The defense rested its case March 12 in the trial of Hans Petersen after the former biotech executive finished his testimony, continuing to insist he did not recall the double shooting of two men he wounded in La Jolla.
\nThe trial before San Diego Superior Court Judge Leo Valentine Jr. will resume Monday, March 17, with the prosecution presenting rebuttal witnesses.
\nPetersen, 50, is charged with two counts of premeditated attempted murder in the Sept. 18, 2013, shootings of Steven Dowdy, 54, a UCSD professor, and Ronald Fletcher, 51, a La Jolla real estate agent whose sister is Petersen\u2019s ex-wife.
\nPetersen, a former next-door neighbor of Dowdy, is also accused of trying to murder Dowdy’s wife Lisa, who was not injured but was sleeping next to her husband when bullets were fired through glass doors at 3 a.m. Steven Dowdy was shot in the torso. Petersen is also accused of displaying a weapon in a threatening manner to Michael Nielsen, an emergency room physician who was driving home at 5 a.m. when a man pointed a gun at him on Ravenswood Road in La Jolla.
\nRebuttal witnesses are scheduled early next week, and closing arguments may be presented Tuesday, March 17, in the trial\u2019s third week. The six-man, six-woman jury could start deliberations March 17.
\nPetersen maintains his mind is blank due to use of prescription drugs designed to stop brain seizures as well as insomnia medications, tranquilizers, anti-depressants and other drugs.
\n“This body did this; this mind never could,” said Petersen several times.
\nPetersen said one anti-seizure drug changed his personality years ago, saying, “I wasn\u2019t fun to be around.” He also said he used alcohol “to fall asleep.”
\nDeputy District Attorney Amy Maund asked him to show how one would drive to the homes of Dowdy and Fletcher from University City. Petersen described many streets and ways to get there, but he continued to say he had no memory of driving to both victims\u2019 homes.
\nHis BMW was found parked on La Jolla Rancho Road, not far from where Nielsen said he saw Petersen draw a gun on him. A police officer found more bullets in a box under a car seat.
\nPetersen denied any intention to hurt Dowdy, who had hired him to be CEO of a biotech firm, which fired him in 2010. “I wanted to sue him, but I didn\u2019t want to hurt him,” said Petersen.
\nPetersen also played cell phone video portions he recorded in a visit to Fletcher\u2019s office to file legal paperwork with him. Fletcher testified Petersen appeared hostile and threatening in that visit, but the video portions played did not show Petersen making any threats.
\n“I\u2019ve been in jail 18 months, waiting for trial,” said Petersen to the jury. He wears a suit every day in court.
\nHe has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail on $5 million bail. \u2013 Neal Putnam<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The defense rested its case March 12 in the trial of Hans Petersen after the former biotech executive finished his testimony, continuing to insist he did not recall the double shooting of two men he wounded in La Jolla. The trial before San Diego Superior Court Judge Leo Valentine Jr. will resume Monday, March 17, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":279542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Defense rests as Petersen denies memory of shootings","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}