Testimony in Peterson trial leads to a mistrial request
By Daily Press staff
SM AIRPORT — It’s too big to fit inside a new aviation museum here, and too important not to be left out. That’s why officials plan to park a DC-3 airplane on Airport Avenue as a monument to Santa Monica’s flying heritage.
Elected leaders on Tuesday accepted the historic gift from David G. Price, chairman of the board of the Museum of Flying. The DC-3 to be given to City Hall was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company at the Santa Monica Airport in 1942.
About 1,000 DC-3s are known to exist worldwide. The important plane made commercial air travel affordable and accessible to a vast majority of the public. Some 13,000 DC-3 were built by Douglas, beginning in 1935. A DC-3 is still used to deliver mail to Catalina Island twice a day.
Price first offered to donate the DC-3 to City Hall in September 2003. The DC-3 has been part of the museum’s collection, but the new museum, to be located at Hangar 33 Donald Douglas Loop North, is not large enough to display it.
“The Douglas Aircraft Company DC-3 is one of the most influential aircraft in the history of aviation and is routinely ranked as one of the top-10 most important aircraft of all time,” reads a report prepared by airport manager Bob Trimborn and Jeff Mathieu, City Hall’s director of resource management department. “The aircraft spawned the birth of the modern commercial air transportation system and was instrumental in the success of the Douglas Aircraft Company.” Photo courtesy The historic DC-3 is still used to fly mail to Catalina Island twice a day.
REDWOOD CITY — Acrumpled throw rug, a wet mop, dirty towels. The items seemed out of place to police in the otherwise tidy household Laci Peterson kept.
But there was something else that struck one of the first officers at the scene: Scott Peterson’s alibi.
Peterson told Modesto authorities he’d been fishing alone on San Francisco Bay, but couldn’t say what he drove all that way on Christmas Eve morning to catch.
Modesto police added up the out-of-place items and Peterson’s story and deemed the scene suspicious, a pair of officers testified at Peterson’s capital murder trial Monday. A detective was soon called.
Their recollections dribbled out in a heated day of testimony that included a request for a mistrial, which the judge quickly denied.
Now in its third week, the case has entered the stage where lawyers joust over what the physical evidence may prove. The police investigation, prosecutors say, shows Peterson killed his wife — defense lawyers say authorities bungled it almost as soon as they responded to a report that Peterson had returned home to find his pregnant wife gone.
Two of the first officers to search the Petersons’ house in the following hours said Scott Peterson became agitated after they questioned him.
Modesto police officer Derrick Letsinger said Peterson “threw his flashlight down on the ground,” before mumbling a curse word.
Later, officer Matthew Spurlock testified, “I heard what sounded like a cuss word... it came through what sounded like gritted teeth.”
To this, defense attorney Mark Geragos loudly objected and the judge removed the jury from the courtroom.
Geragos said the claims did not appear in any police report and it was the first he heard them.
“It’s all of a sudden fabricated,” Geragos told Judge Alfred A. Delucchi, his voice pitched.
Under state law, he said, such revelations must be turned over to the defense prior to testimony.
“It’s nothing but a cheap shot,” Geragos replied angrily, “a never-ending series of cheap shots by this prosecution.”
Prosecutor Rick Distaso tried to interrupt, Geragos snapped back that he wanted to finish, and the judge admonished them to stop speaking over one another.
After asking that the testimony be stricken from the record, Geragos asked for a mistrial — a request greeted by an eruption of guffaws in the courtroom gallery.
“I don’t need laughter from the audience,” Geragos said, which he later referred to as the “peanut gallery.”
Delucchi denied Geragos’ mistrial motion and declined to strike the comments.
It was the angriest exchange yet in the double-murder trial of Peterson, who is charged with killing his wife in their home on or around Dec. 24, 2002. Police say he then dumped her body from his small boat into the San Francisco Bay on what he said was a solo fishing trip. His attorneys have asserted that someone else abducted Laci Peterson while she walked the dog.
The remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore nearly four months later, just miles from where Peterson claims he fished. Peterson, 31, could face the death penalty or life without parole if convicted.
Geragos continued hammering the officers, pointing out discrepancies in their stories.
Prosecutors have speculated that Peterson cleaned his kitchen after killing his wife. Though Letsinger said Monday that he didn’t smell bleach and didn’t notice any signs of a recent cleaning, he did say that he became suspicious after seeing the crumpled rug, dirty towels on the washing machine and a wet mop behind an otherwise “model home.”
Later, though, Spurlock said everything seemed in order.
“It appeared to be a normal house,” he said.
In another inconsistency, Spurlock said he was one of three officers who first entered the home, while Letsinger testified just he and Spurlock were first inside.
Geragos has charged police with conducting a sloppy investigation that focused too quickly on Peterson.
Under fierce questioning from Geragos, Letsinger acknowledged that police did not test the home that night with Luminol — a chemical that can detect unseen traces of blood and body fluids.
Letsinger said a crime scene technician didn’t have what he needed to do those tests.
Spurlock said that what made him suspicious was Peterson’s story.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 16, 2004. Read the original PDF.