REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Scott Peterson was not experiencing money problems and stood to gain more financially if his pregnant wife remained alive, a defense witness testified Tuesday at his murder trial.
Martin Laffer, a certified public accountant and former Internal Revenue Service investigator, testified Tuesday that the Petersons appeared to be in good financial shape.
Laffer said Peterson was paying $1,300 a month toward the mortgage on the couple’s home, $50 more than the minimum required payment.
Prosecutors have suggested that aside from Peterson’s affair as a motive for murder, he hoped to gain from a $250,000 life insurance policy taken out on Laci Peterson more than a year before she vanished.
Prosecutors have tried to portray the couple as being in financial straits. An auditor who testified previously for the prosecution said the couple had about $210,000 in debt, including their home mortgage.
During cross-examination of Laffer on Tuesday, prosecutor Dave Harris noted the Petersons had been selling jewelry at pawn shops in the weeks before Laci vanished.
“Just the fact that somebody’s selling something doesn’t mean they need money,” Laffer said.
Laffer testified Monday that while Peterson’s startup fertilizer business was struggling, the parent company had assumed all debt and in fact had planned to lose money the first four years.
He also said that Laci Peterson was set to inherit part of $2.4 million from the estate of her grandparents, including part of $480,000 from the sale of their home. She had already inherited about $100,000 in jewelry after her grandmother’s death.
Laffer added that Peterson would have benefited from the inheritance only if Laci were still alive and the two were married. The money is now being split between two of Laci’s siblings, he said.
Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his pregnant wife, Laci, on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then dumped her body in San Francisco Bay. The bodies of Laci Peterson and the fetus she carried washed up about four months later, a few miles from where Peterson claims to have been fishing alone the day his wife vanished.
Defense lawyers claim someone else abducted and killed Laci, then dumped the body in the bay to frame Peterson after learning of his widely publicized alibi.
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