Case Drawing to Close : Witness Tells of Seeing Peyer’s Clawed Face

A former gas station attendant testified Wednesday that a “nervous” Craig Peyer had “claw marks” on his face when he came in for fuel Dec. 27, 1986, and that the former California Highway patrolman attempted to hide the scratches by shielding them with his hand.

Karen Anderson also said that, before pumping his gas, Peyer retrieved a flashlight and night stick from the trunk of his car and cleaned them off with a red grease rag.

“I saw him in the back of his trunk,” Anderson said. “He was wiping down various objects like he was trying to clean things and straighten up the trunk.”

Anderson said she was going to ask Peyer about the scratches, which were “oozing blood,” but decided against it when the officer “gave me a look like, ‘Don’t say a word.’ ” She said Peyer remarked to her that it had been “one hell of a night.”

Also Wednesday, a new witness testified that the time on a ticket Peyer issued Dec. 27, 1986, had been changed from 10:20 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. Prosecutors have suggested that Peyer changed the time because the earlier hour is close to when authorities say Cara Knott died.

David Oleksow, an expert in the analysis of forged documents, also testified that the entries in Peyer’s daily log for Dec. 27 appear to have been made all at once rather than periodically throughout his shift. The log reflects a ticket issued at 9:20 p.m.; it does not include one written at 10:20 p.m.

Car Parked Nearby

Peyer, 38, is accused of stopping 20-year-old Knott at the Mercy Road exit on Interstate 15, strangling her and throwing her body from an abandoned highway bridge near the off-ramp. Knott’s body was found Dec. 28, 1986, in a creek bed 65 feet below the Old U.S. 395 bridge. Her car was parked nearby with the keys in the ignition and the driver’s window rolled down.

In February, jurors in Peyer’s first trial deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of conviction. The retrial, which is being handled by a new prosecutor, enters its 10th day today.

At the close of Wednesday’s court session, Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst said he expects to wrap up the prosecution’s case Friday. Defense attorney Robert Grimes predicted his presentation of evidence will take about four days, meaning the case could be in the jury’s hands by the end of next week.

Anderson is the second witness to testify that she saw scratches on Peyer’s face the night Knott disappeared while driving home to El Cajon. She said she was working at a Shell gas station on Kearny Villa Road when a CHP car pulled in and purchased $5 worth of fuel with a state credit card.

Peyer’s uniform was in “disarray,” said Anderson, noting that his arrival was the first time she had seen a CHP officer fuel up at the station. When Peyer re-entered the station’s office to sign his credit card receipt, he turned his head and attempted to hide the scratches with a cupped hand, Anderson testified.

In a vigorous cross-examination, Grimes revealed several inconsistencies between Anderson’s account and that of her co-worker, Shirley Schwartz, who testified earlier. The two women differed on where the scratches were located and on whether they discussed the marks that night.

Grimes also asked Anderson why she did not tell police detectives about seeing Peyer rearrange his trunk until two months after she was first interviewed. Anderson, who was living in a crisis center at the time, said she was having personal problems and did not remember what she saw until “I was dealing with my own problems better.”

Ticketed Driver Testifies

Another witness, Jean-Pierre Gulli, testified that he was stopped by a CHP officer sometime after 10 p.m. on Dec. 27, 1986, and given a ticket for a faulty tail light. Gulli testified that he could not have received the ticket at the time indicated--9:20 p.m.--because he was watching a movie at his sister’s house at that hour.

Gulli said the officer, who prosecutors maintain was Peyer, was polite “but a little nervous.” He said the patrolman “kind of peeled out” when he drove off after issuing the ticket.

Under cross-examination by Grimes, Gulli conceded that he first told police that he could identify the officer but later had trouble picking him out because he did not get a good look at his face.

The closed-door hearings that have marked much of the retrial continued Wednesday, with two sessions lasting a total of 30 minutes conducted out of view of the press and public. Meanwhile, the Times-Advocate, an Escondido newspaper, reported that a male juror apparently believes Peyer is innocent and lied to get on the jury.

The newspaper, relying on unnamed sources, said a woman who testified during a lengthy closed hearing Friday is a co-worker of a male juror. The account said the woman informed attorneys and Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman that the juror told her he thought Peyer was innocent.