INVESTIGATION OF CRAIG PEYER

Investigation of Craig Peyer

Investigation of Craig Peyer

Craig Alan Peyer was a rogue California Highway Patrol agent convicted of the 1986 strangulation killing of 20-year-old motorist Cara Knott, a scholar at San Diego State University.

 

Overview

Craig Alan Peyer was a California Highway Patrol agent convicted for the 1986 strangulation killing of 20-year-old Cara Knott, a scholar at San Diego State University. On the evening of December 27, 1986, Knott was going by car from her boyfriend's dwelling in Escondido to her parents' dwelling in El Cajon, California on Interstate 15 when Peyer, on obligation in a assessed CHP patrol vehicle, indicated Knott to drag off the freeway on an isolated off ramp. It subsequent came to lightweight that the agent had been before harassing women drivers in the identical locality, dragging them over on the identical isolated off ramp and evidently seeking to choose them up as dates. It's accepted that the position increased when Knott endangered to report Peyer for unprofessional demeanor, and that he slain her and chucked her body off an left behind connection into the brush underneath in an try to bypass disciplinary action.

Ironically, two days subsequent, while covering the enquiry of the killing, a reporter for KCST-TV consulted Peyer throughout a ride-along segment about self-protection for feminine drivers. At the time of this interview Peyer had cuts on his face which, as minutia of the case unfolded, were accepted to have been imposed by Knott throughout her labor with the officer. The first test produced in a dangled jury. Upon retrial, testimony considering a promise second supposes and a hearsay interpretation for the defendant's cuts was directed inadmissible, and Peyer was discovered at fault of murder. In 1988, Peyer was punished to 25 years to life.

Though extending to assertion his innocence, in 2004 Peyer was inquired if he would assist an experiment of his DNA to a shire program that was conceived to use DNA trials to probably exonerate wrongfully imprisoned persons. Peyer denied supplying any DNA for the test. When inquired, at a later parole hearing, why he had denied, Peyer stayed silent.

 

Murder of Cara Knott

On the evening of December 27, 1986, Cara Knott was going by car south on Interstate 15 from her boyfriend's dwelling in Escondido to her parents' dwelling in El Cajon, California, when Peyer, on obligation in a assessed CHP patrol vehicle, indicated Knott to drag off the freeway on an isolated off ramp. It subsequent came to lightweight that the agent had been before harassing several women drivers in the identical locality, dragging them over on the identical isolated off ramp and evidently seeking to choose them up as dates. It is accepted that the position with Knott increased to physicality when she endangered to report Peyer for unprofessional behavior. Peyer then bludgeoned her with his flashlight and strangled her with rope. He then chucked her body off a left behind connection into the brush below.

Ironically, two days subsequent, while covering the enquiry of the killing, a reporter for ...