New Peyer Case Prosecutor Has Record of Murder Trial Success

At the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, Paul Pfingst was up-and-coming within the ranks of criminal prosecutors. At the age of 30, he was the senior supervising trial attorney in charge of homicide prosecutions.

For a time, he and another deputy district attorney were assigned the task of deciding which of the hundreds of homicides in Brooklyn every year should be prosecuted, and how. He grew knowledgeable about every conceivable reason one person would want to kill another.

He personally tried more than 30 murder cases, and can think of losing only two to acquittals. Among the cases he was assigned were those involving cop killers and racially motivated murders--among the highest-profile murders in a city otherwise jaded by violence.

“He clearly rose up the ranks among prosecutors, which reflects the job he did for us,” said Glenn Goldberg, spokesman for Brooklyn Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Holtzman.

Resigned to Move West

But Pfingst resigned in 1984 after six years in Brooklyn, transferring his career to the San Diego County district attorney’s office in order to be closer to Orange County, where his family lives.

On Monday, Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller selected Pfingst, 36, to prosecute the murder retrial of Craig Peyer, the former California Highway Patrol officer accused in the slaying of Cara Knott. Knott, 20, a San Diego State University student, was strangled on Dec. 27, 1986, and her body thrown from a bridge along Interstate 15 near Poway.

Peyer’s first trial in Superior Court ended in a hung jury last month when jurors deadlocked, 7-5, in favor of convicting the 13-year CHP veteran. The evidence against Peyer was largely circumstantial. Miller said he wanted Pfingst to replace Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph Van Orshoven as the lead prosecutor in the retrial to give the second prosecution a “fresh approach.”

Ready for Challenge

Pfingst said Tuesday he was ready for the challenge: “Mr. Miller assigned me to the case. I’m ready to prosecute it. It’s my job.”

Pfingst declined to discuss any details of the case and how he might refashion the prosecution’s approach--guidelines that were laid down by Miller’s office.

But those who are familiar with Pfingst’s courtroom style--opposing attorneys and jurors who sat on the murder-for-hire trial of Laura Troiani which Pfingst helped successfully prosecute--give him high marks as a straightforward prosecutor.

They characterize Pfingst, an easy-going, bespectacled redhead, as tough, exacting and passionate in the courtroom, with a special skill in discrediting defense witnesses on cross-examination.

“If I can get off work, I’d like to go down and watch that Peyer trial with Pfingst,” said John G. Umphreyville, an Escondido tax preparer who served as jury foreman during the guilt phase of Troiani’s trial.

Did Most Courtroom Work

Pfingst handled the bulk of the courtroom chores during the guilt phase of Troiani’s trial. The jury deliberated fewer than nine hours in convicting Troiani for the Aug. 10, 1984, murder of her husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Carlo Troiani. Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Walden, who heads the district attorney’s office in Vista, took over the life-or-death phase of the trial, when the jury opted for leniency and sentenced Troiani to spend the rest of her life in prison instead of sending her to the gas chamber.

It was the first murder trial Pfingst has handled since coming to San Diego.

“From my exposure to Pfingst, I always thought he was a very brilliant man,” Umphreyville said. “He was especially sharp in coming back from a defense witness’ testimony and discrediting it, or at least throwing enough doubt on what the defense witness said. He was a superior attorney.”

Another juror, Ennis B. Free, described Pfingst’s courtroom work as “very impressive.”

“He was on top of everything all the time,” Free said. “He never fumbled. If he goes in there (on the Peyer retrial) with the same confidence he had for Troiani, he’ll do real well. Of course, he had all the evidence in the world (against Troiani) to work with, and that made him look good.”

Troiani juror Tracy Hege said, “He was also very passionate, very involved in the case. He was able to simplify everything that was said and go to the heart of the issue. I’m glad to hear he’s on the case.”

Courtroom adversaries say they, too, respect Pfingst.

The most reserved was Geraldine Russell, Troiani’s lead defense attorney. “I think he’s an effective advocate (but) he tends to get very emotional,” she said, declining further comment.

Defense attorney Dan Cronin, who represented Troiani triggerman Mark Schultz--who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison rather than risk trial and a death sentence--described Pfingst as “a real capable lawyer.”

“I’m really impressed with him,” Cronin said. “He thinks quickly and very well on his feet. When things are thrown at him, he rebounds well. He’ll give Peyer a run for his money.”

And defense attorney John Emerson, who represented another Troiani co-defendant who also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder rather than face trial, said of Pfingst:

“He’s very competent. He’s very thorough. He doesn’t miss a thing.”

‘Methodical, Thorough’

Walden, the fellow prosecutor, said of Pfingst: “He is methodical, thorough and scholarly. When it comes to legal issues, he can talk to a jury in layman’s terms and explain simply an otherwise complex factual situation.”

There was only mild criticism of Pfingst--and in each case, by people who asked not to be identified. He was described by a Brooklyn prosecutor, for instance, as being “a bit of a self-promoter,” but nonetheless “the kind of guy you’d want to work with.”

A San Diego attorney familiar with Pfingst characterized him as someone who “shoots from the hip.”

Others suggested that Pfingst was in a no-lose situation: If he can’t get a jury to convict Peyer, then he did no worse than the veteran prosecutor Van Orshoven. If, on the other hand, Pfingst wins a conviction, he will have settled perhaps the most sensational murder in recent years in San Diego and add one more star to his resume.

Pfingst was graduated from St. John’s University School of Law in New York City in 1976, and was hired as a prosecutor in the Nassau County district attorney’s office, which encompasses suburban Long Island, N.Y.

Transferred to Brooklyn

He handled run-of-the-mill criminal cases there for two years before moving to the Brooklyn prosecutor’s office, where he advanced from the general felony trial bureau to the homicide unit. By the time he left there six years later, he had been promoted to deputy bureau chief of the economic crimes and arson bureau.

After moving to San Diego--ironically, the very day that Carlo Troiani was murdered--he was assigned to the Vista Courthouse, where he handled a potpourri of misdemeanor criminal cases.