Defense Team Seeking Man Named 'Donnie' as Laci Peterson Murder Suspect

MODESTO, Calif. — New details have come to light about the person Scott Peterson's defense team says they believe could be responsible for the murder of his 8-months-pregnant wife, Laci Peterson (search).

The defense has revealed that it is searching for a man named "Donnie," with no known address and a possible tie to illegal drugs, including methamphetamines, Fox News has learned.

Peterson's attorneys say they're also still combing for signs of a brown van reportedly spotted in the area when Laci disappeared on Christmas Eve. They believe that Donnie and others are linked to the van.

Meanwhile, tensions escalated as battles over personal belongings continued this weekend between the Petersons and Laci's family, the Rochas. The latest squabble was apparently over Laci's wedding ring, which Scott Peterson wants back.

In an interview with Fox News, Rocha family attorney Adam Stewart said he was retained about two months ago by Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, to oversee the property matters in the case.

Rocha asked Stewart not to discuss the wedding ring details with Fox News. But Stewart did say that the Peterson family ignored the Rochas' repeated requests to go into Laci and Scott's Modesto (search) home to go through some of Laci's belongings.

The Rochas had a list of 22 items -- many of them of sentimental value, like her wedding dress and the crib for the unborn baby Conner -- that they wanted to retrieve.

But after her requests were ignored, she and the rest of the Rocha family grew frustrated --leading to their surprise visit on Friday to get the mementos they sought, Stewart told Fox News.

Against the advice of their attorney and unbeknownst to the defense, the Rochas arrived at the house Friday morning and left with several carloads of belongings -- including the crib, the dress, the rocking chair in the baby's room and other items.

"Sharon's objective, at the start of all this, was to get inside the home and look at her daughter's belongings," Stewart told Fox News. "She wanted to have that time. I think she would give back everything she has of Laci's to have that time."

The incident infuriated the Petersons and their lawyers. The battle between the two families played out at least partly in the media over the weekend.

After the anguished families clashed Friday over the Rochas' removal of personal items, a new tiff arose surrounding Laci's wedding ring -- which the Peterson family wants back, according to The Modesto Bee.

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June 2, 2003 -- Almost half of Americans believe life begins at the moment of conception, a new poll says. Forty-six percent say a fetus should be considered a person as soon as conception occurs.

Another 24 percent believe human life begins only when the fetus can survive outside of the womb. Just 11 percent believe life begins at birth, according to a Newsweek poll released yesterday.

(((if you are eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, might want to put it down before reading the NY Daily News article)))

Scott Peterson's parents accused their former in-laws of trespassing yesterday after Laci Peterson's family went into the couple's former home and took out truckloads of the dead woman's mementos.

The bizarre scene underscored simmering tensions between the families since Scott Peterson has been accused of murdering Laci Peterson and her unborn baby, Conner.

Laci Peterson's relatives entered the suburban Modesto home one day after lawyers hammered out a deal that would allow them to visit next week.

But Laci Peterson's family members and their friends arrived yesterday morning and began loading pickup trucks with furniture - including the white rocker Laci Peterson had planned to use to lull her baby to sleep - and boxes of goods.

Scott Peterson's attorneys were furious with Laci Peterson's relatives, including her mother, Sharon Rocha, accusing them of trespassing.

Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie Peterson, told the Bee, "I have a lot of empathy for Sharon but she does not have a right to go in our house and take what she wants."

Also yesterday, ABC's "Good Morning America" reported that it had obtained a copy of Laci Peterson's sealed autopsy report, which showed her ribs were broken, her maternity bra was torn or cut and a long strip of duct tape was found between what's left of her legs.

Laci Peterson's remains were found badly decomposed and her head, arms and parts of her legs were missing. But her torso has yielded some tantalizing clues of who killed her and her unborn son - and when.

Forensic experts say it's possible that if the duct tape had been used to bind her body before it was dumped into the San Francisco Bay, there's a chance the adhesive glue still bears the fingerprints of her killer.

"I don't know after three months in the water but I would not dismiss the possibility until I've checked it [for any prints]," said Dr. Werner Spitz, a forensic pathologist.

The report also said she had caffeine in her system. If the levels are high, and Laci Peterson had a habit of drinking coffee at a certain time of day, "that might tell you what time of the day this [slaying] occurred," Spitz said.

Laci Peterson's body washed ashore in Richmond, Calif., on April 14 - just a couple of miles away from where her husband, Scott Peterson, said he was fishing Dec. 24.

Cops believe Scott Peterson killed his pregnant wife in their home on Dec. 23 or 24 and then dumped her body while on his alleged fishing trip, according to a police document.

Scott Peterson, now charged in the murders of his wife and unborn son, says he is innocent.

ABC's story came a day after MSNBC reported the coroner's findings on Baby Conner's remains that showed that the infant's neck was wrapped in plastic tape.

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Moved by the Laci Peterson story, two songwriters 77 miles apart independently produced musical tributes to the slain Modesto woman and her unborn son, Conner. Although they do not know each other, both musicians said they were inspired by media reports of a May 4 public memorial in Modesto attended by about 3,000 people. Both songs draw heavily on images of mother and child safe and happy in heaven.

"Everyone has been moved by the events as they unfold," said Tony Handy, 50, of Oakland. "As the story went on, I wanted to get more involved."

The same goes for John Strand, 51, of Escalon, who said he wishes that he had been moved before the memorial service.

"You can't orchestrate inspiration," Strand said, "and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was inspired."

Strand's song, "Remembering Laci," is a piano ballad that can be heard on The Bee's Web site, modbee.com. Sprinkled throughout the piece are references to Conner and flowers.

Handy described his song, "Straight to Heaven," as a pop tune with strains of jazz and soul. Part of the chorus says, "Gone straight to heaven, where princess angels live on."

Strand, a guard at Deuel Vocational Institution near Tracy, composed "Song for America," a patriotic folk song, four days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Handy, an activist who has worked for nonprofit agencies, once wrote a tune about a high school student killed in Los Angeles, his hometown, when a classmate's gun accidentally discharged at school.

A Sacramento man was sentenced to one year in prison Friday for helping cover up the murder of a pregnant teenager.

During his sentencing, 21-year-old James Kaleo Ross apologized for his role in hiding the murder of Quinnisha Thomas. He said he decided to help in the crime because he was afraid of the accused gunman in the case, 17-year-old Deondre Terrell Hudson.

The body of Thomas, who was eight months pregnant, was discovered January 13 in Sojourner Truth Park in the Greenhaven area of Sacramento. She had been shot in the back of the head.

Prosecutors contend that Hudson, who was Thomas' boyfriend at the time, murdered the pregnant woman and her unborn child. They said Hudson and 20-year-old Kevin Duran Coleman then put Thomas' body in the trunk of Ross' car and disposed of it at the park while Ross remained in his car.

Hudson was purportedly angry about Thomas' pregnancy and worried it would hurt his goal of a career in rap music which he was pursuing with Ross and Coleman.

Laci And Connor, R.I.P.

http://www.americandaily.com/item/787

Laci Peterson was a young woman excitedly expecting her first child, a son named Connor, when she disappeared last Christmas. Laci’s life was filled with love and family and friends surrounded her. Life was good, no, better than good. Life was wonderful as would be expected when love is on the hearth and a new angel is about to make an entrance into this world.

But this miracle of new life was about to be shattered forever and on Christmas day the world would change for all those who loved her. Those little newborn nighties would never be worn, the crib never used, the toys all put away or thrown away, so tainted would they become by a most heinous act that would stun a nation and mortally wound a family’s heart.

Her husband, Scott, said he had gone fishing, some hours away and returned home to find the leashed dog but not Laci. Gone fishing? When they are expecting their first child, on Christmas Eve day, he goes fishing hours away? While this might be an acceptable behaviour when there have been many children born and birthing had become routine but this is far from normal behaviour when the child is the first and the mum-to-be so close to term. The last trimester was already underway and as many of us normal folk know, babies have a way of arriving when they are ready and not always mindful of an external schedule.

But Laci was never to birth her first son. Laci was brutally butchered and tossed into the sea on or near Christmas Day, a day celebrated for another birth of great significance in this world. Laci would never look into her babe’s eyes for the first time, her mother would never hold that beautiful grandchild and her father would never know a peaceful night’s sleep again, for Laci was murdered and I believe by her husband Scott.

I pay attention to body language and the way a person behaves can say so much more than anything else, especially what they might say with their mouths. I watched Scott and never once did I see a man who was distraught over the disappearance of his near-term pregnant wife. I never saw red-rimmed eyes, I never saw a trembling mouth on the verge of distortion that comes when tears are held back and I never saw concern in knitted eyebrows. Instead I saw smiles at the passing out of fliers, I saw a jaunty step, I saw a man unconcerned in his movements and I saw a man detached in his interactions with those even more concerned than he. This struck me as quite odd: a man who’s wife is missing so close to her delivery date was less involved than complete strangers in the community who had come out to search!

I also learned that Scott sold his wife’s car, put their house on the market almost immediately and bought himself a new truck. I ask you, would any person consumed by the disappearance of a loved one sell that loved one’s property? Did Scott know that Laci would never drive her car again or come home to her own house, a house I am sure was created inside by Laci, especially with attention to the nursery. I can easily see Laci fixing things up to make the home comfortable, decorating and of course, most recently, making a comfortable little nest of special consideration for her soon to be born little boy.

I have watched cable news and followed this story from the beginning. My heart breaks anew every time I see her parents and I can only imagine the hell they must be going through day after day after day. The latest “bombshell” (Rita Cosby, FNS) was from the most recently released autopsy of the baby, whose body had some plastic wrapped around its little neck. While the media has a shark-like feeding frenzy about how this would assist the defense’s case of blaming this crime on some satanic cult (sure), those of us who have ever fished in the ocean know full well that all kinds of detritus, namely in this case, plastic of some kind, comes up with the hook. Many of us have also seen the pictures of waterfowl that have become entangled in these types of strictures. The main reason I cut up the infrequent soda carrier is just because of these pictures, of ducks or geese with plastic loops wrapped around their beaks.

The defense attorneys are slick and slimy in their attempt to distract with idiotic and ridiculous stories to deflect attention from their client, a client who, I must add, was arrested with bleached hair, a phony i.d. and thousands in cash, very near the Mexican border. Now I don’t know about anyone else but I call these clues that point to flight and the innocent are less likely to do this than the guilty. I believe, in my heart, that Scott is guilty. I will give myself pause to make a final determination until I have seen the evidence at the trial but I will not give leave to far-fetched stories in the interest of being ‘fair’ to Scott Peterson, a man who was also having multiple affairs during his marriage.

The defense team first used the “I know who did it and will find the real killer” tactic that was used in the O.J. trial. Then they appealed to the “key witness” some as yet un-named woman who is supposed to know important information about this crime. Then they trotted out the satanic cult connection. What crap. What absolute and transparent garbage. At first the media laughed, as well they should. Then two days later they began to take these spurious claims seriously and I guess Marx was right: repeat a lie often enough and folks think it’s the truth. Worked for the Clintons, guess it might work here. This is what I have decided to call the guilty defense.

Not only were Laci and her child savaged by the killer, they are now being savaged by the media. Are ratings that important? Is Geragos (defense attorney) that craven for publicity and fee? What has happened to the law when lies are entered and justice is lost?

Laci and Connor are now in the arms of God, in the company of angels and watching all this unfold. I pray the murderer is haunted for the rest of his life. And I pray for courage and comfort for the family of this too-soon lost mother and child. There are two kinds of justice in this world: man’s, often dependent on who you know or how much money you have and then there is God’s justice… I know Who will, eventually, win and I rest in that truth for there is no rest in this macabre and morbid circus.

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