Redwood City, Calif. — It was circumstantial evidence that led jurors to decide that Scott Peterson murdered his wife. They agreed it was premeditated, first-degree murder even though prosecutors did not prove where, how or exactly when Laci was killed.
The jury did so, legal analysts said, because of the cumulative weight of all the circumstantial factors that pointed to Peterson -- not least his alibi about going fishing in San Francisco Bay the day Laci Peterson disappeared from her home in Modesto, more than 85 miles away.
When her body and that of her fetus turned up four months later not far from the marina where Peterson launched his brand-new boat, that alibi became some of the strongest evidence against him.
"Just the fact that her body was found in a place where he put himself -- that alone is overwhelming evidence," said Pete Kossoris, a retired attorney who prosecuted murder cases for 27 years.
Kossoris said the defense didn't present a "reasonable alternative" to the prosecution's theory of the case.
"They had no possible other suspect, no other reasonable explanation that her body was found so many miles from home," Kossoris said. "You could postulate that he was framed, but there's no evidence of that -- and who the heck would want to frame him?"
Jurors remain under the judge's gag order until the sentencing phase is complete. They will return later this month to begin deliberating whether Peterson should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.
Aphrodite Jones, a crime writer, holds up a special edition of the Redwood City Daily News after the announcement of a guilty verdict in the Scott Peterson case Friday in Redwood City, Calif.
Although Peterson did not testify, the prosecution successfully characterized him as a liar and schemer -- a professional salesman who plotted to rid himself of his pregnant wife to return to the bachelor life. Along with a boat, Peterson bought a fishing license, and cement that prosecutors said was used to weight the body underneath the bay.
Given all that evidence, some wondered why jurors didn't decide that both killings were first-degree murder, which requires premeditation. Instead, they convicted him of second-degree murder in the death of the fetus Laci was carrying.
"The cement, the anchor, the alibi, the boat, the transport ... he must have been planning this for a long time," said Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School and an expert on the psychology of convicted murderers.
Peterson convicted of murders (11-13-04)
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