Peterson: 'I am innocent'
Defense seeks change of venue
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The defense team for Scott Peterson, seen here in a May 27 photo, will try Wednesday to have the trial moved from Modesto.
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CNN's Rusty Dornin on the elusive date for the Scott Peterson trial.
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MODESTO, California (CNN) -- Scott Peterson on Wednesday denied killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child.
"I am innocent," Peterson told the judge at an arraignment in which his lawyer sought to have the trial moved from Modesto. It was his second claim of innocence, having denied the accusations after his arrest in April.
The charges carry the death penalty.
Peterson is entitled to a trial within 60 days. His attorney, Mark Geragos, asked for a January 26 trial date, although pretrial hearings concerning a change of venue may delay the trial.
In other matters, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami decided to leave in place a gag order preventing participants from talking to the media, and he said autopsy photos would remain sealed.
The hearing follows the filing of court papers Tuesday in which prosecutors said the Ford F-150 pickup truck seized by authorities from Peterson was "an instrument used in the murder of Laci Peterson" -- and contained Scott Peterson's blood in the cab.
The papers were an early indication of some of the details of the prosecution. Prosecutors will claim Scott Peterson bled inside the truck he allegedly used to haul his wife's body away after killing her. (Full story)
In the filing, the Stanislaus County District Attorney's office rejects Peterson's request to have his bronze-colored truck returned to him.
Wednesday's arraignment hearing for Peterson, 31, is expected to be protracted. In addition to a request to relocate the trial, Peterson's attorney will try to get back nearly $15,000 in police custody and have the case dismissed.
Geragos, Peterson's high-profile defense attorney, contends that massive pretrial publicity in the area of Modesto -- where the couple lived and where numerous residents participated in searches and vigils after Laci's disappearance -- would influence potential jurors.
Geragos also is seeking dismissal of the charges because of insufficient evidence, even though Superior Court Judge Al Girolami, after a 12-day preliminary hearing, ruled that prosecutors had introduced enough evidence to bind Peterson over for trial. (Full story)
The judge also is expected to set a schedule for hearings on defense motions challenging evidence in the case, including information generated by wiretaps, tracking dogs, a hypnotized witness and devices used to track Peterson's vehicles.
Laci Peterson, 27, was last heard from last Christmas Eve. Scott Peterson told police that he left to go fishing in San Francisco Bay that morning and she was not there when he returned late that afternoon.
Her disappearance set off a massive search that triggered nationwide media interest -- publicity which, in turn, alerted a Fresno massage therapist named Amber Frey that her new boyfriend, Scott Peterson, had a missing wife in another city.
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Scott Peterson has denied killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child.
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Frey went to police and began recording her phone calls with Peterson. Though she was not called to testify during the preliminary hearing, she is expected to be a key prosecution witness in the trial. (Transcript: Frey-Peterson phone call)
In April, the bodies of Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn son washed up on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, just miles from where Scott Peterson told police he had been fishing Christmas Eve.
Days later, he was arrested in San Diego and brought back to Modesto to face murder charges. He remains in jail.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.
CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report.
