MODESTO — Scott Peterson pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he murdered his pregnant wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner, a crime police and prosecutors say took place in the couple's Modesto home in the days just before Christmas.
"I am not guilty," a cleanly shaven Peterson said after Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Nancy Ashley read the charges against him, which could lead to the death penalty.
In documents filed Monday along with the complaint, police allege that Peterson killed his wife, who was eight months pregnant at the time, at their home on Dec. 23 or 24. Prosecutors did not reveal what led them to that conclusion or whether they have a motive for the killing.
Just hours after the arraignment, Laci Peterson's family, which had spent Easter weekend in seclusion, made a wrenching appearance before reporters. Her mother, Sharon Rocha, said she had lost her "best friend."
"I can only hope that the sound of Laci's voice begging for her life, and for the life of her unborn child, is heard over and over and over again in the mind of that person every day for the rest of his life," Rocha said, her voice choked with emotion. She and other family members avoided mentioning Scott Peterson by name.
The defendant's parents visited him in the Stanislaus County jail and emerged to tell reporters that they believe he has been wrongly accused.
"My son is innocent, and it is going to come out," said father Lee Peterson. "I am confident of that."
Peterson was arrested Friday in his car near San Diego, shortly before law enforcement authorities had confirmed that the bodies of a woman and fetus that washed ashore in San Francisco Bay were Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn son.
The bodies were found a day apart less than four miles from the spot where Peterson told police he had embarked on a fishing trip on Christmas Eve, leaving his wife at their modest bungalow home.
The 30-year-old fertilizer salesman was led in and out of the courtroom in a red jumpsuit, the color reserved for the most violent prisoners, his wrists chained in front of him. He was being kept in isolation because other prisoners have threatened him, authorities said.
Peterson did not make eye contact with members of his or his wife's families.
The two families -- once united in the initial search for Laci Peterson after she was reported missing by her stepfather on Christmas Eve -- sat across the aisle from each other in the front row.
