| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Peterson lawyers want to link case to other killing of pregnant woman
Friday June 20, 2003MODESTO, Calif. (AP) San Francisco authorities are fighting an effort by Scott Peterson's defense lawyers to connect Laci Peterson's murder with the killing of another pregnant woman whose body was found in San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco police said there is no link between the Peterson killing and last year's slaying of Evelyn Hernandez and they asked a Stanislaus County Superior Court judge Thursday to dismiss a subpoena to view the investigation file.
``I do not believe that there is any information in the file that could link the death of Ms. Hernandez with the death of Laci Peterson,'' homicide Inspector Holly Pera wrote in an affidavit.
Defense lawyer Kirk McAllister said in a May 29 subpoena that the Hernandez case could point to ``the actual perpetrators'' in the death of Peterson, whose remains washed ashore on the east side of the bay in April. Defense lawyers have vowed to find the real killers and have suggested that a satanic cult may be to blame.
Hernandez, a 24-year-old single mother, disappeared in May 2002 with her son, Alex, one week before she was to deliver a baby boy. Part of her torso and maternity clothing were found July 24 on the San Francisco side of the bay. The boy was never found.
Police are treating the case as a homicide.
Turning over the investigation file to Peterson's lawyers could jeopardize the case by revealing witnesses and tipping off the suspect, Pera said.
Hernandez's killing received little attention until family members complained of the disparity between the amount of news coverage the Peterson case was receiving while their case languished.
The cases have some parallels because both women were due to deliver sons, their bodies were found in the bay and the fathers-to-be were considered the primary suspects.
While Scott Peterson, 30, has been charged with two counts of murder in the killings of his wife and unborn son, no arrest has been made in the Hernandez case. Peterson has pleaded innocent.
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