Many Tears In Peterson Courtroom
Scott Peterson simply watched as his former mother-in-law rose out of the witness chair and screamed at him for killing his pregnant wife, Laci.
Sharon Rocha, wearing a gold heart-shaped pendent with a picture of her daughter in it, took the stand Tuesday in the penalty phase of Peterson's murder trial. She wrapped up the state's case the same day it began, giving the most emotional testimony of four family members called to the stand.
Through all the months of this trial, Sharon Rocha has come to the courtroom day after day looking for justice for her murdered daughter, reports CBS News Correspondent John Blackstone. Finally, this was the day she could speak from her heart, and speak directly to the man found guilty of killing Laci.
"She wanted to be a mother. That was taken away from her," Rocha said to Peterson, who was convicted Nov. 12 for the 2002 murders of his wife and the 8-month-old fetus she was carrying.
Rocha went on, her voice cracking.
"Divorce was always an option — not murder," Rocha said in a voice so loud that some jurors jumped. There were tears in the eyes of many in the courtroom — jurors, the judge's clerk, the lead detective, even reporters. Gloria Gomez of CBS affiliate KOVR reports his mother had her head down and eyes closed and appeared visibly disturbed by what she heard.
At one point, Peterson himself dabbed his eyes with a tissue, when Amy Rocha, Laci's little sister took the stand and recalled how tough holidays without her sister are, and how she looked up to Laci as an older sister.
The first to take the stand was Laci's brother, then her sister, her stepfather, and finally her mother, reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Futterman.
Jurors will recommend whether the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman should be executed or get life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2002 murders.
Throughout the testimony, prosecutors displayed photographs of Laci, including one from Mother's Day 2002. Taken a week after Laci's 27th birthday, the picture showed Laci, her mother and her grandmother.
Mother's Day, Rocha told the jury, would never be the same.
"The first Mother's Day (after her death) I laid on the floor and I cried most of the day because she should have been there," she sobbed, her chest heaving.
"That's the loss that leads us very close to thinking this man deserves the death penalty," said criminal defense attorney Dean Johnson, who has been observing the trial. He said the presentation Tuesday was effective.
"The prosecution made Laci a very real, living human being," Johnson said. "The jury now knows what Laci Peterson was all about."
Earlier, prosecutor Dave Harris said Laci's death left a hole in her family's hearts "that can never be repaired."
"When the defendant dumped the bodies of his wife and unborn son into the bay, those ripples spread out and they touched many, many lives," Harris told jurors.
The only appropriate punishment, he said, is death.
Prosecutors had argued at trial that Peterson strangled or smothered his wife in their Modesto home on or around Christmas Eve 2002, then dumped her body into San Francisco Bay. The remains were discovered four months later a few miles from where Scott Peterson claims to have been fishing the day his wife vanished.
"It was just the worst thing you could think about, like a nightmare," Amy Rocha, Laci's younger sister, said, describing how she felt as she helped search for her sister.
Brent Rocha, Laci's older brother, said he tries to remember the good times they shared, but those memories are "overshadowed all the time by how she died ... and maybe her knowing who did it."
"I don't think I've ever heard her be more excited than the day she called me up to tell me she was pregnant," he said. "She was going to be a great mother."
The defense was expected to begin presenting its case Wednesday. Witnesses testifying on Peterson's behalf can speak about anything that might show him in a favorable light as his attorneys try to convince jurors his life is worth sparing.