Peyer Appeals to State High Court

Former California Highway Patrolman and convicted murderer Craig Peyer has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn his conviction in the 1986 slaying of San Diego State University student Cara Knott.

A secretary in the office of attorney Christopher J. Schatz, Peyer’s appellate attorney, said the appeal was filed with the high court Aug. 2.

The 30-page brief filed by Schatz contains the same issues that he raised in a previous appeal filed with the state 4th District Court of Appeal in April. In June, the 4th District court, in a 65-page opinion, rejected every challenge raised by the attorney.

In the Supreme Court brief, Schatz again accused prosecutor Paul Pfingst of misconduct during Peyer’s criminal trial. Pfingst called Peyer a “predator” with an “appetite” for young women in his closing argument to the jury. Schatz argued that Pfinst’s portrayal of Peyer unfairly tainted him in the eyes of the jury.

Peyer, 40, was a California Highway Patrol officer for 13 years. He is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence in a state prison.

Peyer’s attorney also argued that Pfingst acted illegally when he told the jury in his closing argument that many questions about the killing remained unanswered because Peyer failed to testify. The U.S. Constitution allows an accused person the right to refuse to testify at his trial if he or she so desires.

Schatz also argued that Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman erred when he allowed 30 young women to testify about nighttime stops initiated by Peyer on the same Interstate 15 off-ramp where Knott, 20, was killed the night of Dec. 27, 1986. The women testified that Peyer engaged them in long, personal conversations on the darkened Mercy Road off-ramp.

Pfingst offered the women’s testimony to show that Peyer had a pattern of stopping young women and to show jurors that he also had the opportunity to stop Knott on the night she was murdered.