Scott Peterson Pleads Innocent to Murder Charges

[Walter Cronkite]

Scott Peterson pleaded innocent Wednesday to charges of murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn son.
It was the second time that Peterson, 31, has answered the charges that could send him to death row. He first denied the accusations after his arrest in April. A judge decided last month there was enough evidence for prosecutors to take the case to trial, so Peterson was arraigned again.

Judge Al Girolami was expected to set a trial date and schedule a series of hearings for the defense to challenge wiretaps, the use of devices that tracked Peterson and cadaver-sniffing dogs used to search for Laci Peterson's scent in the boat her husband said he took fishing the day she vanished.

The defense said it would seek to move the trial out of Stanislaus County because of extensive news coverage. Last month, the judge asked both sides to research whether a jury could be selected in neighboring San Joaquin County and bused to the courthouse each day for trial.

Defense lawyer Mark Geragos, who is simultaneously representing Michael Jackson, also wants prosecutors to return Peterson's pickup truck.

In court papers, prosecutors said they don't want to release the 2002 Ford pickup because they believe it was used in the murder. Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton said he wants jurors to view the pickup truck as part of the crime scene because it was used to haul Laci Peterson's body to her husband's fertilizer warehouse and then to San Francisco Bay.

The defense wants the truck returned to Peterson's family because he faces mounting legal bills and continues to pay $643 in monthly auto payments.

Laci Peterson, 27, a substitute teacher who was eight months pregnant with the couple's first child, was reported missing Christmas Eve when her husband returned from a purported fishing trip at the Berkeley Marina. Her remains and her fetus washed ashore a few miles from the marina in April.

The revelation in the court papers is noteworthy because prosecutors never previously indicated that Scott Peterson was wounded during or after the killing and they have never stated where Laci Peterson was killed.

The mention that her body was trucked to Peterson's warehouse indicates she was probably killed at the couple's home, explaining why lawyers grappled at the preliminary hearing over a mop and bucket used to clean up the kitchen area in the couple's house.
During a preliminary hearing that included 11 days of testimony, prosecutors never said where they believed Laci Peterson was killed, how she was killed, when she was killed or why she was killed.

The charges Scott Peterson faces say his wife was killed on Dec. 23 or Dec. 24. Authorities believe her body was weighted down and tossed into in the bay.

Brazelton said in the court papers that cement-like material was found in the bed of the pickup truck. A detective at the preliminary hearing said there was evidence Peterson fashioned several cement anchors using a bucket in his warehouse, but only one of those anchors was found in his boat.

Source: The AP