Key Murder Defense Tactic Disallowed : Trial: The judge says the defendant’s daughter cannot be asked about earlier accounts of her mother’s death.

A defense attorney was thwarted Tuesday in efforts to vigorously cross-examine a key prosecution witness in the trial of a Tarzana man accused of killing his wife and trying to kill his daughter.

Judge Howard J. Schwab refused to allow defense attorney Donald J. Green to question Natasha Peernock Sims, 22, daughter of defendant Robert Peernock, about several inconsistencies between her trial testimony and earlier statements to investigators.

Schwab held a hearing without jurors present and accepted Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig R. Richman’s argument that, at the time of those statements, Sims was on drugs administered to aid her recovery from head wounds suffered in the incident. After the ruling, Sims was questioned by Green for less than an hour.

Peernock, 54, is on trial in San Fernando Superior Court on charges that he beat his wife to death, tried to kill Sims and then staged a car crash to make their deaths appear accidental.

The body of Peernock’s estranged wife, Claire Laurence Peernock, 45, and his oldest daughter, then 18, were found about 4:30 a.m. July 22, 1987, in Sun Valley in Claire Peernock’s car, which had been doused with gasoline and had struck a utility pole. Richman says Robert Peernock, a former pyrotechnical engineer for a movie studio, had rigged the car to burst into flames when it crashed.

Sims, who was critically injured in the crash but survived, testified that about 12 hours before the crash, her father came to the Saugus house where she lived and began choking her, brandished a pistol, then handcuffed and hogtied her, and force-fed her alcohol.

She said she also recalled being placed in a car alongside another person who was breathing slightly but whom she could not identify.

At the hearing Tuesday, Sims told Schwab that she could not recall any statements she made while recovering, including whether she had mentioned the pistol in her initial statements to police. Police reports contain no mention of a pistol, the defense contends.

Green, who declined to discuss the ruling, said in an opening statement to jurors a month ago that the defense would center on attacking Sims’ credibility.

Richman contends that Peernock killed his wife to prevent her from receiving money in a pending divorce settlement and to cash in on life insurance policies.

Peernock is charged with murder for financial gain, attempted murder, kidnaping and arson.