SCOTT PETERSON Prophetic death fib.
Posted on 11/07/2003 5:39:51 AM PST by runningbear
SCOTT IN SICK LACI LIE TO LOVER
SCOTT PETERSON Prophetic death fib.
SCOTT IN SICK LACI LIE TO LOVER
By HOWARD BREUER
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November 7, 2003 -- MODESTO, Calif. - Scott Peterson lied to mistress Amber Frey, telling her his wife was dead - a prophetic fib told on the very same day he purchased a boat possibly used in Laci Peterson's murder, a cop testified yesterday.
Detective Al Brocchini also suggested that the fertilizer salesman knew his pregnant wife was dead a day after she was reported missing. Brocchini said Peterson asked him on Christmas Day 2002 whether cops had used cadaver dogs to find her.
Brocchini's testimony came on the seventh day of a preliminary hearing to determine if there's enough evidence to try Scott Peterson, 31, for the murder of wife Laci and their unborn son, Connor.
Peterson told Frey on Dec. 9 that "he had lost his wife and this would be his first holiday without his wife," said Brocchini.
Laci disappeared on Christmas Eve, while Scott Peterson claims he was on a solo fishing trip in San Francisco Bay. Remains of the missing woman and her unborn son washed ashore near San Francisco in April, and cops arrested Scott Peterson days later.
Brocchini said Peterson made himself a suspect almost immediately by acting suspiciously.
Police found a loaded handgun in Peterson's car as they combed through the couple's house on Christmas Eve, when Laci was first reported missing.
The detective offered no suggestion that the gun - with no round in the chamber and a magazine loaded with live ammo - had recently been used by Peterson.
But Brocchini recalled how a nervous Scott Peterson called him at 2 a.m. Christmas morning, demanding the gun back.
"He said he wished I'd told him I kept the gun for evidence," Brocchini testified. "I responded it was illegal to have a loaded gun in his glove box and I was going to put it into evidence."
Peterson then asked "if they had used cadaver dogs to search for Laci," the investigator recalled.
"I said, 'No, I hadn't considered her dead yet.' I was kind of surprised he asked that."
Cadaver dogs later tracked Laci's scent from Modesto to the bay, according to court documents.
The preliminary hearing, before Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami, is scheduled to resume on Wednesday. .............
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Detective: Peterson said Laci was dead
Posted on Fri, Nov. 07, 2003
Detective: Peterson said Laci was dead
By Brian Anderson
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
MODESTO - Two weeks before his wife disappeared, Scott Peterson told his mistress he was a widower about to spend his first Christmas alone, an investigator testified Thursday.
That was Dec. 9, the same day Peterson purchased the boat he told police he used while fishing San Francisco Bay the day his wife disappeared, said Detective Al Brocchini.
Taking the witness stand on day six of Peterson's preliminary hearing, the Modesto officer said he interviewed Amber Frey after she called a tip line Dec. 30, telling him she had been romantically involved with Scott Peterson.
Frey told him Peterson had told her he was single -- a lie, she later learned. She said she confronted him Dec. 9, and he told her his wife was dead, the detective said.
A Stanislaus County judge is hearing evidence to determine whether there is enough proof to continue holding Peterson on two murder counts.
Peterson has denied killing his pregnant wife.
Laci Peterson vanished Dec. 24 and later turned up dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay not far from where Peterson said he was fishing.
Peterson was arrested April 18 in San Diego, driving a 1984 Mercedes Benz that Brocchini said Peterson told him he bought with $3,600 in cash days earlier while using his mother's name.
With dyed hair and sporting a goatee, Peterson told the seller that his parents named him Jacquelyn Peterson in a "Boy Named Sue" thing, referring to the Johnny Cash song about a boy given a girl's name, Brocchini said.
Offering up detailed description of the early search for the pregnant Modesto woman, Brocchini told a packed courtroom that Scott Peterson's behavior was, in some instances, surprising.
Peterson said in early questioning that on Christmas Eve he had gone fishing in his new boat. He had planned to golf, but the chilly December temperatures changed his mind, Brocchini said he was told.
Peterson returned home about 4:30 p.m. His wife was nowhere to be found.
Brocchini arrived about 9:30 p.m. at the Peterson house after police were called. He searched the house and then Peterson's truck, he said, finding a .22-caliber handgun in the glove compartment.
Brocchini stuffed the gun in his pocket and later booked it as evidence.
Brocchini asked Peterson to submit to a gunshot residue test, to which he agreed. Peterson said he had last fired a gun a month earlier while hunting, but questioned whether exhaust from the boat's motor would show up on the test, the detective testified, adding that it would not.
The results of the test were not announced in court.
Officials have not said whether Laci Peterson died from a gunshot wound, but have indicated in court papers that she was killed inside her house.........
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Laci Peterson's husband talked about life as a widower, detective says
Laci Peterson's husband talked about life as a widower, detective says
Bill Melley, Associated Press
Published November 7, 2003 LACI08
MODESTO, Calif. -- The same day he bought a fishing boat that would provide his alibi when his pregnant wife vanished two weeks later, Scott Peterson told his mistress he was a widower planning his first Christmas alone, a police officer testified.
Detective Allen Brocchini, who launched the Christmas Eve investigation into Laci Peterson's disappearance, said Scott Peterson bought the boat Dec. 9 - the same day Fresno massage therapist Amber Frey later told the officer that she confronted Peterson about being married.
While Brocchini did not link the two events that happened that day, he provided the pieces of the puzzle prosecutors are assembling to show Peterson was plotting the demise of his wife weeks before he returned from his Dec. 24 fishing excursion and reported her gone.
Brocchini's testimony Thursday in the preliminary hearing revealed the details he gathered from the day Peterson claimed he was motoring his 14-foot skiff on San Francisco Bay to his arrest nearly four months later in San Diego.
Peterson was arrested driving a Mercedes convertible be bought for $3,600 cash, using his mother's name, ``Jacqueline Peterson.''
When asked about the peculiar name, he told the seller it was the name his parents gave him, Brocchini said.
In the first hours of the investigation, Peterson denied he was having an affair, Brocchini said. Peterson never told him about Frey.
On Dec. 30, Frey placed one of the hundreds of calls Modesto police received each day. Brocchini was watching a clerk type notes from the caller and decided to pick up the phone and handle the call himself.
The detective then drove 90 miles to Fresno to interview Frey, a single mother.
Frey said she met Peterson on Nov. 20 and he said he was single. But she later became suspicious and confronted him about three weeks later because she thought he was married.
``He said he lost his wife, this would be the first holiday he was without his wife,'' Frey told Brocchini.
Peterson called Frey on Christmas and the following three days, Brocchini said. At some point, he told her he was out of the country and would be able to spend more time with her after Jan. 25.
Frey began taping their phone conversations for police, and investigators tapped Peterson's phones for evidence.
Frey may testify later in the hearing that will determine whether the 31-year-old former fertilizer salesman is tried on charges of murdering his 27-year-old wife and unborn son. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The hearing will resume Wednesday.............
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Detective testifies to finding gun in Scott Peterson's truck
BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press Writer Thursday, November 6, 2003
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(11-06) 11:45 PST MODESTO, Calif. (AP) --
A Modesto Police detective who spent last Christmas Eve launching an investigation into Laci Peterson's disappearance testified Thursday that officers found a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun in Scott Peterson's pickup truck.
It was the first hint that Peterson, accused of killing his pregnant wife and unborn son, owned a weapon. But Modesto police detective Al Brocchini made no connection between the weapon and the death of pregnant substitute teacher Laci Peterson. Brocchini testified for 90 minutes Thursday on the sixth day of a hearing to determine if Peterson will stand trial for murder.
Brocchini, under questioning from Stanislaus County prosecutor Rick Distaso, also explained that as the Christmas Eve investigation began, Peterson denied having an extramarital affair and worried about his boss learning that he stored his boat in a company warehouse.
Before Brocchini's testimony, Peterson defense lawyer Mark Geragos told Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami that he recently discovered that the FBI conducted closed-circuit television surveillance of Peterson's home after his wife disappeared.
Geragos said he will subpoena the FBI for copies of the tape and seek a motion to dismiss charges against Peterson.
The 31-year-old former fertilizer salesman faces two counts of murder for the death of his wife and unborn son. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Brocchini said he arrived at the Peterson house on Covena Avenue about 9:30 p.m. Dec. 24, about four hours after Laci Peterson's stepfather Ron Grantski reported her missing to police.
The detective described Scott Peterson as cooperative, saying the fertilizer salesman never told him to leave or get out of his house.
Brocchini also recounted writing down all the phone numbers in Peterson's cellular phone log and taking pictures of Peterson's boat stored at a warehouse. He said the boat contained two fishing poles, a lifejacket, a homemade boat anchor consisting of cement poured into a bucket and yellow-handled pliers.
Much of the Peterson's preliminary hearing has focused on a single piece of human hair wrapped in the pliers, which prosecutors maintain was a hair from Laci Peterson.
Brocchini also described Peterson's remarks about a bucket and mop that have dominated testimony in recent days. He said Peterson told officers that his wife asked him to bring the mop bucket into the house before he left on a fishing trip to Berkeley Marina on the morning of Christmas Eve. He said Peterson said his wife was mopping floors when.........
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Peterson allegedly said wife died
Peterson allegedly said wife died
Detective says husband made claim before woman was killed
MODESTO, Calif., Nov. 6 — Two weeks before his wife was murdered, Scott Peterson told his mistress that his wife was already dead and that he was about to spend his first Christmas without her, the lead detective in the case testified Thursday.
Scott Peterson, asked whether police ‘had used cadaver dogs to search for Laci. I said, “No, I hadn’t considered her dead yet.” I was kind of surprised he asked that.’
— AL BROCCHINI Modesto police detective PETERSON TOLD the woman, Amber Frey, that “he had lost his wife and this would be his first holiday without his wife,” Modesto police Detective Al Brocchini said during the seventh day of a preliminary hearing on charges that Peterson murdered his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son.
The detective said he later learned that Scott Peterson called Frey daily starting Christmas Day, the day after Laci Peterson disappeared.
Frey “heard from him on the 25th, the 26th, the 27th and the 28th, and he said he was out of the country and would be able to be with her more around January 25,” Brocchini said.
Frey, who is expected to testify next week, taped many of the conversations, Brocchini said. It was a day of revealing testimony in a hearing dragged out by delays and painstakingly detailed DNA testimony. Brocchini also testified that when he searched Peterson’s pickup truck for clues late Christmas Eve, he founded a loaded gun in the glove compartment.
The detective offered no suggestion that the gun, a Llama .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun with no round in the chamber and a magazine loaded with live ammunition, had recently been used.
But Brocchini said Peterson called him on his cell phone at 2 a.m. Christmas Day wanting the gun back. “He said he wished I’d told him I kept the gun for evidence,” Brocchini said. “I responded it was illegal to have a loaded gun in his glove box and I was going to put it into evidence.”
Scott Peterson, 31, then asked Brocchini “if they had used cadaver dogs to search for Laci,” Brocchini added. “I said, ‘No, I hadn’t considered her dead yet.’ I was kind of surprised he asked that.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
And if he waives his right to a speedy trial, how long must we wait???
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