Chapter 170 Section 19

"Did you specifically discuss the price in your correspondence with Mr. Peterson?" "yes." "What was the price of your final deal—?" "Standard rate, $150 an hour." "During your correspondence with Mr. Peterson, did you specifically discuss what to do when you met on September 5, 2001?" "yes." "What are you going to do?" "What?" Brentt glanced at the Assistant Attorney General as if she was asking a completely unnecessary question, "Sex." Defendant's cross-examination. "I don't think there are many married men among your guests?" David Rudolph asked.

"On the contrary, the vast majority of my guests are married men." "What kind of men are they? What is the occupation of these men, for instance?" "The clients I receive are not ordinary people," said Brendt with some pride, "because I charge a lot. There are doctors, lawyers, and..." Brendt glanced at Judge Orlando Hudson and smiled. said, "A judge." Everyone laughed, and Judge Hudson laughed too.Brendt waved his hand: "Not this judge." "We can see that," echoed David Rudolph. Brunt admitted that he had no personal relationship with Mike Peterson and had no actual sexual relationship with him.David Rudolph's final question: "Do you know anything about the Katherine Peterson murder?"

"have no idea." The prosecution continues to call witnesses. Several YMCA fitness center workers testified that gay people who visited the center to work out often congregated in the steam room around the time of Mike Peterson's and Catherine's wedding a few years ago.One of them was Mike, who had at least two homosexual relationships.The illegal gathering was stopped shortly after being discovered by the staff. There is no evidence that Catherine knew about Mike's "extramarital homosexuality", but Catherine's close relatives and friends testified that if she knew, she would not spare Mike Peterson and would divorce him.The reason Catherine separated from her ex-husband was because Fred Alvart had an affair, not to mention that in the eyes of ordinary people, homosexuality is "very dirty".

The prosecution's position is that the fact that Mike Peterson's homosexuality not only exposes the illusion of a happy marriage and a happy family of the Petersons that the defendant tried to whitewash, but also provides the basis for conflicts between them, and further provides evidence for Mike Peterson. Another possible motive for Peterson's wife killing. Catherine's Canadian colleague, Helen Puslin, told the court that when she called Peterson's home on the evening of December 8, it was the address she offered to exchange emails with Catherine because she had some information about the conference call. to Catherine.Catherine asked her to wait, saying she was going to her husband's study.Helen could vaguely hear the voice of Catherine talking to Mike, and it seemed that the computer was turned on.Anyway, Catherine gave Helen Puslin the email address of Mike Peterson and promised Helen that she would wait for her email.

In response to questions from the public prosecutor, Helen Puslin said that Catherine sounded fully sane at the time and spoke in a very orderly manner, without such things as incoherent speech, slurred speech, stammering, grunting, or excessive repetition. Signs of drunkenness. A police officer next in court showed the jurors several printouts of Mike Peterson's emails with "Brad" Brendt Wargunmore, some of which were printed out from Mike Peterson's computer. Nude photos of "Brad" were also attached to the page.The witness explained that the printouts had been in the drawer of Mike Peterson's desk when the police searched the scene and had somehow been mixed up with Catherine's pay stubs, tax returns, etc. in a folder.

It is conceivable that when Catherine sat in front of Mike Peterson's computer and waited for Helen Puslin's mail, she either opened the drawer in front of her and discovered the correspondence between Mike and "Brad", or entered the Mike's computer system saw some of the commonly used gay websites, the more than 2,500 male pornographic images, and the correspondence between Mike and "Brad"... In short, fierce disputes and conflicts broke out between the couple.At some point during the process, a wine glass was broken.The final result is a bloody case and a trial.

Duane DeVere, a North Carolina Bureau of Investigation official and expert in blood spatter kinematics, testified on the witness stand for seven days.Of course, he wasn't talking or answering questions all the time.Duane DeVille used a lot of auxiliary means, such as video and pictures taken by the police at the scene, such as a staircase model five times smaller than the real thing, such as the pre-recorded "blood splatter simulation experiment".In order to enhance the convincing, Duane this time exceptionally did not use the mixture of tomato sauce and water in the simulated experiment, but used real blood—the expired but not yet spoiled blood in the Red Cross blood bank.

Duane DeVille told the jury that, by his calculations, Catherine had suffered at least three fatal blows to the head.The first time it happened was on the twelfth step of the stairs, when Catherine was supposed to be standing, where the bloodstain on the highest part of the wall was nine feet above the ground, about 27 meters.Catherine grabbed the handrail of the left wall before she fell, so she should have been half upright, or kneeling, by the killer's second blow.Catherine's state is not static, she is always moving.The most obvious is that after she was attacked for the second time, Catherine fell quickly, and the blood was scattered on the wall.Catherine then rolled down the stairs, and in doing so, did hit her head on the ledge, causing some wounds.The final blow came at the foot of the stairs, as Catherine lay.

Duane DeVille told the jury the direction of the victim's blood spatter should have been towards the killer.Also, based on the blood pattern in the stairwell, during the first two blows, the killer stood behind Catherine, in a commanding position on the stairs.For the third time, "Mike Peterson" -- whom Duane called by his first name rather than "murderer" -- straddled the victim with his legs apart.When Duane DeVille took Mike Peterson's blood-stained kaki shorts and pointed to the crotch and the eight bloodstains on the inside of the right leg, he picked up the photo of Catherine's gray fleece pants and pointed to the one on the front thigh. Many jurors looked horrified when they saw very clear bloody shoe prints.