|
Jeff Schumacher
Witness for the People: Guilt Phase June 17, 2004
Direct Examination by David Harris HARRIS: Mr. Schumacher, directing your attention back to 2002, did you used to work for Edwards Jewelry in the City of Modesto? SCHUMACHER: That's correct. HARRIS: Were you somewhat like an independent contractor, doing jewelry repair or jewelry work for that business? SCHUMACHER: Yes, sir. HARRIS: Do you know the witness that previously testified, Miss Felix? SCHUMACHER: Yes, I do. HARRIS: And was she also working there during that time period? SCHUMACHER: That's correct. HARRIS: Directing your attention to 2002, in the latter part of that year, September, October, November, December, did you have any contact with a customer that you knew by the name of Laci Peterson? SCHUMACHER: Yes, I did. HARRIS: And did you attempt to help Ms. Peterson design a wedding ring out of two existing wedding rings? SCHUMACHER: Yes. HARRIS: As part of that process, did you kind of meet with her and draw up some designs? SCHUMACHER: Several times. HARRIS: Did she ever change her mind? SCHUMACHER: Several times. HARRIS: After this kind of changes occurred, did you get to the point where there was kind of like some finalized plan that was made? SCHUMACHER: There was, but the last time that we spoke there was, she wanted it done before Christmas Eve, and there was no way to do it in the time frame that was left. HARRIS: All right. Had she left her ring and this other ring, her grandmother's ring, for you to start the work, though? SCHUMACHER: Yes, she did. HARRIS: And when she had left those rings, did she ask you to fix another ring so she could wear that in place of her wedding ring? SCHUMACHER: Yes, she did. HARRIS: What type of ring was that? SCHUMACHER: It was a blue sapphire. It was missing a stone. We put it back in for her. HARRIS: Did you also, just try this. Show you what's been marked as People's number 8. Looking at that, do you recognize the ring that we're referring to? SCHUMACHER: Yes. It's the, the ring next to the watch, next to the sign "20." HARRIS: And, so, that's the sapphire, blue sapphire ring you're talking about? SCHUMACHER: Yes, it is. HARRIS: Did you do some other jewelry repair for Ms. Peterson besides the, the wedding ring change that she was talking about? SCHUMACHER: Oh, there was several things. There was a tennis bracelet that I took the guard off of. Sterling silver. Costume jewelry was missing a stone. I put that back in for her. That's all I can recall off the top of my head. HARRIS: Okay. Now, the, the process that worked at that particular store at that time is that the customer came in and wanted something repaired, would there be an envelope filled out? SCHUMACHER: Yes. HARRIS: And if it was a watch, would it follow the same process? SCHUMACHER: It is. It's a different envelope, goes to a different department, but it's the same process. HARRIS: Okay. Did you do watch repairs? SCHUMACHER: No, I didn't, watch repair was another independent contractor that took care of that. HARRIS: At a latter part during this time period that we're talking about, did you assist Ms. Felix in kind of doing an appraisal for jewelry that Ms. Peterson had come in? SCHUMACHER: Yes. HARRIS: And based on what you were looking at there, and getting together with Ms. Felix, did you come up with a dollar amount for the jewelry? SCHUMACHER: For her ring? Or for everything? HARRIS: For everything. SCHUMACHER: We estimated that it was probably in excess of a hundred thousand dollars. HARRIS: The People have no other questions.
Cross Examination by Mark Geragos GERAGOS: The, did you do the estimate? SCHUMACHER: We both did, yes. GERAGOS: Okay. And the most expensive part of that, the most expensive component would have been the two and a half carat diamond that came from the grandmother? SCHUMACHER: That's correct. GERAGOS: That was the lion's share of the value; is that correct? SCHUMACHER: That was the biggest piece, but it was, there was an awful, there was quite a number of pieces that weren't as expensive, but when you added them all up, they were substantial. GERAGOS: Okay. When you combined the jewelry to make the wedding ring, you said there was a number of variations on it along the way, correct? SCHUMACHER: Uh-huh. That's correct. GERAGOS: Okay. When you got to the final prototype, I guess, or the final design, at that point is it fair to say that the wedding ring itself was then more than half of the, the total value of the jewelry? SCHUMACHER: Probably about half. GERAGOS: So if the jewelry, all total, was a hundred thousand, the wedding ring itself, her new, Laci's new wedding ring would have been 55,000, roughly? SCHUMACHER: Roughly. GERAGOS: So half, or roughly half, of the, what the total value was of all of this jewelry was going to be Laci's wedding ring? SCHUMACHER: That's correct. GERAGOS: Okay. And she left the ring there, I guess 'left' the ring is incorrect. She had a wedding ring, right? SCHUMACHER: No, she left it there. We had her wedding ring, her grandmother's ring, and I think there was another ring that we were going to take the stones out to use and incorporate it as well. GERAGOS: Okay. And then you were taking the stones, you were going to melt down the gold, correct? SCHUMACHER: That's correct. GERAGOS: And then you were going to redo and redesign the new ring, right? SCHUMACHER: That's correct. GERAGOS: Okay. And she wanted this done by Christmas Eve? SCHUMACHER: The first time she came in was in September, yes, so that would have given us plenty of time to, GERAGOS: Except, SCHUMACHER: to accomplish that, yeah. GERAGOS: except the design was changed a couple of times? SCHUMACHER: Yeah. GERAGOS: Okay. And when, what did you end up, the previous witness testified that Ms. Rocha came and retrieved the rings. SCHUMACHER: That's correct. GERAGOS: And do you know when that was? SCHUMACHER: Early February? I'm not a hundred percent sure on that. GERAGOS: You never saw Scott in there with her, looking with Laci, did you? SCHUMACHER: No, I didn't. GERAGOS: Scott never called to find out what the progress was, did he? SCHUMACHER: No, he didn't. GERAGOS: Scott didn't say Hey, those are my stones or my wife's stones, give them back to me, did he? SCHUMACHER: No. GERAGOS: The only people who contacted you were the police and Ms. Rocha in terms of getting the jewelry, right? SCHUMACHER: That's correct. GERAGOS: I have nothing further. HARRIS: No other questions. |