Featured Fact: Scott's Boat page 2
3.
Scott's search for a boat is clearly motivated by an intent to go fishing, not dump a body.
The prosecution implied in their opening statement and in the questioning of witnesses that Scott's boat was inappropriate and not equipped for fishing.
On Saturday, December 7th at 4:41pm, Scott logged onto ModBee.com (the web-site for the Modesto newspaper) and searched the classifieds for boats. This computer search was submitted as exhibits People's 179 A-F, Peoples 179 G-U, People's 180, and People's 183 A-B. Click below to view the exhibits.
Scott looked at three boats and ended up purchasing the third boat listed above from Bruce Peterson (no relation). In addition to the 15 horsepower motor, the 14' game fisher was equipped with the following fishing gear:
Bruce Peterson testified that he used the boat for fishing, and the prosecution's expert fishing witness, Angelo Cuanang, also testified that the boat was equipped for fishing. On Sunday, December 8th, Scott made arrangements to purchase the fishing boat and returned on Monday morning to pay for the boat. As you can see from the ads, Scott could have had the same size boat for less money or a bigger boat for less money. If his intent was to dump a body, a bigger boat would have been better, a cheaper boat would have been fine, and he certainly wouldn't have needed a fish finder or fishing seats getting in the way.
He paid more money for a boat equipped for fishing because he was buying a fishing boat, not a body dumping boat.
4.
Scott never had the boat in the water before December 24th, 2002.
Also, Detective Hendee testified in court that he wanted to attempt a reenactment of a weighted body being dumped out of the boat, but neither the police nor prosecution ever tried. The video below is the unsuccessful reenactment attempted by Scott's defense. The judge did not allow the jury to see it.
Another unsuccessful attempt was made by trial watcher, Phil Devan. His weighed down dummy floated when it was pitched overboard. A third unsuccessful experiment was shown on Court TV. In that video the "Scott" lost his balance and fell into the water. Unfortunately, these two videos are no longer available to watch on the internet.
There is no evidence that Scott tried to keep the boat a secret. Testimony showed that Scott and Laci routinely made purchases and decisions that extended family members were not aware of. It had only been fifteen days since they bought the boat, it would be expected that not many people would be aware of it.
When Scott purchased the boat from Bruce Peterson (no relation), he paid cash. Scott did not pay cash to hide the transaction; Scott paid cash because Bruce asked to be paid in cash. Scott withdrew the $1400 from his joint checking account with Laci. Also, Scott did not try to hide his identity from Bruce or the DMV. Scott gave accurate information to Bruce including his home address. This information was filed with the DMV on 12-9-02. Another boat Scott looked at on December 8th was not registered with the DMV, so Scott decided not to purchase it.
Additionally, Scott had told the police that Laci knew about the boat and that she had been to the warehouse on December 20, 2002. Detective Brocchini was told about an eye witness who confirmed seeing Laci at the warehouse (where the boat was stored). When he heard about this witness in August of 2003, he purposely left it out of his police report. While under oath during the trial, he admitted to excising the information from his police report and acknowledged that he did not think it had been reported by any other officer. This woman later confirmed that Laci was at the warehouse on December 20, 2002. This situation confirmed that Scott was once again being truthful and the police were being deceptive.
Scott never lied to anyone about having a boat. He discussed buying a boat with his friends, he used his own name to purchase the boat, and took the money out of a joint account with his wife. He immediately told the police on Christmas Eve that he'd been fishing and took them to his warehouse to show them the boat.
So the prosecution's statement that 'nobody knew about' the boat was a lie and to call the boat a 'secret purchase' was inaccurate.
Scott told the police he used a painter's bucket to form the anchor and inserted a rebar loop in the concrete to tie a rope to. Scott said after he made the anchor, he used the remaining concrete next to his driveway. Even though Scott had told the police what he made the anchor in, they theorized he made it in a pitcher found at the warehouse.
It's not shown in these pictures, but the anchor has an indentation in the bottom from the bucket it was made in. The pitcher does not have an indentation. The anchor is smaller in circumference than the pitcher and the angle of the pitcher does not match the angle of the anchor. It took a concrete expert to tell the police that the above anchor did not come out of the pitcher pictured below. The police later found a painters bucket at Home Depot that the anchor fit into - exactly like Scott said
The prosecution said in their opening statement that, "there was no rope or no chain or nothing in the boat that can be used to attach to (the) anchor". Contrary to that statement, Detective Brocchini testified that there was a rope in the boat.
When the police asked Scott why he didn't just buy an anchor, Scott cited the cost difference - $30.00 for an anchor, $3.00 for a bag of cement (which he already had left over). The police later found a piece of paper with a phone number and '$30.00' written on it. When police called the number, it was a boating store. The officer asked, "What do you sell for $30.00?" The clerk said they had anchors for $30.00. Another example of the police stumbling on the fact that Scott was telling the truth.
Phelps, a competitor of Scott's told the police that he had seen fence posts and concrete on Scott's trailer in September. Greg Reed, Scott's friend, told police that Scott had been doing concrete work in his yard in September. Eric Olson, Scott's employee, testified he saw a partial bag of concrete in warehouse mid November or early December.
Scott's computer showed he budgeted for (10) 60 pound bags of concrete for his September fence work (Exhibit D7A-2). After Scott's fence was complete, he returned three unused bags of concrete to Lowe's on November 1, 2003. Eric testified to seeing the partial bag of cement in the warehouse after the fence was complete. A partial bag would mean that it contained less than 60 pounds of concrete. From that partial bag, Scott made one 8 pound anchor and over 22 pounds of concrete was collected from next to the driveway. That's over 30 pounds of concrete accounted for from this partial bag. That doesn't leave enough concrete to make 32 pounds of alleged anchors. There is no evidence that Scott bought any other concrete, rebar or multiple buckets for forms, and there is no evidence that Scott made additional anchors.
The prosecution alleged that Scott made four more anchors, attached them to Laci's body, wrapped her in a tarp and dumped her body out of his boat. The prosecution offered no scientific evidence in court as to whether or not this would be sufficient weight to submerge her body. This is probably because the San Francisco medical examiner told the police during their investigation that it was not likely that 30 pounds of weight would submerge 153 pounds, especially with the added buoyancy of a tarp. Also, one would have to ask why Scott would make five anchors. Why would he make four to hopefully sink his wife's body and then leave one in his boat as evidence?
These 10 facts further show the lack of evidence against scott, how truthful he was with the police, and how the police, prosecution and media misrepresented the evidence. Thank you for staying informed and reading this article. Please contact us if there's any further information you'd like to see covered pertaining to this topic
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