REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Scott Peterson was convicted Friday of murdering his pregnant wife and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay in what prosecutors in the made-for-cable-TV case portrayed as a cold-blooded plot to escape marriage and fatherhood for the bachelor life.
Peterson, 32, could get the death penalty. The former fertilizer salesman was convicted of one count of first-degree murder for killing his wife, Laci, and one count of second-degree murder in the death of the son she was carrying.
Peterson stared straight ahead with no show of emotion as the verdict was read, then looked at each of the jurors as they were polled to confirm their decisions. The jurors looked serious, and none appeared to look back at Peterson. Cheers broke out among the hundreds of onlookers who gathered outside court – some of them pumping their fists in celebration upon hearing the news on the radio.
Laci Peterson’s mother, Sharon Rocha, sobbed as the verdicts were read, and her son Brent wrapped his arm tightly around her. Laci’s friends in the gallery, arms around each other, cried. Sobs and loud sighs could be heard in the courtroom. After the jury was dismissed, prosecutor James Brazelton reached forward and patted the shoulder of the lead detective, whose testimony in the case proved pivotal.
The verdict came after a five-month trial that was an endless source of fascination to the tabloids, People magazine and the cable networks with its story of an attractive, radiant young couple awaiting the birth of their first child, a cheating husband, and a slaying for which prosecutors had no eyewitnesses, no weapon, not even a cause of death.
The verdict followed a tumultuous seven days of deliberations in which two jurors were removed for unspecified reasons and the judge twice told the panel to start over.
The jury of six men and six women was told to return Nov. 22 to begin hearing testimony on whether Peterson should die by lethal injection or get life in prison without parole. Peterson faces the death penalty because he was convicted of multiple murders.
Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher, was eight months pregnant when she vanished around Christmas Eve 2002. Four months later, her headless body and the remains of her fetus were found along the shoreline about 90 miles from the couple’s Modesto home – not far from where her husband claims he was fishing alone the day of her disappearance.
Peterson was soon arrested in the San Diego area, more than 400 miles from home, carrying nearly $15,000, his hair and goatee bleached blond.
Prosecutor Rick Distaso told the jury that Peterson could not stand the thought of being trapped in a “dull, boring, married life with kids,” and either strangled or smothered his wife and dumped her weighted-down body overboard from his fishing boat.
“He wants to live the rich, successful, freewheeling bachelor life. He can’t do that when he’s paying child support, alimony and everything else,” Distaso said. “He didn’t want to be tied to this kid the rest of his life. He didn’t want to be tied to Laci for the rest of his life. So he killed her.”
The jury heard how Peterson had bought a two-day ocean-fishing license days before his wife disappeared, yet claimed his fishing trip was a last-minute substitution for golf because of blustery weather. Prosecutors also offered evidence suggesting he used a bag of cement mix to make concrete anchors to sink his wife’s body into the bay.
In January, the trial was moved to Redwood City after defense attorneys argued Peterson had been demonized in his hometown of Modesto to the point that he couldn’t get a fair trial there.
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