Judge Delays Sentence, but Calls Peyer a Killer

Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman said Wednesday that he is “absolutely convinced to a moral certainty” that former California Highway Patrol Officer Craig Peyer killed student Cara Knott, but the judge postponed sentencing Peyer for his first-degree murder conviction until next month.

“I am satisfied, and I will remain satisfied for years, in the fact that Mr. Peyer killed Cara Knott,” Huffman said.

Peyer, a 13-year CHP veteran, was convicted last month of strangling Knott. He is the first CHP officer convicted of committing murder while on duty. His first trial ended with the jury deadlocked, 7 to 5, for conviction.

Huffman’s comments shocked Peyer’s family, who attended Wednesday’s hearing and later complained bitterly about the judge’s statement. Peyer’s parents, Harold and Eileen Peyer, and his wife, Karen, met with reporters in an afternoon press conference to discuss Peyer’s conviction and a controversial probation report that was leaked to the San Diego Tribune before the sentencing.

‘Startled by Bald Statement’

“I was very startled by that bald statement. We feel that there are many key pieces of evidence that point to reasonable doubt. We feel that Craig is innocent of this crime. . . . There’s a lot of evidence that is inconclusive. The rope. . . . There’s no blood (on the rope) and there’s no tissue,” said Harold Peyer.

A key piece of evidence for the prosecution was a 48-inch rope found in the trunk of Peyer’s car that was not a CHP-issued item.

Craig Peyer’s 12-year-old daughter, Michelle, who also attended the press conference and the morning court hearing, said that she was angered by Huffman’s comments. Tears welled in the girl’s eyes when she told reporters:

“My dad is not someone who could do anything like this. . . . I don’t even remember being spanked as a little kid. . . . He didn’t do it, and I know that.”

The probation report was the subject of a story in the Tribune on Tuesday, raising the latest controversy in a case that has been surrounded by turmoil. Normally, probation reports are not made public until a defendant is sentenced, but, on Wednesday, Peyer’s attorneys agreed to allow the court to release the document because it had already been made public.

According to the probation report, Peyer still denies that he killed Knott. He explained his conviction and subsequent jailing with the conclusion that “God must want me in here for some reason.” Although he has accepted the fact that he is going to state prison, initially, he apparently displayed depression and was counseled by a jail psychiatrist, the report said.

2 Sides of Personality

In the report, Peyer displays a dark and bright side. It describes him as God-fearing, friendly, a devoted family man and a person who gets along well with others. But the report also quotes Peyer’s two previous wives, who told a probation officer that they were not surprised by Peyer’s conviction.

Peyer’s first wife, who was married to him six years, called him a “blatant liar who fabricates stories.” She described Peyer as hot-tempered and said that he once choked her during a heated argument. She was identified only as Deborah W. in the report.

His second wife, Karen Muehleisen, who was married to him six months, said that Peyer was “controlling and intimidating.” She said that Peyer once told her: “There’s two people in this world you don’t piss off. That’s God and highway patrolmen, and not necessarily in that order.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, Huffman said that Muehleisen called him after reading that Peyer had told a probation officer he was a born-again Christian. “She said that the issues relating to religion are false and a pack of lies,” said Huffman.

Deborah W. said that Peyer’s head “seemed to swell” after he became a CHP officer. “He became ‘Mr. Macho.’ He liked to flirt with girls. It was almost like the badge was a way to flirt,” she said. She added that, during their marriage, Peyer was “self-centered” and was not interested in attending church.

During both trials, about 24 young women testified that Peyer stopped them at night on Interstate 15 and forced them to drive down the darkened and isolated Mercy Road off-ramp, where he detained them for up to 1 hour, 40 minutes. The women testified that Peyer often asked them personal questions. Some women said they felt threatened by the stops, but none said that Peyer ever touched them or asked them for a date.

‘Threw Her Around’

When Deborah W. asked Peyer for a divorce, “he begged me to make love to him one more time,” said the report. The woman said that she cried through the ordeal and “he forced me to go through with it.” Peyer “threw her around a couple of times,” the report said, and on one occasion “got on top of her in the bed and started choking her.”

Muehleisen said that Peyer “lied incredibly” during their short marriage and disapproved of her visiting friends. She described him as “the type of person that is never wrong,” who “sees things as either black or white, and nothing in between.”

“Craig was kind of devious. He was always asking me about things that I knew he already knew the answers to. . . . He was the type of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, but you would always sense that he was expecting something in return,” Muehleisen said.

Both of Peyer’s former wives said he would come around late at night and early in the morning, shining a flashlight inside the house, to find out if they were alone after they had separated from him.

Muehleisen is the sister of CHP Officer Craig Muehleisen, who testified at the trials that he worked with Peyer and had considered him his best friend at one time.

Peyer’s current wife said she has no complaints about her relationship with him. According to the probation report, “she considers that they are equal in all respects.” She conceded that they argue and yell at times, but said they “always work it out.”

Karen Peyer submitted a four-page handwritten response to the probation report at Wednesday’s session. According to her response, both former wives were not truthful in their descriptions of Peyer. Muehleisen, she said, liked to smoke marijuana with her friends and “Craig didn’t feel that he being a cop, she his wife, should be involved in this or allow it in his house.”

Karen Peyer said that Deborah W. lied about Peyer because “this is her way of venting her frustrations over the fact that her daughter chose to live with us and has now voiced her intention of never returning.” Michelle Peyer is the daughter of Peyer and Deborah W.

Even after their divorce, Peyer continued to repair Deborah W.’s car and provide her with financial assistance, Karen Peyer said. “Who did she turn to? Craig. These are not the actions of a woman who was beaten, choked or had things thrown at her,” Karen Peyer said in her response.

Later, at the family press conference, Karen Peyer said:

“It really grieves me to hear such horrible things said about Craig. Ninety-nine percent of the time ex-spouses will never say anything nice. . . . He’s a very loving, considerate person. He’s always truthful. . . . I believe in my heart his conviction and value for human life. If he had been involved in this situation, he would have broke down.”

During the press conference, Karen Peyer and Peyer’s mother, Eileen Peyer, said they did not think Huffman was fair to Peyer during the second trial.

“During the first trial, I was immensely impressed with Judge Huffman. . . . I lost some of that respect for him with the way in which he handled some situations at the second trial,” said Karen Peyer.

Peyer’s father said the family remains convinced of Peyer’s innocence. “The Knott family suffered a great loss. They should be after the killer. . . . Unfortunately, the wrong guy is in jail,” said Harold Peyer.

New Trial Denied

On Wednesday, Huffman denied a defense motion for a new trial based on several errors allegedly made by Huffman in rulings during the trial. The judge also denied a defense motion to reduce Peyer’s conviction to second-degree murder. Defense attorneys argued that there was insufficient evidence for the jury to convict him of first-degree murder in the case, which the prosecution built out of circumstantial evidence.

Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors failed to prove that Peyer killed Knott in a premeditated and deliberate manner. Peyer, 38, was convicted of strangling Knott, 20, on Dec. 27, 1986. She was killed near the Mercy Road off-ramp and Interstate 15, and her body was thrown off a bridge, landing 65 feet below in a dry creek bed.

“I am satisfied that it was done with deliberation and malice of forethought,” said Huffman. He added that he believes that Peyer struck Knott with his flashlight, strangled her with a rope from the trunk of his CHP cruiser and threw her body off the bridge.

Huffman delayed sentencing Peyer until Aug. 3.