Scott Patterson has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of his wife and unborn child, according to California sentencing guidelines.
[Original story, published at 8:21 a.m. ET]
Stanislaus County District Attorney Bridget Flediger said in a Dec. 1 court statement that he is almost certain to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“The People submit to the court that the only sentence available to this defendant is 15 years to life in prison in addition to parole for the murders of Lazio and Connor,” the woman and unborn child said. . Peterson K, said the prosecutor of Dec. .
“Juror No. 7 committed prejudicial conduct by failing to show his prior involvement in other legal proceedings, including, among others, being the victim of a crime,” the court wrote.
Patterson’s attorneys said the jury’s answers to his questionnaire were inaccurate and that he committed misconduct that created a presumption of prejudice.
Patterson was sentenced to death in 2005 for the 2002 murders of Lazio and Connor in one of the most publicized trials in recent memory. But in 2020, the state’s highest court found that prospective jurors were mistakenly dismissed after expressing general objections to the death penalty in a questionnaire.
“Here, the trial court erroneously dismissed many prospective jurors because of their written responses to a questionnaire opposing the death penalty, even though the jurors gave no indication that their views prevented them from continuing. Law And indeed, he specifically affirmed this in his questionnaire. Answers in which it would not be difficult,” the court wrote in its 2020 decision.
Lazio Patterson was more than seven months pregnant when she disappeared just before Christmas 2002. Prosecutors accuse Scott Patterson of killing her at his home in Modesto and then dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. A fishing boat he recently bought.
In April 2003, the bodies of Lazio and the child were found separately on the ground.
Patterson has always maintained his innocence and his appeals have focused on various aspects of the trial, including the publicity surrounding it, the way jurors…