Scott Peterson 2004 Trial: Juror Says She Relied On Evidence While Sentencing Him For Killing Pregnant Wife

A juror, who helped convict Scott Peterson in 2004 of the murder of his pregnant wife, said Friday that she had no animosity toward him until after she heard evidence.

Former juror Richelle Nice testified that before the 2004 trial, she didn’t have "any anger or any resentment" toward Peterson. She added that after the trial, it was a "bit true because I sat through the trial and listened to the evidence," reported Fox News.

She held a secret bias against him that prevented him from getting a fair trial is what Peterson's lawyers want to prove. She also lied on her jury questionnaire to get there, according to the lawyers.

NBC News reported that Nice didn't disclose during jury selection that she sought a restraining order while she was pregnant in 2000. She also didn't disclose that her boyfriend, Eddie, beat her in 2001 while she was pregnant with another baby.

Nice chose to testify after she was given immunity from perjury prosecution for misstatements she might have made in the previous sworn statement. In court documents, she is identified as Juror 7, but Nice used her name when she wrote a book about the case with six other jurors. She earned the nickname “Strawberry Shortcake" during the trial due to her dyed red hair that made her recognizable, according to the Associated Press.

Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo is charged by the California Supreme Court with deciding if Nice committed misconduct by not disclosing her own history before she became a juror. The judge will also decide if Nice held a bias that denied Peterson a fair trial.

Nice didn't consider herself a domestic violence victim, and she testified that her boyfriend’s former girlfriend "didn’t threaten my baby." She said that she included her unborn child in her application because "I was being spiteful." Nice testified that "she wasn’t going to deliberately hurt my child, but if we fought and rolled around like some dummies on the ground," she feared she would lose her child.

Although her boyfriend in 2001 was arrested and he pleaded guilty, Nice said that she was the one who hit him and not the other way around. She said that Eddie never hit her, so she was "not a victim of domestic violence," but she did "punch him."

Pat Harris, one of Peterson's attorneys, suggested in his questioning that Nice might have been biased against Peterson because her then-boyfriend was admittedly unfaithful. Nice denied it influenced her while she served as a juror. She went into the trial biased because as a mother, she could relate to the death of Peterson’s unborn baby, according to Peterson’s attorneys.

Peterson’s wife, Laci, was 27 years old when was killed and was eight months pregnant with a son. On Christmas Eve 2002, Peterson dumped Laci's body from his fishing boat into San Francisco Bay, said investigators.