Questions On Age Of Laci's Fetus

Laci Peterson's mother told an investigator that her slain daughter informed her she was pregnant on June 9, 2002, the investigator testified Monday.

The testimony by Modesto Detective Craig Grogan was presented by the Scott Peterson defense to bolster the assertion by an expert last week that Laci Peterson's fetus was still alive days after the eight-months-pregnant woman vanished just before Christmas 2002.

The expert witness, Dr. Charles March, had come under heavy attack from prosecutors when he testified that the fetus probably died on Dec. 29, 2002, at the earliest.

Grogan's testimony Monday suggested that Laci Peterson had not informed her own mother of the pregnancy until June 9.

"There's nothing that you know of that suggests any other dates, is that correct?" asked defense lawyer Mark Geragos.

"Not that I know of," Grogan replied.

According to previous testimony, Laci Peterson told one of her friends about her pregnancy that same date. March said he used the date of June 9, along with bone measurements of the dead fetus and Laci's medical records, to conclude that Dec. 29 was the earliest date of death for the fetus.

Under cross-examination, March acknowledged his conclusion was based in part on the inference that if she told the news to a friend on June 9, she had likely learned it that same day through a home pregnancy test. He admitted there was no medical record of such a test on that date.

The prosecution argues that Scott Peterson murdered his wife on or around Dec. 24, then dumped her body into San Francisco Bay, and the fetus later was expelled from her corpse.

Defense lawyers claim someone else abducted and killed Laci later, after the baby was born, so that her husband could not have been the killer. The age of the fetus at death is crucial to their argument.

The remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore about four months after she vanished, a few miles from where Peterson claims to have been fishing.

Monday was the fifth day of the defense's case. Judge Alfred A. Delucchi informed jurors last week they would be sequestered for deliberations, which are set to begin as early as Nov. 3 after closing arguments Nov. 1 and 2. The have not been sequestered during the five-month trial.

By Brian Skoloff