Carrie Archer

Witness for the Defendant:  Penalty Phase

December 6, 2004

Direct Examination by Pat Harris

HARRIS: Good afternoon, Carrie. We just met Bill Archer. That is your husband?

ARCHER: Yes, it is.

HARRIS: We heard him talk about the fact that you met in college, met while in San Luis Obispo. Were you in school then?

ARCHER: Yes, I was.

HARRIS: What were you majoring in?

ARCHER: Physical Education and Kinesiology.

HARRIS: And what have you done with basically your career at this point?

ARCHER: I now manage a number of corporate fitness facilities for a high tech company.

HARRIS: My understanding of the living arrangements here at one point is that Scott and Bill moved in together, and at that point were you dating Bill?

ARCHER: Yes, I was.

HARRIS: Was that your first opportunity to get to meet, to get to know and meet Scott?

ARCHER: Yes, it was.

HARRIS: And after a time period, Bill moved into your house, and Scott did as well.

ARCHER: Correct.

HARRIS: Is that a fair assessment of how,

ARCHER: Fair, yes.

HARRIS: And at some point Bill moved out briefly and Scott stayed.

ARCHER: Correct.

HARRIS: Then Bill moved back?

ARCHER: Well,

HARRIS: Did you guys move out?

ARCHER: Eventually we moved out. I'm sorry. Scott and Laci eventually moved out a couple of months later, while I maintained the residence at that initial home.

HARRIS: So try to get these living arrangements right. After Scott, after Scott and Bill moved into your house,

ARCHER: Yes.

HARRIS: Eventually, shortly thereafter, Laci moved in with Scott?

ARCHER: Correct.

HARRIS: So that was short, overall?

ARCHER: Yes, correct.

HARRIS: Okay. When you met Scott for the first time, he was now starting to be Bill's roommate, what is your first sort of impressions of Scott?

ARCHER: Scott was a definitely a very personable, friendly guy. Very easy to talk to. You just immediately, I think, felt comfortable in front of him, in speaking with him in the very beginning. Just friendly. From the very beginning, always asking questions about me initially. And then, again, also that was consistent throughout. But always concerned with others. But wanted to know a little bit about me. We fell very easy into conversation.

HARRIS: Did he seem genuine to you?

ARCHER: Definitely. Very genuine. Just it's, I think Bill said it accurately in that, you know, it's hard to say just in general, people ask you about him. Just a friendly, great guy. Would-do-anything-for-anyone type of guy. Just, I couldn't say enough about him.

HARRIS: Did you at some point get to see how he actually worked at work habits?

ARCHER: In general. Scott was always very busy, going to school, holding down multiple jobs. So he was, he was in and out of the house. Just the reason he was out most of the time, because he was working or going to school, very busy. Busy schedule.

HARRIS: Did he still have time for his friends?

ARCHER: Definitely. You know, I definitely can mainly speak for his relationship with my husband Bill at the time. Playing golf, shooting pool, those sort of things. But definitely he had a busy schedule, but he somehow made room for those sorts of things.

HARRIS: Did you consider him trustworthy?

ARCHER: Yes. Scott was, as I mentioned, very easy to talk to, but he was someone I quickly felt I could call a friend. Very trustworthy. I knew Scott for, I would say, approximately about a year while he lived with my husband Bill. And, again, at that point is when we had an opening in room. The lease went up. I would have never asked someone do move over my, room in my house to someone I didn't trust. Definitely very trustworthy. I had other roommates at the time, so I definitely wanted to have someone that was worthy of that spot.

HARRIS: Did you feel comfortable around him?

ARCHER: Yes, very comfortable.

HARRIS: At some point he brought Laci into the house, right?

ARCHER: Correct.

HARRIS: And how did you, how did that arrangement work?

ARCHER: He was, again, we were in a tight room at one point. Bill had moved out by that time, and they had, Laci and Scott moved into one of our spare rooms. It worked out well. She was going to school at the time. He was going to school. And everybody in the house was pretty busy at the time. But, you know, they would come and go. And they had a great relationship. I'm sorry, do you want me to be more specific?

HARRIS: I was going to ask you, you observed the relationship especially there in San Luis Obispo?

ARCHER: Yes.

HARRIS: What did you observe?

ARCHER: Relationship. They were always very close. This was, I had mentioned not here, but there was a time where Scott was so busy, honestly, didn't remember him dating a whole lot. He was too busy with work and school. But I do remember when he started dating Laci. Very special girl in his life. He would talk about her quite a bit. And when she came into the house, my or other roommate would joke, you don't see couples that are that close that often. They were always together, laughing, and just having a great time together. They would plan fun trips together. I remember them joking one time they were going to go away to get married in Mexico, to the point where at one point we thought they were serious. Obviously they didn't. They were very close and very serious at that time, but always so happy around each other.

HARRIS: Did you see Scott when, how he dealt with other people?

ARCHER: I did. Scott very respectful of other people. Always putting other people first. Always wanted, he was the type of person that if you were to see him, he would generally say, "How are you?" And a lot of times with somebody, some people when you run into them, they will ask you the same thing. It's more of a conversation starter. Whereas with him, with Scott, he was genuinely concerned about how are you? What have you been up to? What have you been doing in your life? Those sorts of things. And, again, that goes back to him being so genuine, such a good friend. He was the type of person that, he was very kind and considerate and respectful of his friends, and was the type of person that you wanted to be a little bit more like, because you felt so good and how he made you feel, and being so concerned with your wellbeing, you know, how good that felt, that you wanted to be that way, and you wanted to be able to treat people that way. That's what I observed from him.

HARRIS: So you felt like he had a positive impact, he's had a positive impact on your life?

ARCHER: I do. Again, a lot of it has to do with you treat others as you would like to be treated. And Scott was one of those people that treated you, again, with respect, very genuine, very caring. Do anything for you. Would go out of his way if you asked him a favor, whether it would be more furniture, or, you know, pick you up from school out of his way. He would always do that for you. And that type of friend is hard to find sometimes. And when you have someone like that, and you realize how good they make you feel, you want to be more like that. You want to become that type of person, and be known for someone like that. And that's, when I think of Scott, that's the type of person I think of him to be.

HARRIS: We all know the harsh realities of jail. Do you think he could have an impact even in that kind of environment?

ARCHER: I do. I don't know what it's like, but I do know Scott. And as Bill had mentioned, he's the type of person that would make any situation best he could, in any way. He wrote find a way to do what he needed to do to make a difference, or to be, to make that a better situation. But he's a great person. And I think that he's, he has a lot to offer. So, again, I don't know what it's like to be in a place like that, but I do believe that wherever he is, he's going to find what he can to contribute, or to be the best person he knows how to be.

HARRIS: How would you feel about him being executed?

ARCHER: It's obviously something that I never want to think of. I don't want to think about it, because it's, to me, I knew Laci for a short period of time. And every picture you see of her is so accurate. She was so bubbly and friendly. She's just, to the lose a person like that, that I knew, and then to lose her baby, and then to think about losing another great person that I consider Scott to be, it's just beyond imagination. I just, I can't imagine what it would be like. It doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem fair. And I don't think that, I can't imagine it. I just can't go there with that decision.

HARRIS: Thank you. That's all I have.