No Blood On Laci's Clothing

AP) No blood was found on any of the tattered clothing from Laci Peterson's remains, a prosecution witness testified Tuesday at Scott Peterson's double-murder trial.

Pin Kyo, a state Department of Justice criminalist, testified she scanned the items — including a bra, panties and a pair of maternity pants — for any blood, tissue or tears.

Prosecutors are trying to prove that Peterson killed his eight-months pregnant wife on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then dumped her weighted body into San Francisco Bay.

The bodies of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed up along the bay in April 2003 not far from the Berkeley Marina, where Scott Peterson says he launched his boat that Christmas Eve morning for a solo fishing trip.

Defense lawyers claim someone else abducted and killed Laci, and that the child was born alive and murdered later.

Testimony turned abruptly Monday from tracking Peterson in the day's after his wife vanished to the collection of evidence during the early stages of the investigation.

Kyo said tissue was found on the bra but no rips or tears, and no blood was found on any of the soiled clothing.

Kyo said she saw barnacles on many of the items, including on a strand of duct tape found on Laci's body.

A "tangled mass of fibers and tissues" was also discovered on the duct tape, she told jurors.

Kyo then said the duct tape found on Laci's remains did not match duct tape discovered along the rocky San Francisco Bay shoreline near where her body washed ashore.

She said she found no tissue or blood on a large tarp-like piece of plastic found near Laci's remains and "didn't smell any rotting tissue."

Defense lawyers have implied the tarp and the duct tape found near it may have had some connection to Laci's body.

Kyo said she also tested twine-like material taken from around Laci Peterson's dead fetus' neck. Showing a picture of the twine to jurors, prosecutor Dave Harris asked her about what appeared to be a small loop tied off with a knot.

"The way it's tied is very loosely," Kyo said.

Kyo told jurors Monday she found no blood on two mops and a bucket seized from the Petersons' home. Prosecutors have implied Peterson used the mops to clean the murder scene, but have presented no evidence to support that theory.

Kyo also testified no blood was found on several other items, including a blue tarp and Peterson's boat cover.

Kyo later said tiny specks of blood were found on the Petersons' comforter cover, but didn't elaborate. A source close to the case later told The Associated Press that DNA testing indicated the blood came from Scott Peterson.

Jurors were then led through a slide presentation of the tattered and dirty clothing taken from Laci Peterson's remains.

Jurors also heard testimony Monday about satellite navigation devices used to track Scott Peterson's vehicles after his wife vanished. Experts testified the devices sometimes developed glitches, once indicating he was driving 30,000 mph.

Police have testified they followed Peterson to the Berkeley Marina three times as authorities scoured the bay for evidence. Defense lawyers claim their client was checking up on search efforts, hoping police would find clues, as well as seeking to find two witnesses who may have been in the marina area on that Christmas Eve morning.

Witnesses testified Monday that the global positioning satellite devices tracked Peterson to the marina at least three more times after police ended their physical surveillance of Peterson on Jan. 11, when they figured he had become aware he was being followed.

Peter Van Wyck Loomis, whose Silicon Valley company — Trimble Navigation — made the GPS technology in the devices, explained to jurors how the units work by bouncing locational information from roughly two dozen satellites to pinpoint where the subject is within about 30 feet.

In an effort to head off defense attacks, prosecutor Rick Distaso noted one instance where the monitoring device showed Peterson's vehicle was moving at more than 30,000 mph.

Loomis said that was about a "100-second" glitch.

During pretrial hearings, defense lawyers fought hard to keep out the GPS testimony, claiming it was error prone.

In what legal experts believed set California precedent, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi in February ruled the testimony would be allowed at trial because he was convinced it met legal requirements.

Until the Peterson case, the GPS technology had not been accepted as evidence in a criminal trial in California.

Witness Hugh Roddis, chief technology officer for Orion Electronics, the Nova Scotia-based company that sold the monitoring devices to Modesto police, explained one of the glitches as a "programming error."

Geragos noted that some dates and times on a printout shown to jurors were inconsistent with Peterson's actual movements.

"It's not intended to be terribly accurate," Roddis said, adding the printouts of the stored data is strictly for investigators to get a rough timeline.
 
Still, Roddis defended the accuracy of the technology.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/16/national/main643927.shtml