William Archer

Witness for the Defendant:  Penalty Phase

December 6, 2004

Direct Examination by Pat Harris

HARRIS: Good afternoon, Bill. The relationship you have with Scott Peterson is one of a friend; is that correct?

ARCHER: Yes, sir, it was. Yes, it is.

HARRIS: To give a little background on who you are, could you tell us, where did you go to college?

ARCHER: I went to college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

HARRIS: And what years were you there?

ARCHER: I was a student starting in the fall of 87, and graduating in 92.

HARRIS: You were a scholarship basketball player?

ARCHER: I was a scholarship basketball player there, and math major.

HARRIS: And did you stay in San Luis Obispo after that?

ARCHER: Yes, I did. I wanted to stay in the area, as many students who go to school in that area did.

HARRIS: How long did you stay there?

ARCHER: I stayed there then after I graduated, from 92 until 1997.

HARRIS: Do you now live in the Bay Area here?

ARCHER: No. I live in the Bay Area. I have been living in San Jose for the past seven years, since 1997. Now live out in the East Bay in Danville.

JUDGE: Mr. Archer, could you move up a little bit?

ARCHER: Yes.

JUDGE: And I think here,

HARRIS: Bill, what do you do for a living?

ARCHER: I'm a financial manager for a high-tech firm.

HARRIS: Now, you are married?

ARCHER: I am married to my wife Carrie, who I met in San Luis Obispo.

HARRIS: And do you have children?

ARCHER: We have two children, one age three and one five months old. Cameron and Emma.

HARRIS: Now, when you met Scott Peterson, you met him in San Luis Obispo; is that correct?

ARCHER: I met him in San Luis Obispo, but in, specifically in Morro Bay when we were both working at the Morro Bay Golf Course.

HARRIS: Had you already graduated from college at that time when you met him?

ARCHER: I graduated from college and was working part time jobs in the area to try and stay in the area.

HARRIS: And the job you were working Morro Bay, what were you doing there?

ARCHER: I was a clerk in the Morro Bay pro shop, clerk or assistant within the Morro Bay Golf Course pro shop.

HARRIS: What did your job entail? What were you required to do?

ARCHER: My job entailed selling merchandise along with when customers would come in to pay for green fees to play golf. I would charge them, run out a card to them as well. Work with the starter in terms of getting them out on the course.

HARRIS: You came to know Scott Peterson because he worked there?

ARCHER: Yes, he worked at,

HARRIS: What was his job at the golf course?

ARCHER: He was a starter that you would work with to make sure that people were getting out on the golf course who wanted to play.

HARRIS: How was it, if he worked outside and you were working inside, how did you two interact?

ARCHER: We interacted by intercom a lot from the start, because the starter sat in the shack by the first tee, and we were in the pro shop. So some of the communications to start off with was via intercom talking back and forth.

HARRIS: Later on, after you struck up a friendship, did you end up living together?

ARCHER: Yes. So specifically the amount of time, period of time, we both needed roommates, and thought it would be good for us to live together.

HARRIS: And you lived together, it was over a year; is that right?

ARCHER: It was over a year, yes.

HARRIS: You actually lived in two different locations with Scott?

ARCHER: Yes. So the first location was, was there were three of us that lived there. Scott and myself and another. I guess it was three-bedroom house, but it was pretty tight, and that. So we were pretty close.

HARRIS: And then later you moved, two of you moved into another location?

ARCHER: Yes. I'm sorry. The two of us moved to another location. The lease was up on the house we were in. Our other roommate was moving on. And we moved into a house with my girlfriend at that time, who is now my wife.

HARRIS: The job that Scott did as starter at the golf course, what time did that require him to be there?

ARCHER: It would require to start work at about 5:30 a:m.

HARRIS: And did he work that job pretty much every day?

ARCHER: It was not every day, but a number of days during the week, yes.

HARRIS: As you came to know him, did you also find he was working other jobs?

ARCHER: Yeah. That he was working as a waiter at two restaurants within Morro Bay, and he was also working in his dad's crating business, doing shipping and crating.

HARRIS: You mentioned to me, oftentimes, work wise, he would arrive home about 10:00 o'clock or 11:00 o'clock at night from work. Is that the memory you have?

ARCHER: Yeah. If he worked a full day. I mean you would have the starter role at 5:30 in the morning, or then balancing with the various restaurant roles. And then at times he would go back and be doing some of the crating late at night.

HARRIS: Did he have a pretty crazy schedule?

ARCHER: Yes, he did. No doubt.

HARRIS: We talked a little bit about his job as starter, and what you saw. How did he interact with people at the golf course?

ARCHER: He was very personable. Knew people by name. Was very friendly. And I would go in. He was good at defusing situations at the golf course. And worked well with both the customers and the rest of the team that worked at the golf course.

HARRIS: What do you mean by defusing situations? What kind of things?

ARCHER: You know, we worked at a very busy golf course, and we had, you know, we were often running behind in terms of people getting out to play. And Scott was good at first, you know, listening to customers' complaints, and then helping them work through it, and resolving it as quickly as it possibly could.

HARRIS: As you grew to know him both as a co-worker and as roommate, did you develop a friendship?

ARCHER: Yes. Yes.

HARRIS: What did you like about him as a friend? What was attractive about him as a friend?

ARCHER: He was, I'm sorry. Scott was, he was a good friend to have. He would listen to you, and he would quite often go out of his way for you in various small ways.

HARRIS: What do you mean?

ARCHER: Scott, you know, we were both working a variety of part time jobs at that time. He would go out of his way still to, if I was working in the golf course and he knew potentially that I didn't have a chance to grab lunch, he would bring lunch in. He would call and let us know where he's working at the restaurant. He would say, you want to come down here and hang out, and sit have a soda and left-over fries? He was just, he was a guy who thought about what was going on in your life, and listen to you.

HARRIS: Would you describe him as selfless?

ARCHER: I would. I would. You know. Part of it is, you know, I think back, and I probably didn't return the favors as many as times as he provided favors, those little favors.

HARRIS: Tell me it was never one grandiose thing, always a thousand little things.

ARCHER: And that's the accurate. You know, over the past couple of years, you would do a lot of thinking about your friend and some of the things you do, and with him. And, you know, people ask you to describe him. And it's just little things that you can describe that there is, you know, some people, you know, maybe as a friend do big grandiose things. Some people are just this everyday, and always thoughtful. Scott was that way.

HARRIS: Always thoughtful?

ARCHER: Yeah.

HARRIS: At one point you were living, when you were living with your girlfriend, that is now your wife, you broke up for a short time period?

ARCHER: Yes. Well, while, shortly after Scott and I moved into the house that my girlfriend was living in, and that we ended up not being as good roommates as we were boyfriend and girlfriend, and I moved out. And we split up for a period of time, yes.

HARRIS: Tell me he helped you through that. How did he do that?

ARCHER: Scott would call. He was still living in the house, and he would call, see how I was doing. And, you know, I can remember one night shooting pool, and it was him just asking questions of how I was doing. And he knew what I was struggling with breaking up with my girlfriend.

HARRIS: So he was there for you?

ARCHER: Yes.

HARRIS: Did you ever, I know you worked a lot of part time jobs yourself. Did you ever go help him at the crating company?

ARCHER: Yes. Yeah. He invited me a couple of times to help him out with the crating company. I think it was more because, you know, he knew I was cash-strapped.

HARRIS: What kind of tasks were involved with that crating company? What kind of things was he doing?

ARCHER: It was nailing into wood. It was putting frames together, crates. It was, you know, simple building boxes.

HARRIS: Did you have a chance to see him interact with his father at all?

ARCHER: Yes, I did. Quite a bit.

HARRIS: What was that like?

ARCHER: I would describe them as a good father-son relationship. A lot of where I would see them together was around the golf course. They kind of pal'd around some. And that, you know, they were, it was a good, genuine father-son relationship.

HARRIS: There was a time I believe that you talked about he had a motorcycle wreck, and he struck you as how he was able to handle that, kind of laugh at himself. Would you just tell that story?

ARCHER: And Scott at one point in time, I think he'd started going back to school at this point in time, and he was riding a motorcycle, and laid it down on the side, and had a pretty rough accident, and came home. And, you know, was pretty scraped up. But at the same time, he kind of just laughed at himself and said, well, I shouldn't have been going quite so fast on a gravelly road. And, you know, and didn't complain. Just kind of laughed.

HARRIS: Did you say that, in general, Scott has had a positive impact on your life?

ARCHER: I would. Scott treated people with a lot of respect, and was positive with those people that were around him. It was, he treated people extremely well and was friendly from the start. And some of that rubs off on you, you know, as to there is situations where you should probably, when I would see him, I should probably treat people a little better as well.

HARRIS: You had, when you got the phone call from us asking you to testify, you agreed immediately, although you hadn't actually spent a lot of time with him since college. Why?

ARCHER: This is an awful situation. And I can't imagine what's going on with the families and how hard it would be. And I can't put myself in a comparative situation. I just know that if I called him and, you know, he would agree in a heartbeat to,

HARRIS: How would you feel about Scott being given the death penalty?

ARCHER: It would hurt. It would hurt.

HARRIS: You know him from your time together, spent time with him. Do you feel like if he's allowed to live that he could have, go ahead, take your time.

ARCHER: Yeah, I was going to ask you to repeat that.

JUDGE: There is some Kleenex. There is a box of Kleenex there. That's why it's there.

ARCHER: I didn't see it before.

HARRIS: Given what you know about him, you, and your relationship with him, do you feel that, if given the opportunity to live, he can have a positive impact in prison?

ARCHER: Yes, I do. Scott, in the time I spent with him, which was, you know, a period of time ago, he made the best of every situation he was in.

HARRIS: That's all I have.