"With the Amber Frey tapes, they [prosecutors] were able to paint Peterson as such a despicable guy, that that may have turned the corner for them," said Cron.
In recent weeks, courtroom observers say, Detective Craig Grogan, the lead investigator in the case, boosted the prosecution by giving jurors the first detailed narrative that stitched together the many circumstances that led police to believe Peterson was involved in the killing.
Geragos used Grogan to point out that police failed to follow up on a number of reported sightings of Laci the day she vanished. Still, through Grogan's testimony, the prosecution was able to focus on Peterson's behavior just before his arrest.
Peterson's purchase of a car under his mother's name, change in appearance, repeated lies and the $15,000 cash he had when he was arrested suggest guilt, prosecutors intimated. Peterson, police detectives testified, looked like someone who was trying to elude authorities.
At the end of the prosecution's case, Modesto Detective John Buehler testified that when Peterson was arrested he had a large backpack and an overnight bag stuffed with hunting knives, a water purifier, snorkeling and fishing equipment, a shovel, and duct tape. Peterson also had several changes of clothes, four cell phones, two driver's licenses and six credit cards.
Some critics believe that prosecutors should have used Grogan as their last witness to emphasize and weave together the strongest points of the case. But the prosecution will have another chance to summarize the case in closing arguments.
"The case, instead of ending with a bang — which you want to do as a prosecutor — just petered out into minor points," said former prosecutor Dean Johnson. "The evidence is there, and you have to work for it and you have to look for it."
Peterson's deception could work to his advantage. He said his hair changed color after he swam in his friend's pool. But the friend testified that Peterson had never been at his pool. His alibi the day Laci disappeared — that he had fished near the Berkeley Marina — placed him near the area where she and the remains of the boy they planned to name Conner washed ashore.
Peterson's apparent fumbles, especially in the days before his arrest, and his lies to Frey, some experts say, seem laughable and hardly reflective of someone who could leave no traces of physical evidence of a murder. Prosecutors, some observers say, will have to reconcile these two Scott Petersons.
