Peyer Had Scratches on His Face, Jurors Told

Two witnesses testified Wednesday that fired CHP Officer Craig Peyer appeared to have been in a fight the night Cara Knott was killed, and one said she saw Peyer rearranging the trunk of his patrol car--where prosecutors found a rope that they allege was used to kill Knott--shortly after police said the woman had been strangled.

Peyer, a 13-year CHP veteran, is charged with killing Knott, 20, on Dec. 27, 1986. Police said she was killed after a struggle on the Old U.S. 395 bridge near Interstate 15 and the Mercy Road off-ramp in San Diego between 9 and 10 p.m. Her body was thrown 65 feet into a dry creek bed, where it was discovered by police the next morning.

Karen Anderson, who was working as a gas station attendant on Kearny Villa Road the night of the killing, said Peyer, 37, purchased $5 worth of gasoline with a state credit card about 9:45 p.m. When he walked up to the counter to leave the card, Anderson said, he appeared sloppy and had “claw marks on his face.”

Wasn’t Dressed Intact

“He was kind of sloppy, as if he had been in a fight,” she said. “He wasn’t all intact as far as being a fully clothed highway patrolman. . . . I noticed that one (mark) on the left side of his face was bleeding.”

Before pumping the gasoline, Peyer opened the trunk of his cruiser and rearranged some items, Anderson added.

“He went out and opened the trunk of his vehicle and started straightening things around. . . . He picked up a grease rag. It appeared to me he was wiping down . . . a long flashlight.”

Peyer also took his night stick out of the trunk and wiped it off, Anderson said, adding that he also took out a California Highway Patrol hat and placed it in the car. Another CHP officer testified later in the day that CHP officers usually carry their night sticks with them and do not carry them in the trunk.

Anderson said that she was going to comment about the scratches on Peyer’s face but that he gave her a look that said, “Don’t say a word.” Peyer turned his face to hide the scratches and volunteered that “it was one hell of a night,” Anderson said.

The woman did not mention Peyer’s activity in the trunk when she testified at a preliminary hearing in April. Her testimony appeared to surprise defense attorney Robert Grimes, who undertook a long period of questioning.

Some Statements Differed

During the questioning by Grimes, Anderson contradicted some statements made by her co-worker Shirley Schwartz, who testified Tuesday. Schwartz said the scratch marks on Peyer’s face appeared on the right side of his nose. But Anderson placed the marks on Peyer’s left cheek and said they were bleeding.

Grimes also asked Anderson, who was interviewed Jan. 20, 1987, by police at a Logan Heights crisis center where she was living, why she told Detective Alfonso Salvatierra that she never saw Peyer open the trunk of the CHP car. Anderson, who said she talked with Salvatierra about 10 times between January and April, 1987, answered:

“I told him everything that I thought was important.”

CHP Sgt. Gary Symonds said he noticed the marks on Peyer’s face when he arrived back at the station at the end of his shift. Symonds testified that his initial thought was Peyer had been in a fight because of the marks and he appeared to have been slapped.

“He appeared to be upset, disheveled. . . . His hair was messed up and he appeared to have minor, superficial type injuries,” Symonds told the jury. “Ordinarily, Officer Peyer is very neat in appearance. His hair was messed up. His demeanor was like he had an emotional type encounter.”

Peyer blamed the injuries on a fall that he suffered when he slipped on a gasoline spill at the back of the station and fell against a chain-link fence, Symonds said. While being questioned by Grimes, Symonds said the marks on Peyer’s face were a “crisscross pattern consistent with a chain-link fence.”

Injury Report Rejected

Symonds offered to write an injury report but Peyer refused. Symonds testified that when Peyer came to work the next day, when Knott’s body was found, he changed his mind and requested that Symonds file a report. Besides the marks on Peyer’s face, Symonds noted in the report that the injuries “included bloody abrasions on the right arm.”

William Lowery, a six-year CHP veteran, testified that he occasionally drove Peyer’s CHP cruiser but said that he had never seen a piece of rope about 48 inches long that investigators recovered from the car’s trunk. Prosecutors allege that the rope, which Lowery said was not departmental issue, was used to kill Knott.

Under questioning by Grimes, Lowery and other CHP officers said Peyer had access to the car until his arrest, underscoring the fact that Peyer had numerous opportunities to hide the alleged murder weapon but did not.

James McCoy, a 10-year CHP veteran, testified he was Peyer’s good friend and best man at two of his weddings. But McCoy said that on the night of the slaying, Peyer walked by him, hiding one side of his face with a load of CHP uniforms, and did not acknowledge a greeting.

“Craig and I have always been very good friends; I was surprised that he didn’t acknowledge me,” McCoy said.

Linda Alley, an eight-year CHP veteran, testified that she rode with Peyer briefly when she transferred to San Diego in May, 1986, before Knott’s death. On one occasion, Peyer drove her to the Mercy Road off-ramp and noted that it would be a good place to dump a body, Alley said.

‘Good Place to Dump a Body’

“If one ever wanted to get rid of or dump a body, this would be a good place to do so,” Alley quoted Peyer as saying. However, Alley said police officers frequently make light of tragic events and said t she did not find Peyer’s comment to be “unusual.”

A couple testified that they saw a police car leave the Mercy Road off-ramp at about the same time that police said Knott was killed. Duane and Ann Clinkscales said the limousine they had rented broke down at the off-ramp.

Ann Clinkscales described the police car as a “two-tone” with light bar on top and a push bumper. She said that the car was heading south on Interstate 15, exited at the off-ramp, crossed Mercy Road and got back on the freeway while traveling at a high rate of speed, never stopping.

Duane Clinkscales said the car was white and did not have a light bar on top. In addition, he said that the car appeared to be going east to west on Mercy Road, driving under the freeway, and headed south on Interstate 15 at high speed.

At one point Wednesday, Grimes objected when prosecutor Atkins called Knott’s death a murder. Murder has not been proven, Grimes complained, and Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman agreed. Huffman instructed Atkins to refer to Knott’s death as a killing during the trial.