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The Staircase Murder Trial
S1, EP32 "From Accident Site to Crime Scene"
The Defense calls out the Durham Police Department and its handling of the scene where Kathleen Peterson lost her life; on the stand was the former sergeant who told jurors about his observations.
S1, EP33 "Head of Homicide Division Breaks It Down"
Jurors hear from the Head of the Homicide Division of the Durham Police Department; according to Sergeant Emmanuel Paschall, police did nothing out of the ordinary.
S1, EP34 "Looking for a Blow Poke"
The third sergeant to testify says the idea of Kathleen Peterson's death being suspicious prompted them to look for a possible murder weapon; prosecutors allege a fireplace accessory called a blow poke was used for the murder of Kathleen; the investigation shows she had blunt force trauma to the back of her head, which led to her possibly bleeding out at the bottom of a staircase.
S1, EP35 "Sergeant Defends His Police Unit"
Michael Peterson's defense was grilling the sergeant on the stand; Sergeant Emmanuel Paschall was the head of the homicide division with Durham Police and was alerted to Kathleen's death an hour after police first showed up.
S1, EP36 "Police Observations of the Defendant"
Prosecutors had more police officers to call to testify about the scene of Kathleen Peterson's death; jurors got a glimpse from multiple officers on what was going on inside that home.
S1, EP37 "Search Warrant and the Canine Team"
An officer in the K-9 division of the Durham Police Department took the stand; hours after Kathleen Peterson was found, Officer Trent Hall was tasked to search the grounds of the Peterson home to try to find a murder weapon.
S1, EP38 "Searching the Family Property"
Prosecutors tried to show the jury that police were not out to get him because of what he wrote about the department in the newspaper, as the Defense alleged; the State claimed evidence led police to arrest Michael for first-degree murder.
S1, EP39 "Meteorologist Under Voir Dire"
Wondering what the weather was like the night Kathleen Peterson died; the forensic meteorologist on the stand explained to the judge during voir dire; Michael said, before his wife died.
S1, EP40 "Police Lieutenant Testifies"
The jury learned details about the early part of the investigation into the death of Kathleen Peterson; the information came from a high-ranking officer in the police department.
S1, EP41 "There Was So Much Blood"
Michael Peterson's lead attorney wasn't done challenging the Lieutenant on the stand in the staircase murder trial. Lieutenant Connie Bullock was the highest-ranking officer who arrived at the scene where Kathleen died.
S1, EP42 "Intestacy"
Prosecutors return to the theme of money; the jury learns more about how Kathleen Peterson's assets were divided after her death; on the stand, John Huggard, an expert in estate planning; the State accuses Michael of killing his wife to inherit her money and for her life insurance.
S1, EP43 "Valid Inheritance"
The Defense began its cross-examination of the estate planning expert. John Huggard testified that Kathleen Peterson's assets went to two people--her husband, Michael, the defendant, and her only child, her daughter, Caitlin Atwater.
S1, EP44 "From Probate Court to Criminal Court"
Debt, inheritance, and estate values are all brought up during the testimony of the prosecution's estate planning expert; John Huggard testifies under cross-examination on how Kathleen Peterson's assets were distributed after her death; since she did not have a will, a probate court gets involved; the crime scene technician who processed the scene where Kathleen died testifies.
S1, EP45 "Dan George"
A crime scene technician tells the jury everything he could remember about arriving at the scene and when he began processing it; it didn't take long for the Dan George to conclude that Kathleen Peterson's death wasn't the result of an accident.
S1, EP46 "Crime Scene Video"
For the first time in this trial, the jury sees graphic imagery of Kathleen Peterson's body; video from the crime scene played out in court; the prosecution wanted the jurors to see for themselves the evidence that it felt proved this was a homicide.
S1, EP47 "Observations of the Crime Scene Technician"
The jury learned more about how a crime scene technician processes and tests for blood and other physical evidence; according to Dan George, police took their time in getting clues at the crime scene.
S1, EP48 "Introducing All the Physical Evidence Collected"
Investigators collect all of Kathleen Peterson's clothing and accessories that she had on when she died, including a Rolex watch and all the clothes that Michael Peterson had been wearing; jurors see Michael Peterson's sneakers, socks, shorts and a navy blue T-shirt he was wearing the night he claimed he found his wife dead on the floor; Dan George testifies that there were items that he and his team did not take into evidence.
S1, EP49 "Marking and Identifying Key Evidence"
Prosecutors take their time presenting the crime scene evidence that had been collected and processed after Kathleen Peterson's death; for jurors this is a tedious but necessary process of marking, identifying and submitting physical evidence.
S1, EP50 "Linking the Physical Clues to Murder"
More physical clues are marked and submitted as evidence for the State's case against Michael Peterson in the death of his wife, Kathleen; the jury sees visual exhibits and graphic sketches as prosecutors trie to prove that Michael killed his wife.
S1, EP51 "Lead Technician Faces Cross-Examination"
Dan George, who processed the area where Kathleen Peterson died, is now under cross-examination; Michael Peterson's lead attorney breaks down the report about the morning Kathleen was found dead, and accuses George of inconsistent statements.
S1, EP52 "Calling Out the Investigator's Work"
The Defense keeps drilling the lead crime scene investigator in this case; Dan George was in charge of collecting and processing evidence.
S1, EP53 "Poking Holes In The Investigator's Report"
Michael Peterson's defense shows jurors that police messed up the early part of their investigation; the Defense claims these mistakes happened when police treated the death of Kathleen as a homicide.
S1, EP54 "Nitpicking Police's Work At The Crime Scene"
The crime scene technician in charge of collecting and processing evidence in the death of Kathleen Peterson testifies that he noticed blood smeared and wiped on the steps of the staircase.
S1, EP55 "Scrutinizing the Police's Investigation"
The evidence-gathering techniques of the police were under the microscope during this cross-examination; for the third consecutive day on the stand, lead crime scene technician, Dan George.
S1, EP56 "Not Everything Was Collected as Evidence"
The lead crime scene technician admitted on the stand that his team did not collect and process all the pieces of evidence from the crime scene, which included the bloody towels that were underneath Kathleen Peterson's head.
S1, EP57 "Blood Evidence and Cross-Contamination"
Michael Peterson's defense team keeps drilling the lead crime scene technician on the witness stand; the State argues that even a bad, slip-and-fall down a flight of stairs could not have produced as much blood as police said was at the scene.
S1, EP58 "Long Cross-Examination Wraps Up"
The long cross-examination of the crime scene technician wraps up on his fourth consecutive day on the stand; Dan George collects the evidence that police used to accuse Peterson of killing his wife in their home; the defense raises the notion that first responders disturbed the scene where Kathleen died; George testifies that he did not take any photographs at the house, but he did videotape the crime scene.
S1, EP59 "Standing Behind His Work"
The lead crime scene technician who processed Michael and Kathleen Peterson's home broke down the initial stages of the homicide investigation into Kathleen's death. He had been on the stand for four days telling jurors about.
S1, EP60 "From Accident to Suspicion to Homicide"
Law enforcement used the term suspicious in connection to Kathleen Peterson's death even before declaring it a homicide.
S1, EP61 "Luminol Testing"
Jurors learn more details about those early hours after Kathleen Peterson's body was found and how police investigated the area where she died; Eric Campen, a crime scene investigator, broke down the use and importance of luminol.
S1, EP62 "Eric Campen"
The supervisor in charge of evidence technicians for the city of Durham testified, Eric Campen tells jurors that he used luminol in the stairwell where Kathleen Peterson was found dead.
S1, EP63 "Following the Blood Trail"
Crime scene technicians track Michael Peterson's movements throughout the house by focusing on the bloody footprints left after his wife, Kathleen, passed away; luminol to follow the blood trail and smear at and near her body.
S1, EP64 "Crime Scene Analysis"
Michael Peterson's defense team begins its cross-examination of the senior crime scene technician on the stand; the defense tries to pick apart the testimony of Eric Campen; lead defense attorney David Rudolf raises the notion that two investigators contradicted each other on how blood evidence testing was done.
S1, EP65 "Sources Of Contamination"
Contamination was what Michael Peterson's defense claimed happened at the crime scene after Kathleen was killed. They claimed family and friends were walking all through the area.
S1, EP66 "More Grilling of the Supervisor of Evidence Technicians"
It was back to the blood stains in the stairwell for jurors; The State contended that this along with other key crime scene evidence proved that she died in a fatal beating to the back of her head and not in a fall.
S1, EP67 "Critiquing the Investigator's Reports"
A senior crime scene investigator tells the jury he never saves his notes; Eric Campen led the investigative unit of evidence technicians who processed the area where Kathleen Peterson was found, and the Defense nitpicks his final report; Campen defends his work to jurors, and breaks down his methods and procedures.
S1, EP68 "Uncovering Footprints And Blood Throughout The Home"
The senior crime scene investigator said that police tried to take notice of any clues as to whether Michael Peterson attempted to mislead their investigation. The testing uncovered footprints and blood evidence leading to the other room.
S1, EP36 "The Role Of The Armorer"
Muzzle discipline and finger off the trigger were some of the firearm safety protocols jurors learned.
S1, EP35 "Experienced Armorer Opines"
Prosecutors bring in Bryan Carpenter, an armorer who worked in the film industry, to stress the importance of the armorer's job to ensure the safety of the cast and crew.
S1, EP31 "Public Criticism of the Durham Police Department"
According to his defense, Michael Peterson was a target of police, and they couldn't wait to pin his wife's death on him from the moment they arrived at the house; Fran Borden, a retired sergeant was under cross-examination.
S1, EP30 "Newspaper Columns Against The Police"
The Defense raises the idea to jurors that the Durham Police Department has a grudge against Michael Peterson because of the things he wrote about in Durham's newspaper; two years before Kathleen died, Michael criticized them in newspaper columns.
S1, EP29 "Retired Sergeant Remembers The Crime Scene"
A sergeant at the scene testifies that there were several red flags that made him suspicious about what happened; Fran Borden, the retired sergeant, was in charge of the crime scene after Kathleen Peterson's death.
S1, EP28 "More Corroborating Police Testimony"
Jurors listened to yet more officers observations of the scene in the hours following Kathleen Peterson's death; police arrived shortly after the 911 call and grew suspicious of Michael Peterson's claims that she fell down 15 to 20 steps.
S1, EP27 "Questioning Police Tactics and Procedures"
The Durham Police Department was in the hot seat during this trial; investigators had decided in a matter of hours that Kathleen Peterson's death was a homicide and not an accidental slip and fall.
S1, EP26 "Assessing the Situation"
The Defense goes after how the police handled the scene after the death of Kathleen Peterson; Sergeant Terry Wilkins testifies that early in the morning, soon after Kathleen Peterson died, things were still up in the air for police about what happened to her; Wilkins also remembers that Michael was not being treated as a suspect yet since they were trying to quickly assess the situation and properly document everything.
S1, EP25 "Patrolling Sergeant Recalls"
The sergeant on the stand testified about his report on the crime scene; he and his team raised red flags about Kathleen Peterson's alleged slip and fall accident and called for homicide investigators to process the scene.
S1, EP24 "Suspicious Death"
The Defense tries to question how police processed what was considered a crime scene after the death of Kathleen Peterson; one of the officers on the stand admits that they didn't rope off the scene for nearly an hour.
S1, EP23 "Arriving at a Staged Fatal Accident"
Jurors hear more testimony from the first police officers at the scene; they say they saw a frantic Michael and Kathleen lying in a pool of blood; prosecutors stress to jurors the events of those early morning hours following Kathleen's death.
S1, EP22 "Corporal Recalls the Death Scene"
Corporal J.C. McDowell tells jurors how bloody the scene was where Kathleen Peterson was found.
S1, EP21 "The First Police Officers Who Arrived"
The jury listens to the first of many police officers involved in the initial stages of the investigation into what happened to Kathleen Peterson.
S1, EP20 "The 911 Call Plays"
The state investigator who looked through three years of the Petersons' financial records wraps up his testimony; prosecutors bring up the 911 call that brought first responders to the Peterson home.
S1, EP19 "Allegations of a Desperate, Broke Husband"
Agent Raymond Young uses colorful charts, numbers and financial papers to detail the accounts of both Michael and Kathleen Peterson; prosecutors argue the defendant had more to gain with his wife Kathleen dead.
S1, EP18 "Deadly Foul Play Over Money"
The police suspect foul play in the death of Kathleen Peterson, who was found bloodied at the bottom of the family's staircase.
S1, EP17 "Agent Raymond Young Goes To Work"
The Defense pushed back on the idea that Michael Peterson had a financial motive to kill his wife, Kathleen.
S1, EP16 "Financial Motive To Murder"
The State wants to first lay out for the jury the possible financial motive in this case; prosecutors tries to paint the picture of a desperately broke husband who resorted to killing his wife for money; to prove this, they present the couple's finances in the months leading to Kathleen Peterson's death; Michael Peterson's lawyers claim agent Raymond Young's calculations are skewed as the prosecution tries to argue a financial motive in the murder of Kathleen.
S1, EP15 "Living Beyond Their Means"
Michael and Kathleen Peterson had more than $142,000 in credit card debt; he reported no taxable income from a job in the three years before her death; the Defense argue that this is a numbers game with the intention to dupe the jury.