Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Palmdale Man Will Face Trial in His Wife’s Slaying : Courts: Jeffrey Peitz had blamed the killing on an intruder, a man whom authorities have ruled out as a suspect.

A Palmdale man who told sheriff’s deputies a home intruder killed his wife because of her crime-fighting Neighborhood Watch work was ordered Friday to stand trial himself for the woman’s murder.

After an unusually long, four-day preliminary hearing that focused on Jeffrey Dale Peitz’s affection for firearms and an affair he allegedly had with a co-worker, Antelope Municipal Court Judge Ian R. Grant ruled there was sufficient cause to bind him over for trial.

Grant ordered Peitz to appear at a Lancaster Superior Court arraignment on Nov. 3, which would have been the 38th birthday of his wife, Teri. The judge also ordered that Peitz, 39, remain in jail without bail.

Teri Peitz, who ran a child-care business and organized one of the largest Neighborhood Watch groups in Palmdale, died Aug. 12 after being shot twice in the head while watching her favorite television show, “Cops,” authorities said.

Jeffrey Peitz, a postal worker, told sheriff’s investigators that he was upstairs folding laundry when he heard popping sounds. He said that when he went downstairs, he saw a gunman walking out the front door.

Peitz told police the intruder appeared to be a man with whom the Peitzes had quarreled in their Neighborhood Watch work.

But investigators determined that the suspect named by Peitz had been in Michigan at the time of the shooting. Eight days after the slaying, they arrested Peitz.

At the end of this week’s court hearing, defense attorney Richard S. Plotin urged the judge to dismiss the charges, saying they were based on speculation.

He noted that none of Peitz’s numerous handguns was proven to be the murder weapon and that the shell casings found beside his wife did not match the brand of ammunition Peitz stocked at the house.

Although deputies seized a homemade silencer--a slit tennis ball that fits over a rifle barrel--from Peitz’s garage, they could not prove it was used at the time Teri Peitz was killed, Plotin said.

In addition, gunshot residue test on Peitz’s hands after the slaying produced a negative result.

“We have absolutely no physical evidence in this case to connect my client to the crime,” Plotin argued. “It just doesn’t cut it, your honor.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. John A. Portillo said the case against Peitz was solid. “We have ample evidence of opportunity, motive and means,” the prosecutor said.

He said Peitz told deputies the shooting occurred no later than 9:15 p.m., but Peitz did not call 911 until 9:34 p.m. Portillo said this “19-minute gap” gave Peitz plenty of time to dispose of the murder weapon and a pair of gloves, or merely wash his hands to remove the gunshot residue.

Portillo also pointed to a letter in which the defendant’s 17-year-old daughter complained about her parents’ constant arguing. The daughter testified that her parents attended marriage counseling two years ago.

And a co-worker testified that she and Peitz had been involved in an extramarital affair that ended in July after they were interrupted at a Victorville hotel by a call from Teri Peitz.

The prosecutor said another motive may have been Teri Peitz’s life insurance policies, valued at more than $100,000.

Although investigators did not find the murder weapon, a neighbor testified that Peitz once demonstrated a .22-caliber rifle--now missing--that could have been used in the shooting, Portillo said.

The prosecutor also referred to numerous “oddities” that contributed to investigators’ suspicions about Peitz.

His daughter and his neighbors testified that Peitz, who has a keen interest in law enforcement, usually wore a handgun around the house and had motion-sensor security lights outside the house.

But on the night his wife was killed, the security light was unplugged and Peitz was not carrying a handgun. He told deputies he had turned off the light because of a neighbor’s complaint and did not wear a gun that night because he had taken medicine for a back ailment.

Investigators testified they became suspicious when Peitz found part of a bullet they had missed on the floor, along with a tiny cut in the screen door. Peitz suggested that the intruder made the cut to reach the locking mechanism.