DistasoAttempt

In this month's Featured Fact, we stated that no one, including the prosecution, has ever given a series of events that fits the circumstances and explains how Scott could have killed Laci. Following is an excerpt from the prosecution's closing argument in Scott's case. This is the only series of events the prosecution ever strung together in an attempt to explain how Scott killed Laci. We've analyzed the prosecution's timeline for you. We would suggest reading Distaso's arguments and then consider consider our assertions. Comments in red are from Defense attorney Mark Geragos' closing arguments. Additional comments are in green .

Prosecutor Rick Distaso in his closing arguments...

...It's very simple. The defendant strangled or smothered Laci Peterson the night of February, January, December 23rd, or in the morning while she was getting dressed on the 24th. I can't tell you when he did it. I can't tell you if he did it at night. I can't tell you if he did it in the morning. I'm not going to try to convince you of something that I can't prove. I don't have to prove that to you. I only have to prove that he did it. What did the doctor tell us about strangling and smothering? It's not going leave a bunch of evidence.

You've got no evidence of that. There's no evidence anywhere in that house she was strangled. And, remember, Karen Servas says she lives 15 feet away from that house. You've seen the pictures. 15 feet. Karen Servas was home that morning. Obviously there's a dispute as to what time she left, but Karen Servas was home. And she clearly was home, according to her, up until 10:18.

And I specifically asked her -- I don't know if you've got that handy, Raffi, but I specifically asked her -- and he'll try to find it -- did you hear anything that morning. And her answer was no.
So are you telling me that Laci Peterson, that somehow she gets up that morning, she puts on her bra, she puts on some kind of an outfit -- Scott describes it as a white shirt, black pants -- she puts on tennis shoes to go walk the dog, she starts to mop the floor, and Scott strangles her? And the next-door neighbor never hears her scream? And there's not a single mark on him, nothing -- nothing that would be consistent with a strangulation?

Remember this whole, went through all of this evidence. Where's the bloody crime scene? Remember what the doctor said? As crude as this sounds, and I hate to say it: If you don't put another hole in somebody, not going to get a big, bloody crime scene. It's just not going to happen. When he was ready to leave the house, he wrapped her up in that blue tarp. And I'm going to talk about that later.

The blue tarp. Remember the blue tarp. Let me explain something to you. The blue tarp was tested and there was no evidence on it.
Okay? But conjecture? Where is that -- where is the jury instruction that you're supposed to engage, once again, in conjecture, speculation, passion, prejudice?
This is what you're -- what you're tasked to do. So the blue tarp has got no evidence. We've got no evidence that she was smothered or strangled.

He backed up his truck to the gate. Take a look at the diagram. And you've seen the pictures so I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this. You back a truck up to the gate here at the house, and this is Laci's Land Rover parked right there. You back a truck up right there, you got, you got a fence and house on one side, you've got his house on the other side. Nobody can see a single thing that you're doing.

Why did no one see anything? Could it be because he didn't do anything?

He carries Laci out, he puts her in the back of the truck. Remember what he said he did that morning? He said he loaded a bunch of patio umbrellas into his car to take to the warehouse, which, of course, he never took to the warehouse that day because they were still in his car that night. He said he was doing that, Well, I'm doing it because of the rain. Of course, the patio umbrellas, here they are, and you can see how big they are, those full-size patio umbrellas, everybody's seen them. He says he took the patio umbrellas, they're folded up. He said he was going to take them to the warehouse and, because it was starting to rain. That's what he told the detectives. The real reason why he said that was because he wanted to have a reason why they were still in his truck all day. He loads Laci into his truck. He puts these patio umbrellas on top of her. She's got the tarp on her. No one is ever going to know what's going on. It's not that difficult to do.

Now, we've got this backed the truck up and carries Laci to the truck.

Well, Laci, if you believe them, was specifically a hundred and 53 pounds and would have been -- and I don't mean this facetiously, but would have been literally dead weight. And supposedly Scott is going to carry Laci, wrapped up in a blue tarp, into his truck in the front yard, which is -- and the truck is -- I believe you've got the measurements on one of the exhibits, is about 34, 35 inches tall, right here on me. And that's where the bed of the truck is. And so he would have loaded her in this. And supposedly he then puts the umbrellas on top, and then goes over to the warehouse and backs the truck into the warehouse.

This is not some big mystery. You know, I mean, look at this. We got cameras in the courtroom, we've got all these people out here as if we're here for some big murder mystery. We're not. It's a very simple case.

If it's a “very simple case”, then why can't Distaso tell us when he did it or how he did it? Why is there no evidence?

He puts Laci Peterson in the back of the car, he snaps the leash on the dog, and he leaves the gate open

Why would he leave the gate open? That would allow MacKenzi to put himself back in the yard.

and he drives away. And, you know, like most dogs, I have a dog, and probably a lot of you do, you put a leash on my dog he's going to say, Hey, we're going for a walk. He followed her out into the, he followed the truck out into the street as Scott Peterson drove on down the road. Of course, that's when Karen Servas found the dog, right as Scott Peterson went away.

According to the prosecution, Karen put the dog away at least 10 minutes after Scott left. Why would Scott risk somebody finding the dog, just as Karen did, and take the chance that whomever found the dog may start looking for Laci and Scott immediately? Had Karen Servis knocked on the Peterson door, the search for Laci very well could have started well before Scott left the warehouse.

The defendant drives to his warehouse, opens up the door, backs his truck into that open space.

What open space? There is no open space for Scott to back his truck into the warehouse. He would have had to have transferred the body with the warehouse door open and his truck in the parking lot.

I don't think I put a picture out for that, but that open space right where the boat was. He backs in, he unloads her into the boat,

Well, what would he have to do if he loaded Laci into the boat?
The first thing he would have to do is to take the umbrellas off. We never saw that demonstration… But if he took the umbrellas off, why wouldn't he just put them in the warehouse? Wouldn't that be the simplest thing to do, if he's just using the umbrellas to hide Laci until he gets over to the warehouse, take the umbrellas off, put them into the warehouse, and store them?
The reason why the umbrellas were still in there is because Laci was never in there.
Now, he loads Laci into the boat. Okay. So he loads Laci into the boat. Once again, the dead weight in this blue tarp and loads Laci into the boat. That's what they would have you believe. This hundred and 53 pounds .

he shuts the door. Now he can do whatever he wants. He puts her, she's in the boat.

Well, if that happens, then, what, Laci is dead and decomposing, and he then goes eight feet away into the office and gets on his computer?
Actually, he assembles the mortiser. While she's sitting there dead and decomposing, he assembles the wood mortiser.
This guy who they test, the FBI was trying to find out his entire background, Terry Scott went to San Luis Obispo, Grogan investigated his entire background. Nobody's ever found a crime or anything or ever voiced anything, nobody's ever found him to get into fights, nobody's ever found him to get violent, no female he's ever been with has said he's ever been violent any way, shape or form. This guy's never shown any kind of antisocial activity or behavior at any time in his entire life.
This guy, right over here, all of a sudden is such a absolute cold, calculating murderer that he takes his dead wife and child in a -- and puts them into the boat and then assembles his mortiser in his -- in his place?
That's what you have to believe, because the mortiser was assembled.
Then what he does, because that's not good enough, while she decomposes some more, he's got to go in and get on his computer, because Lydell Wall testified that from 10:30 to 10:56 he's on the computer. So you've got to believe that this guy is such an absolute maniac that he just put her in there, waited in there, and kept of her in there for virtually an hour into -- in the warehouse.

He attaches the weights to her. He gets, in the process he gets some of her hair caught in these pliers.

The hairs could be Laci's. Unlike DNA, mitochondrial DNA only eliminates potential sources. Laci was not eliminated as a potential source for the hair.
Then the hair pliers. I don't know -- they've got some theory that he put weights on the body with hair pliers. Well, where is there one whit of evidence anywhere that there were weights put or attached to this body?
How did her hair get on the pliers if she's wrapped in a tarp?

And let's talk about that. I'm going to talk about it a little more later, but just right out of the gate: Your hair does not fall into and wrap around the teeth of pliers. That doesn't happen.
How many of you sitting on this jury operate pliers on a regular basis, probably most people. Everybody uses needle-nose pliers for something. How many times does your hair fall into the pliers and wrap around through the jaws? That doesn't happen.

First off, there was no hair wrapped in the pliers. There were two hair fragments on the pliers – no roots. Secondly, a Department of Justice employee testified the pliers had not been used in months. (see testimony of Sara Yoshida ) Thirdly, there are multiple ways hair fragments could have gotten in the pliers. It's referred to as a secondary transfer. You cannot assume that because hair is in the pliers that the pliers pulled the hair from someone's head.

After he gets the weights attached, he puts the cover on the boat.

How long would this take to make the cover secure enough for freeway driving?

Here's what it looks like. You can't see into the boat with the cover on. Straps it down, just like Bruce Peterson said you can do. You just put some bungee cords, it's got those little hooks on the side. You guys are all going to able to see this in evidence. I'm not telling you anything that's not right here.

Bruce Peterson said the cover was for storing the boat, not towing .

He puts the bungee cords on, straps it down,

How did he attach the bungee cords to the trailer?

and he drives off to the Bay. Nobody can see a single thing that this man has done. And everything that he did that I just told you took probably about the length of time that I took to tell you, which is, what, maybe ten minutes?

Ten minutes!?! They have to say this because that is about all the time there is.

He drives out to the Bay, and, you know, everyone is thinking like, Well, gosh, he drives out to the Berkeley Marina, you know, in the middle of the day; boy, that's risky. Of course it's risky. It's risky to kill your wife. I'm not going to tell you it's not.
On the other hand, he drives out there on a day when there's no one around.

It's a holiday and he's going to a recreational area. How would Scott know whether or not there would be people around?

We're going to talk about that more at length. He backs his boat down in the trailer. He's got the cover on. He goes and puts the truck away. And then how hard is this? He takes the cover off the boat and stuffs it around her body.

Why is there no evidence on the boat cover? No cadaver scent?

So he uses the cover to cover up. Who is going to see that? Who is even going to suspect it? Who cares if somebody is driving out in the Bay with the cover stuffed in the boat? People do that probably all the time.
He drives out to Brooks Island. He dumps Laci out.

Did he curl her up between the seats with weights attached? Or was she stretched out over the benches? How would rigor mortise affect his ability to maneuver her body?

It takes him all of, what? He gets there at 12:54. We know from his cell phone records he's back at the marina at 2:12. So it takes him less than an hour. Probably 30, 40 minutes at the most. He drives home and reports her missing.

Technically, Ron Granski reports her missing while Scott is calling friends and neighbors looking for her.

Nothing mysterious or out of the ordinary or even anything about this case. It's simple.

Then why didn't the prosecution re-enact this “simple” crime?

It's a simple case where a man murdered his wife...

Distaso's Attempt

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