Peyer’s Lawyers Ask Murder Trial Shift, Curb on Evidence

Attorneys for California Highway Patrol Officer Craig Peyer, accused of killing a San Diego State University student, asked a court Friday to move his murder trial out of San Diego because excessive publicity has made it impossible for the officer to have a fair trial.

In addition, Peyer’s lawyers want the court to suppress evidence gathered by police when Peyer consented to several searches and interrogations and to exclude testimony of 19 young women who said that Peyer forced them to stop at night on the isolated off-ramp where the murder of the San Diego State University student Cara Knott, 20, occurred.

In documents filed in San Diego County Superior Court, Peyer’s attorneys said they plan to offer as evidence the results of a public opinion poll taken in the county to prove that extensive pretrial publicity has prejudiced Peyer’s right to a fair trial. Peyer’s attorneys will appear in court on Nov. 2 to argue the motions they filed late Friday afternoon.

Peyer, 37, is charged with murdering Knott on Dec. 27. He is free on $1-million bail posted by family and friends. Police said that Knott was strangled that night between 9 and 10 p.m. on a bridge near Interstate 15 and Mercy Road before her body was thrown 75 feet into a dry creek bed. Her body was found about 8:30 a.m. the next day.

Attorneys Diane C. Campbell and Robert L. Grimes also argued that Peyer cannot get a fair trial in San Diego because Knott’s slaying has made her a rallying point for innocent victims and has earned her a prominence that she did not know in life.

“Clearly there are victims who are prominent at their death and those who become prominent upon their death. Cara Knott’s tragedy was felt deeply by those who have young daughters, sisters, friends and understand the senseless loss of a loved one,” according to the motion for a change of venue.

‘Massive Publicity’

The attorneys also provided the court with 1,800 pages of newspaper clippings and television and radio scripts that purportedly show “the massive publicity generated in a relatively short period of time throughout the county.” Because of the press coverage given to the case, “self aware, informed and knowledgeable jurors on current affairs . . . a large segment of the community . . . will be excluded” from serving on the jury that tries Peyer, said the attorneys.

In addition, they also cited statements by senior CHP officers who said Peyer was fired in May because he “did, without justification, kill Ms. Cara Knott.” This and other statements have made it impossible for Peyer to get a fair trial in San Diego, they added.

Peyer’s attorneys are also asking Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman, who will preside at Peyer’s trial, to suppress evidence gathered by San Diego homicide detectives when they interviewed Peyer in January. On Jan. 8 and 9 Peyer agreed to be interviewed by detectives and consented to police searches of his home, pickup truck and CHP locker.

Investigators obtained evidence from Peyer’s uniforms and from samples of his blood, hair, urine, saliva and skin, which he gave voluntarily when he was not represented by an attorney. Peyer’s attorneys charged that evidence obtained by police during the interrogations and searches is “the fruit of an unreasonable search and seizure without a warrant . . . “

The documents filed in court charge that all statements given to police were involuntary “and . . . elicited in a coercive manner.” The attorneys also charged that Peyer was forced to sit through prolonged periods of questioning by police, noting that on Jan. 8 he was interrogated for more than 7 hours and had talked with police for more than 4 hours before he was read his Miranda rights, which he waived.

Statements given by Peyer to investigators during interrogations at police headquarters “were obtained through psychologically coercive means,” said the documents filed in court.

Lengthy Stops

During Peyer’s preliminary hearing in April, 19 young women testified that Peyer stopped them on Interstate 15 during 1986 and ordered them to drive the isolated and darkened Mercy Road off-ramp, where Knott was killed. Some women testified that the stops lasted more than 45 minutes, and one woman testified that Peyer detained her for an hour and 40 minutes while he questioned her about her job and talked about his personal life.

The women said that Peyer never touched them or asked them out, and none complained to CHP officials about being stopped.

Peyer’s attorneys called the women’s testimony irrelevant and asked Huffman to bar them from testifying at Peyer’s trial, which is scheduled in January. They argued that the 19 stops are “among hundreds which the defendant made over that period of time.”

“Nothing in these incidents suggests a link to the victim’s death or a motive and it is unjust to infer such a connection by presenting the (women’s) testimon(ies),” said the motion. Peyer’s attorneys argued that the stops have nothing in common with Knott’s death, although prosecutors have pointed out the “common location” of the stops and where Knott’s car was discovered.

Allowing the women to testify at Peyer’s trial will lead “to the unfounded inference that the circumstances of these prior stops were a prelude to the victim’s death without regard to other evidence,” it was argued in the court documents.

“The resulting conclusion places the defendant in the position of defending himself against accusations which have no basis in fact and no relation to the actual evidence against him,” the documents said.