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Prosecution: Laci Was Drugged And Strangled

POSTED: 7:18 a.m. PDT June 6, 2003
UPDATED: 7:21 a.m. PDT June 6, 2003

http://www.ktvu.com/news/2253590/detail.html

MODESTO, Calif. -- Police believe Scott Peterson drugged his pregnant wife with the growth hormone and date rape drug -- GHB -- and then strangled her in the couple's Modesto home, numerous sources revealed to KTVU Channel 2 on Friday.

Sources on both sides of the case told KTVU's Ted Rowlands that the prosecution's theory of the crime had been pieced together using information salvaged from a computer taken from the Peterson home.

The murder, one source said, was being classified as a 'soft kill' -- meaning there was very little evidence of the crime at the couple's home. The leaks came just hours before a series of hearings were take place in Modesto.

Weeks of courtroom maneuvering and spin control hurled toward a climax in those hearings into Christmas Eve murder of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner.

And like most major developments in the case, the day promised to be bigger than life. Not one, but two Stanislaus County Superior Court judges were scheduled to hash out a laundry list of legal items.

Among those will be whether a gag order will be issued by Judge Al Girolami to plug the leaks and out-of-the-courthouse rhetoric that has characterized the case for the last few weeks.

The judges will also decide if search and arrests warrants issued in the case and their supporting documentation would be released to the public and whether the district attorney's office should be removed from the case because of its handling of wire taps on Scott Peterson's phones.

The issue at the center of the dispute is whether or not prosecutors listened to any of the 69 phone calls tapped between Peterson and his Modesto attorney Kirk McAllister. Also intercepted were two calls between Peterson and a private investigator working for McAllister.

"They (the defense team) need to make the motion, it's the responsible thing for the defense to do at this point," Fox News legal expert Mark Garcia told KTVU. "The judge will not grant that request. It's clear that Kirk McAllister has been around the area for a long time. The defense investigators and prosecution both know him well…They know his voice."

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