Peyer Gave 2 Conflicting Accounts on How He Got Scratches, Jury Told

Former California Highway Patrol Officer Craig Peyer gave homicide investigators two different explanations of how he scratched his face on the night that Cara Knott was killed, a San Diego homicide detective testified Tuesday.

Detective Grant Raybould said that Peyer said he might have scratched his face with his fingernails while trying to avoid a fall. Peyer also said he might have suffered the scratches when he slipped on a gasoline spill and fell against a chain-link fence while refueling his police cruiser at CHP headquarters.

Peyer, 37, is charged with strangling Knott, who was trained in self-defense, on Dec. 27, 1986. Several witnesses, including Peyer’s wife, have testified that they saw scratches on Peyer’s face on the night of the killing. Prosecutors said that Knott, 20, was trained to scratch an attacker’s face.

Tuesday’s court session was the last day of witness testimony, preparing the way for the prosecution and defense to deliver their closing statements today. The case then will go to the jury for deliberation.

Superior Court Judge Richard D. Huffman said he will instruct the jury that Peyer can only be found guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, or acquitted. It is up to the jury to determine the degree of Peyer’s guilt if he is convicted.

Questioned About Scratches

On Tuesday, Raybould said that he asked Peyer about the scratches that were still visible on his face during a police interrogation on Jan. 9, 1987, 13 days after Knott’s killing. Raybould said that at least one mark--from one side of the nose to the eye socket--looked like a fingernail scratch and told him so.

“I brought that particular injury to Craig Peyer’s attention . . . I told him I thought that injury was probably caused by a fingernail,” Raybould said.

According to Raybould, Peyer agreed that it could have been caused by a fingernail but said that he could have scratched himself. Peyer explained that when he slipped by the fence he put both hands--with fingernails pointing in--in front of his face to protect himself from the fence, Raybould said.

“I told him that I didn’t think someone would try to catch himself like that when falling down,” Raybould said.

But Peyer said that is what happened, the detective added.

Peyer, a 13-year CHP veteran, is charged with strangling Knott, a San Diego State University student, 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 into a dry creek bed, where it was discovered by police the next morning. Peyer was arrested on Jan. 15, 1987, and fired in May.

Later Tuesday, a key prosecution witness was recalled by Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph Van Orshoven and admitted there had been several inaccuracies in his earlier testimony.

Robert Calderwood, a milkman, testified 2 1/2 weeks ago that he saw a CHP cruiser stop a light-colored Volkswagen beetle, like the one Knott was driving, on the Mercy Road off-ramp and southbound I-15 on the night that Knott was killed.

Calderwood said that the stop occurred about 8:30 p.m. He testified that he considered the stop unusual because he heard the CHP officer use the car’s public address system to order the driver to the off-ramp. One hour later, while driving north on I-15, Calderwood testified, he again saw a CHP car speeding away from the area where police said Knott was strangled.

In his earlier testimony, Calderwood said that he discussed what he saw with Betty Bahnmiller in late December, 1986, and again after Peyer was arrested. Bahnmiller testified that Calderwood discussed the incident with her some time between Christmas, 1986, and New Year’s Day, 1987.

But on Tuesday, Calderwood testified that he did not meet Bahnmiller until June, 1987, and could not have talked to Bahnmiller before then. But he insisted that he discussed his observations on Mercy Road with someone in late December, 1986, and January, 1987, but could not remember whom.

When pressed by Grimes on why he testified that he had talked with Bahnmiller when he had not, Calderwood said that he gave an “honest gut response” to questions he was asked at his first trial appearance.

After he and Bahnmiller testified, they came to independent conclusions that their testimony was wrong, Calderwood said.

Grimes questioned him aggressively about other discrepancies in his story, specifically about a different version of events that he told co-workers. Four co-workers contradicted Calderwood’s testimony when they testified last week.

The co-workers said that Calderwood was not sure when Knott was killed and was reading newspaper stories to learn facts about the killing. Two employees testified that Calderwood told them that he saw the CHP vehicle leave the site of the killing on the morning of Dec. 28, 1986, while he was on his milk route.

Don Johnson, who is Calderwood’s supervisor, testified Tuesday that Calderwood’s milk route did not take him by Mercy Road in December, 1986, but he believed him to be “an honest and trustworthy employee.”

“He had witnessed something and he wasn’t sure of the dates,” Johnson said. “ . . . I pointed out where he was at the time, which is not the area (Mercy Road) we were talking about. He was (his milk route) over at Camp Pendleton.”

After checking dairy records and records from his Amway business, Calderwood said he realized that he had his dates mixed up.

Calderwood stood by his earlier story of seeing the CHP cruiser stop the Volkswagen on Mercy Road. He also insisted under repeated questioning by Grimes that he has not read or heard anything about the case since Peyer’s arrest more than a year ago.

“I can only come here to relay the facts as I know them,” Calderwood said.

Defense attorneys chipped away at another prosecution argument Tuesday by getting a prosecution witness to acknowledge that only 37% of the traffic stops made by Peyer in 1986 were women and the rest were men. The prosecution had argued that Peyer had a history of stopping young, attractive women on the darkened Mercy Road off-ramp for minor violations.

CHP Capt. Lee Denno testified that, in 1986, Peyer issued 1,680 violations and only 23 were for minor violations such as faulty lights. Peyer also issued 129 “fix-it” tickets in 1986 and 85% to 90% of the tickets he gave were for more serious moving violations, Denno said.