who have been digging away at one of the country's hottest real-life dramas. In the beginning, leaks were to blame, even as officials worked to conceal from the media what they had found.

Leaks about Scott Peterson's mistress and an insurance policy he reportedly had taken out on his wife months before she disappeared found their way into the headlines. There were leaks about cement residue in his boat and on human remains that turned out to be Laci Peterson and her unborn son.

An investigator leaked information about photographs and hair samples authorities collected from Scott Peterson early in the case. "A source close to the defense" leaked information about taped phone calls and evidence that pointed to "credible suspects" in Laci Peterson's disappearance.

There was a leaked autopsy report, providing eager reporters with information that Laci's fetus was found with tape around its neck and a gash to its body.

There also were leaks about the "true killers," who, according to the defense, remain at large.

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SP stated it directly, I think, during the Sawyer interview because I remember instantly thinking something was *up* with the bucket. He made a grandiose point of stating that he knew Laci was mopping the floor and when HE came home, HE emptied the bucket. During the interview his voice became louder and firm when he stated this and I thought to myself.....boy, he sure wanted to get that rehearsed comment in there.....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85250,00.html
Several pieces of evidence point to possible attempts by
Peterson to cover up foul play, sources said.

They point out that various chemicals were found on the mop he possibly used to clean the kitchen floor on Dec. 24, even though a cleaning maid had visited the house Dec. 23. Peterson told investigators the maid only finished cleaning half of the floor, but the maid has denied that to police.

He may have thought he could finish everything during the night and then go for a round of golf for his alibi, even picking up the basket on his way home. (I guess one never really knows how long it will take to get rid of a body!)

We know Laci talked to Sharon around 8:30pm and up until then everything seemed fine. Since it's possible that she was found in the clothing she had on the night before, he could have killed her shortly after that phone call.

Yes, we do have a little thingy on our screen door, but the kids still push on the screen door and I worry about them getting pummeled by the door. We literally have hundreds of trick or treaters. Actually, we didn't have to take the door off the hinges, just popped the screen out.

Ah! Thank you!! So he emptied the bucket. No way could I have seen their leaving a bucket of water out there for 2 days. (Never mind that the bucket probably actually was filled and used by Scott on the 24th.) Mosquitoes! At least, that's our consideration when we leave standing water, even water like that.

Sounds like it'll be DNA will be first up today. Hopefully they won't mull on DNA for too long. I'd like to hear more from detective Evers and carefully watch the defense questioning.

This way, someone can confirm.

Someone could have confirmed it based solely on my comment.

As for the rest of your post, I don't know what you're referring to. No need to be so sensitive. This is just an internet forum, just a bunch of us talking.

No mosquitos in CA.

Nah. Not all of California.

Just you few, you lucky few.

Mosquitos are allergic to saltillo tile.

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