Behind the Daniel Pelosi Murder Case
Dec. 15, 2004 -- -- The father of Daniel Pelosi, the New York electrician convicted of murder this week in one of the most sensational trials in recent memory, says he still is ambivalent about the verdict -- despite testifying for the prosecution during the trial.
Asked whether he believed his son is innocent, Robert Pelosi told ABC News' "Primetime": "I don't want to answer that."
He continued: "I don't know how to answer it. I don't think he could do something like that. But I don't really know ... I am his father."
Daniel Pelosi, 41, was convicted Monday of second-degree murder in the 2001 bludgeoning death of millionaire investment banker Theodore Ammon, 52. Prosecutors said he was angry over a proposed divorce settlement presented to Ammon's estranged wife, Generosa. Pelosi had been romantically involved with Generosa, and later married her.
"Primetime" correspondent Cynthia McFadden conducted exclusive interviews with some of the key players in the trial, including Pelosi's father, a jailhouse informant who also testified against Pelosi and his defense attorney.
Watch "Primetime" on Thursday, Dec. 16 at 10 p.m. ET
The elder Pelosi testified in October that his son had called him the day after Ammon's slaying and asked, "If someone wanted to get rid of something, what could they do with it?"
Prosecutors believe Daniel Pelosi was referring to a surveillance computer in Ammon's Long Island house that may have recorded the financier's last moments. It was ripped out of its hiding place in the house and has never been found.
Robert Pelosi said he didn't know what his son was talking about, but he told him: "In today's world it's very, very difficult, especially with DNA and the likes of that. If you wanted to take something and put it in the ocean the fisherman might come along and hook onto it, a dredge may pick it up. If you wanted to bury it, they may decide to build a house there or a road."
Robert Pelosi said he did not ask why his son was asking such a question. "I didn't want to know, to be honest with you," he said. "With everything that was happening I was afraid to ask a question like that."
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