Prosecution Expected to Rest Today : Expert Links Blood Spot in Boot to Peyer

A dried blood spot found in the crease of Cara Knott’s left boot matched the blood type of former California Highway Patrol Officer Craig Peyer, a San Diego police serologist testified Tuesday.

The testimony of Walter K. W. Fung, a blood expert who has been with the San Diego Police Department for 9 years, paralleled his testimony at the preliminary hearing in April. Fung said that his analysis of the blood spot showed that it was Type-A blood, the same as Peyer’s.

Knott’s blood was Type-O, Fung said.

On Tuesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph Van Orshoven said the prosecution would rest its case against Peyer today after another surprise witness testifies. Van Orshoven said that prosecutors have located a woman who will testify that she saw a CHP cruiser on Mercy Road on the night of Dec. 27, 1986, when Knott was killed.

Peyer, a 13-year CHP veteran, is charged with killing Knott, 20. Police said she was strangled on the old U.S. 395 bridge near Interstate 15 and the Mercy Road off-ramp 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.

Though the blood spot matches Peyer’s blood type, Fung said he could not say that Peyer was the source of the blood. Prosecutors have contended that Knott, who was trained in self-defense, scratched Peyer’s face when she was attacked, causing him to bleed.

Defense attorney Robert Grimes has not denied that Peyer’s face was scratched on the night of Knott’s murder. However, Grimes has argued that Peyer suffered the scratches when he slipped on a gasoline spill at the CHP station.

Before Fung testified Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman gave the jury special instructions on how to interpret the experts’ blood testimony. The purpose of the testimony, Huffman said, is to show that a certain group of individuals from a particular blood type and with peculiar genetic markers could have contributed the blood spots found on Knott’s boot and sweat shirt.

However, jurors cannot use this testimony to calculate the odds or probability of Peyer’s guilt.

Another blood expert is expected to testify today that certain genetic markers found in Peyer’s blood type are found in only about 1% of the world’s population, and only in Caucasians. A bloodstain lifted from Knott’s sweat shirt matched Peyer’s blood type, the expert testified at the preliminary hearing. The genetic markers found in the bloodstain on the sweat shirt match those found in Peyer’s blood, he said.