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American Morning

Peterson Hearing

Aired October 31, 2003 - 8:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's turn now to the situation -- the Laci Peterson case in Modesto, California. And Rusty Dornin is out there. She's been covering that as that preliminary hearing continues, the pretrial hearing. And we'll turn it over to her right now.
And a lot of focus right now on the so-called mitochondrial DNA, Rusty, and the focus on the possibility of finding a hair of Laci Peterson's inside Scott Peterson's boat. What is the significance of that?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think prosecutors are going to try to prove that Scott Peterson carried Laci Peterson's body in that boat before he dumped her in the bay. An interesting thing, Miles, is last February, Brent Rocha, Laci Peterson's brother, told me that the family had no idea that Scott Peterson had bought that boat.

He apparently bought it in early December, around December 10th. And they were convinced that Laci also did not know that boat exists. Now, prosecutors might be able to use that to say that she had never been inside that boat.

Now, a forensics expert for the defense claims that well, you know, there could be trace hairs, things like that, that get on people's clothing, and that possibly even Scott could have had this hair on his clothing and gotten into the boat. But necessarily Laci would not have had to have been in the boat.

The defense could also argue that she was his wife and no one may have known that he told her about the boat, and that he did take her out to see it and she did get in the boat. So there's going to be a lot of arguing back and forth whether alive Laci Peterson was in that boat. And her hair in those pliers is going to be a part of that argument.

O'BRIEN: Rusty, what next? What are we going to see on the witness stand next?

DORNIN: Well, you know, for two days we've been hearing testimony from the FBI DNA expert about that hair. This argument is not over yet. On Monday, Mark Geragos, the defense, is going to bring in his own defense forensics expert to talk about mitochondrial DNA and try to blow holes in the argument that it's a reliable science.

Meantime, we are expecting the housekeeper for Laci and Scott Peterson to testify this morning, Margarite Nave (ph). And she's going to testify through a translator possibly about the condition of the house in the days before Laci Peterson disappeared. And also perhaps about Laci's condition.

Was she able to move around? Did she like to sit down a lot? That may have to do with how long of a walk she may have taken. So this is a woman who may have seen Laci Peterson a lot in the last few days of her life.

O'BRIEN: Rusty Dornin in Modesto, thanks very much.






Aired October 31, 2003 - 8:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's turn now to the situation -- the Laci Peterson case in Modesto, California. And Rusty Dornin is out there. She's been covering that as that preliminary hearing continues, the pretrial hearing. And we'll turn it over to her right now.
And a lot of focus right now on the so-called mitochondrial DNA, Rusty, and the focus on the possibility of finding a hair of Laci Peterson's inside Scott Peterson's boat. What is the significance of that?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think prosecutors are going to try to prove that Scott Peterson carried Laci Peterson's body in that boat before he dumped her in the bay. An interesting thing, Miles, is last February, Brent Rocha, Laci Peterson's brother, told me that the family had no idea that Scott Peterson had bought that boat.

He apparently bought it in early December, around December 10th. And they were convinced that Laci also did not know that boat exists. Now, prosecutors might be able to use that to say that she had never been inside that boat.

Now, a forensics expert for the defense claims that well, you know, there could be trace hairs, things like that, that get on people's clothing, and that possibly even Scott could have had this hair on his clothing and gotten into the boat. But necessarily Laci would not have had to have been in the boat.

The defense could also argue that she was his wife and no one may have known that he told her about the boat, and that he did take her out to see it and she did get in the boat. So there's going to be a lot of arguing back and forth whether alive Laci Peterson was in that boat. And her hair in those pliers is going to be a part of that argument.

O'BRIEN: Rusty, what next? What are we going to see on the witness stand next?

DORNIN: Well, you know, for two days we've been hearing testimony from the FBI DNA expert about that hair. This argument is not over yet. On Monday, Mark Geragos, the defense, is going to bring in his own defense forensics expert to talk about mitochondrial DNA and try to blow holes in the argument that it's a reliable science.

Meantime, we are expecting the housekeeper for Laci and Scott Peterson to testify this morning, Margarite Nave (ph). And she's going to testify through a translator possibly about the condition of the house in the days before Laci Peterson disappeared. And also perhaps about Laci's condition.

Was she able to move around? Did she like to sit down a lot? That may have to do with how long of a walk she may have taken. So this is a woman who may have seen Laci Peterson a lot in the last few days of her life.

O'BRIEN: Rusty Dornin in Modesto, thanks very much.