Testimony on Publicity Factor Barred : Judge Deals New Blow to Peyer Defense

The judge in Craig Peyer’s retrial denied a request by defense attorneys Thursday to present testimony from a psychologist who believes the memories of some prosecution witnesses were probably influenced by publicity about the case.

The ruling deals a blow to defense efforts to suggest that certain prosecution witnesses may have based their testimony about Peyer on news accounts rather than on events they actually observed.

Peyer, 38, is charged with the murder of Cara Knott, a 20-year-old college student. Knott’s body was found Dec. 28, 1986, in a ravine off a stretch of highway patrolled by Peyer, who was then employed as a California Highway Patrol officer. She had been strangled.

Would Have Expected Blood

Jurors in Peyer’s first trial deadlocked 7 to 5 for conviction last February. The defense plans to conclude its part of the retrial today, after which prosecutors are expected to call a handful of rebuttal witnesses. Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday, and jury deliberations are likely to begin later that day.

On Thursday, a medical examiner with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, Dr. Ronald Kornblum, testified that he would have expected to see traces of blood or skin on a rope that prosecutors say was the murder weapon.

The rope was found in the trunk of Peyer’s patrol car soon after Knott’s death, and prosecution experts have described it as consistent with the ligature marks found on Knott’s neck. The rope is not among equipment typically carried by CHP officers.

Although Kornblum said a residue of blood and skin might have been expected on the rope, he conceded under cross-examination by Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst that such is not always the case.

Kornblum also testified that coroners in Los Angeles routinely take a reading of the liver temperature of homicide victims at the crime scene. Kornblum said the reading is useful in homicide investigations because the average body loses heat at 1 to 1.5 degrees per hour. Using that formula, a coroner can calculate backward to arrive at an estimated time of death.

Had San Diego County coroners taken such a reading immediately after Knott’s body was found, Kornblum testified, the figure might have been useful in determining the time she was killed. The time has remained a mystery, and defense attorneys have argued that, if authorities had promptly recorded a liver temperature, Peyer would have been exonerated.

Knott’s liver temperature was taken, but not until hours after her body was discovered by police in a dry creek bed near the Mercy Road exit off Interstate 15. Coroners were not able to reach any useful conclusions from the reading, and jurors said after the first trial that questions about the time of death were central to their inability to reach a verdict.

During his lengthy cross-examination, Pfingst attempted to demonstrate that there is no agreement among coroners about the usefulness of the liver temperature in determining time of death.

Under questioning from the tenacious prosecutor, Kornblum acknowledged that factors such as air temperature, climate, clothing worn by the victim and the victim’s physical makeup can all influence the liver reading.

Earlier Thursday, Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman rejected a bid by defense attorney Robert Grimes to call Elizabeth Loftus as a witness. Loftus is a psychologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who specializes in memory.

During a hearing held out of the jurors’ presence, Loftus testified that people’s memories of events often are altered by what they read in newspapers or see on television. Grimes argued that her testimony would help jurors evaluate whether the recollections of some prosecution witnesses--such as those who said they saw scratches on Peyer’s face the night Knott died--were based on actual observations or on media accounts, as the defense has suggested.

However, Huffman said the widespread publicity the case has received means that every witness is likely to have been exposed to news accounts that, under Loftus’ theory, might have affected their recollections. The judge said allowing her to testify would require a review of all the potentially influential publicity, an endeavor he said would be too time-consuming and confusing for the jury.

Also Thursday, Grimes asked Huffman to reconsider his earlier ruling barring testimony about a bearded hitchhiker whom defense witnesses in the first trial said they saw along the route Knott drove the night she disappeared. The witnesses said the hitchhiker was lunging at cars and waving money in an apparent attempt to snare a ride.

Grimes argued that Tuesday’s testimony by a defense witness who said she saw two couples in a white Volkswagen near Mercy Road the night Knott died provided a new basis for allowing the testimony about the hitchhiker. He said one of the people Susan Lambert said she saw in the VW matched the description of the hitchhiker.

In rejecting the motion, Huffman reiterated his belief that there is no evidence linking the hitchhiker to Knott’s death.