Richard Alex Jacobs
Posted on 07/14/2004 5:35:38 AM PDT by runningbear
A BLOODY BAD DAY FOR SCOTT AT TRIAL
A BLOODY BAD DAY FOR SCOTT AT TRIAL
By HOWARD BREUER
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July 14, 2004 -- REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A Modesto detective yesterday offered up the first pieces of physical evidence in Scott Peterson's slay trial — a single hair wrapped around needle-nosed pliers in his fishing boat and drops of blood in his truck. DNA analysis showed the hair was probably from Peterson's dead wife, Laci, who disappeared Dec. 24, 2002, the same day her husband says he went fishing.
Detective Henry Dodge Hendee, testifying on the 22nd day of the trial, said bloodstains were found on the steering wheel and driver-side door handle of Scott's truck. Sources later told The Post tests show some of the blood is Scott's.
Peterson is accused of killing Laci, who was eight months' pregnant, in the couple's Modesto home, weighing down her body with homemade concrete anchors and then dumping it in San Francisco Bay.
Her corpse and that of her fetus were found washed up on shore the following April.
In presenting what little physical evidence the cops have in the case, Hendee also testified about chips of cement found on the bottom of a trailer in Peterson's warehouse, hinting they could have been remnants of the anchors.
The detective described photos showing Peterson's boat trailer, shop-vacuum and a pair of Nike tennis shoes in the warehouse that were covered with a white, powdery residue. .........
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Focus on Concrete Evidence in Peterson Case
Focus on Concrete Evidence in Peterson Case
Scott Peterson is accused of killing his wife Laci and her unborn child.
Simon Perez
Watch the Video
The prosecution in the Scott Peterson trial focused on concrete evidence Tuesday.
The homemade cement weights were found inside Scott Peterson's warehouse, which prosecutors have suggested he used to hold Laci Peterson's body at the bottom of San Francisco Bay.
Also discovered in the warehouse was a hair in a pair of pliers. Experts have said that the hair likely belonged to Laci Peterson, who disappeared on Christmas Eve two years ago. She was eight months pregnant with the couple's first child.
The prosecution went on and on Tuesday, asking questions of just how the detectives collected evidence. To lay observers it appeared tedious, but to the experts, the lengthy questioning had a purpose -- to ward off a potential attack from defense attorney Mark Geragos, who's expected to blame police for sloppy work all along the investigation.
"There's been so many attacks on the lack of professionalism of the police, that this gives a chance to show that the police went about things very methodically and very competently," said UCSF law professor Robert Talbot..........
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Cops found blood stains in Peterson's truck
No mention of whose it might have been, however
Cops found blood stains in Peterson's truck
No mention of whose it might have been, however
By Diana Walsh and Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
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Police who searched Scott Peterson's pickup truck after his wife disappeared found several stains that they suspected were blood, a detective testified today at Peterson's double-murder trial.
Modesto police Detective Henry Dodge Hendee said investigators found the stains during an extensive forensic search of the truck three days after Peterson's wife, Laci Peterson, was reported missing Dec. 24, 2002. Hendee said the stains were located on the driver's side door, the steering wheel and the tool box.
Hendee, who was responsible for collecting evidence from the truck, testified that some of the stains tested positive for blood, but did not say which. He also did not say whose blood the stains may have matched......
Evidence given in Peterson case
Detective testifies hair was found
Evidence given in Peterson case
Detective testifies hair was found
By Brian Skoloff, Associated Press | July 14, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Prosecutors yesterday presented their first piece of physical evidence in Scott Peterson's murder trial -- a single strand of dark hair found on a pair of pliers and believed to be from his pregnant wife.
Detective Henry Hendee testified that he noticed the hair while collecting items from the warehouse where Peterson stored a 14-foot boat.
During Peterson's preliminary hearing, specialists testified that a DNA analysis indicated that the hair probably came from Laci Peterson, but the defense has not conceded that point.
Prosecutors say Peterson killed his wife in their Modesto home around Dec. 24, 2002, trucked the body to San Francisco Bay in a large tool box, and dropped it overboard from the boat.......
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Thief seen conning Peterson neighbors in days before Laci's disappearance
Richard Alex Jacobs
Thief seen conning Peterson neighbors in days before Laci's disappearance
(Court TV) — A petty career criminal was seen harassing neighbors of Laci and Scott Peterson around the time she disappeared, according to documents obtained by Court TV's Catherine Crier.
Richard Alex Jacobs — whose rap sheet for drugs, theft and fraud dates back to 1977 — was conning residents in the Petersons' Modesto, Calif., neighborhood on Dec. 23 and 24, 2002, the day Laci disappeared, according to police reports.
Jacobs allegedly knocked on the doors of two Peterson neighbors claiming he was stranded and in search of gas money.
The small-time con was one in a string of petty crimes that took place in the area of generally well-to-do families around the time of the 27-year-old's disappearance. Police discovered her remains and those of her unborn son, whom she planned to name Conner, in April 2003 in the San Francisco Bay..........
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Jury told of weights, hair, blood spots
Jury told of weights, hair, blood spots
By GARTH STAPLEY
and JOHN COTÉ
BEE STAFF WRITERS
Last Updated: July 14, 2004, 05:00:23 AM PDT
REDWOOD CITY -- Testimony in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial centered Tuesday on collection of crucial evidence: blood, hair and concrete.
The blood, jurors already had been told, came from the defendant and not his pregnant wife, murder victim Laci Peterson; the hair might have been hers; and authorities suggested her husband forgot to clean up after making concrete weights to sink her body in San Francisco Bay.
Today, Peterson's lead attorney, Mark Geragos, is expected to ask the judge to dismiss the charges against the 31-year-old Modesto man because of what the defense contends are prosecution errors. Jurors, unaware of the likely battle that will take place outside their presence, were told to show up after lunch.
Central to Modesto police Detective Dodge Hendee's testi- mony Tuesday was his account of collecting samples from dark spots in Peterson's Ford F-150 pickup soon after Laci Peterson was reported missing on Christmas Eve 2002. He thought the spots might be blood, he said.......
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20 disciplined for falsifying survey
20 disciplined for falsifying survey
By MELANIE TURNER
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: July 14, 2004, 05:00:23 AM PDT
Twenty students in a criminal justice course at California State Univers-ity, Stanislaus, cheated on a survey related to Scott Peterson's double-murder trial, school investigators have found.
All 20 have been disciplined. Five others hired lawyers and so far have refused to talk to Jim Klein, interim dean of the College of Arts, Letters and Sci-ences, said Stacey Morgan-Foster, vice president for student affairs.
In all, there were 58 students in the fall 2003 course taught by Professor Stephen Schoenthaler.
A survey conducted in Schoenthaler's class showed that bias against Peterson, accused of killing his wife and unborn son, was significantly higher around Modesto than in the Bay Area and Southern California. The survey was a factor in a judge's decision to move the trial to San Mateo County..........
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(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Pinging....
Pinging....
Pinging....
...still shaking head in amazement at the four cell phones, Viagra, and 'other' survival gear found in the car.
Sadly, I think that although any reasonable person would conclude that he is probably guilty, he will not be convicted as the belief is that circumstantial evidence in this case is not compelling.
I don't like it, but I am preparing for the possibility of acquittal.
I haven't kept up with the Peterson trial..
what's the jury like???
I don't know who is on the jury, but I have been watching enough to learn that the prosecution doesn't have much. There are 2 hairs, 2 blood spots, a dry mop that was outside for 2 days although the bucket was damp, the fact that the dog didn't bark to protect Laci, the anchor molds and dust (as noted above) and Amber Frey's testimony that he was a lying jerk and indicated that he was a widower or about to become a widower (which would kind of make her the motive). It's also controversial as to whether the baby was born and then killed. No one has proposed that he gutted the baby from her womb and then strangled it.
This doesn't sound like an OJ jury to me..
I think if they are given a good case and sufficient evidence, even circumstantial, they will convict.
You may be right. My instincts tell me he did it. However, they need evidence. Scott's blood in his car doesn't mean much. It actually supports his case that he was fishing. Now if it was Laci's blood ...
Yeah, that case doesn't sound strong enough to convict.
I'm banking they have more because I think the bast*rd did it.
I agree with you. I am just anticipating the most likely outcome. I hope I am wrong and that they do have more and will convict him.
"I think if they are given a good case and sufficient evidence, even circumstantial, they will convict."
The evidence so far is really weak, imho. Just because the guy is a lying, cheating, jerk doesn't make him guilty. Reasonable doubt is written all over the evidence.
Yes, I think many people think that he did it but what I am hoping for is the same as you: that there is more evidence and that he will be convicted.
This makes be believe that the evidence is quite relevant.
As for me, the most convincing arguments involve the timeline and the location of the bodies, supported by a slew of other tidbits (the blinds, her clothes, the lies, the slips of tongue, the hair, Geragos's behavior, etc.) which in combination add up to a convincing case.
Yup..
even I wouldn't convict him...YET!
Unless they come up with something more than a hair or two I agree with you, no responsible jury will send someone to their death on only that even if they believe like most of us he's guilty.
[Perp's] mom had sex with defense lawyer
Hope Geragos and Jackie don't hear about this.
Thanks for the ping, runningbear!
Soon we'll hear what this morning's double-secret hearing was all about.
One of the articles you posted stated, "Some of the blood was Scott's."
"SOME of the blood??"
LOL!! But they're so perfect for each other!!
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