Peterson: 'I just stabbed him out of nowhere'
It was an emotional day in court Friday as family members and friends of Joel Marino and accused killer Adam Peterson heard audio tapes that offered the first glimpse of what appears to be limited words spoken during the interaction between the two men that resulted in Marino's death.
In a recorded phone conversation with his father, Peterson said, "I just stabbed him out of nowhere."
Read the transcript of the tapes
here.
One section of the tapes in which Peterson referred to Marino as "just a workingman" prompted gasps and other comments of disbelief from those seated in rows marked "reserved" and occupied by Marino's family and friends.
An emotional response also was heard after another section of the audio tape detailed Peterson's jumbled response to his father, who asked Peterson whether he knew Marino, 31, was dead when he left the house.
"No, I thought, he told ... he said, I was like, I stabbed him, he's like, why di(d), he's like what the hell, 'cause I thought he was just ... that was the it, but he was like ..." and then Peterson's mostly incoherent response ended.
Prior to the start of the hearing, Marino's father broke out in tears and Peterson's father and twin brother talked between themselves about the impact the crime was having on the family, including Peterson's mother, who did not attend the hearing.
Transcripts of the phone calls were entered as evidence during the preliminary hearing before Dane County Circuit Court Judge Shelley Gaylord. Peterson's statements to his parents that he entered the home for money -- but that killing Marino was "not part of the plan" -- is the first public indication of a motive in the case. Peterson's lawyer, public defender Dennis Burke, entered a not guilty plea for his client, but told The Capital Times that the plea would likely be changed to not guilty by reason of insanity.
"I think that's the direction this case is headed," Burke said after the hearing.
The tapes detailed two phone conversations made hours after Peterson, 20, was booked on charges of first-degree intentional homicide in the Washington County jail near his mother's house in Minnesota on June 26. The stabbing death of Marino took place in Madison Jan. 28.
The calls, one placed to his mother, the other to his father, were made roughly two hours after Peterson admitted to detectives that he had committed the crime. The officers had originally arrived at his mother's house with a search warrant to obtain a sample of Peterson's DNA.
Madison police detective Alix Olson testified that detectives arrived at the house shortly after 7 a.m. A man, presumably the mother's boyfriend, answered the door and informed the officers Peterson was in his room sleeping, Olson said.
Peterson then was asked by the Washington County officers to get out of bed, at which time he came into the kitchen wearing only a pair of shorts, Olson said.
Olson testified that Peterson, unprovoked, looked at the officers and said, "I know I committed this," When asked why, he responded: "No reason."
"He seemed very normal to me," said Olson when asked to describe Peterson's demeanor during this time. "Very stable and low key."
The tapes heard Friday also indicate that Peterson told his father that when he left Marino's house, he did not think Marino was dead. Peterson's assessment of Marino's physical condition was accurate. Marino died in an alley outside his Monona Bay home. Those associated with the case believe he was trying to reach a nearby hospital for medical attention.
When asked by his mother why he would hurt someone, Peterson responded: "I don't know, I just ... thought it was better than hurting myself."
It appeared from transcripts of the conversation that Peterson and his mother began to cry during the conversation. At one point his mother told him he should have come to her for money, and he should have known she would have given it to him.
She also expresses disbelief at the fact Peterson was able to keep the information to himself for five months after the date of the crime.
"If I did (tell you), you'd like turn me in," Peterson said to his mom. Her response: "Oh probably."
Peterson reiterated his desire for money when talking to his father: "I just felt so numb. I just wanted money."
Peterson's father Melvin spoke of his son's mental health issues during the phone conversation, referring to treatment he received in previous months for depression. Adam Peterson transferred to UW-Madison in 2007 after spending his freshman year at UW-LaCrosse, but dropped out a month after the fall semester began.
In March, Peterson's behavior became so volatile that his twin brother, Eric, called police, which led to a stay in a psychiatric ward before Adam Peterson left Madison for good to live with his mother in Minnesota. Eric told a police officer in March that Adam had been using cocaine and that it made him paranoid.
It was that contact with police that first put Peterson on the radar with police and ultimately led to his arrest.
File photo
A taped phone call between Adam Peterson, shown here in court on July 1, accused of killing Joel Marino, and Peterson's father was played in court Friday.
