Jurors on Monday heard their fourth day of taped phone conversations between Scott Peterson and his former mistress, Amber Frey, who was cooperating with police in the days after Peterson's pregnant wife, Laci, vanished over the 2002 Christmas holidays.
"I'm not an evil guy," Peterson, who stands accused of murdering Laci and the couple's unborn son, says on the tapes, adding that he intends to show Frey the sort of person he really is.
"I lied to you ... but I'm not an evil person," Peterson repeated.
While the tapes were playing aloud in the courtroom, Frey kept her eyes on the written transcripts of their contents that were in the possession of her lawyer, Gloria Allred.
Peterson and his attorney, Mark Geragos, also read the transcripts during the presentation of the audio evidence.
At one point on the tape, Peterson says to Frey: "You don't need the media chasing you," and goes on to say that he wants to protect her from the spotlight.
But Frey, who was primed by police on how to glean information out of Peterson, repeatedly asked him why – if Laci did not disappear until Christmas Eve – he had told her in early December that he'd lost his wife and was preparing to spend his first Christmas alone.
"There are many types of loss," Peterson replied.
"Uh-huh. And what kind of loss was that?" Frey asked.
"Sweetie, I can't tell you," he answered.
Later, Frey said: "This is so overwhelming to me," to which Peterson could only say, "Yeah, you're right."
At one point, Frey loses all patience and asks Peterson why he’s leading a double life with her. In return, he apologizes, and says, "I never should have taken advantage of how great you are."
His remark causes Frey to cry and say: "It's like a nightmare ... just this horrible nightmare."
Peterson replies, "I wish this never happened ... I hope at some point you can allow me to try to take care of you."
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