The Lucas Peterson Entry Has Been Updated
Interestingly enough, according to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, Lucas J. Peterson is currently staying at the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in Lincoln.
Just type in “Peterson, Lucas” in the form on that page and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
According to that page, Lucas Peterson has only been charged with third-degree assault and is projected to be released on the 24th of September of 2007 after serving less than a year.
This is the same Lucas Peterson who confessed to killing his year-old daughter in January of 2007 and burying her in a grave in the middle of a copse of cedar trees. This is the same Lucas Peterson who didn’t bother to tell anyone where the little girl was and who wandered around until March, when he was arrested for an outstanding warrant.
Is this justice? Or are further charges planned after his evaluation?
19 Comments »
Wonderful, another prime example that the criminal justice system is an absolute shambles!!!
Yet another crazed CHILD MURDERER walking the streets!!
Our justice system doesn’t value the lives of children the way it values adults. It’s shameful that someone can murder their child and serve only a few months in prison.
Wow is all I can say. I don’t believe what I am reading!!
Gopod ol’ Nebraska! but at least we’re getting a new stadium for the college world series. there isn’t enough funding for decent mental health care but at least we have out priorities straight.
to hear more, go to kolnkgin.com or journalstar.com and search ‘lucas peterson’
it is grotesque!!
I am almost embarassed to admit to knowing Lucas personally. He was living at my house when this took place, and never showed any of us who saw him on a daily basis that anything was wrong. We are all horrified at the loss of Trista and pray she is at rest. Lucas was not a bad person, just young and scared. Any of us would have taken care of Trista without hesitation if we had known this was going on. He showed us no signs of any problems. He’s had plenty of brushes with the law, but we never thought harm would come to Trista. She was a wonderful little girl. I am happy to say that I babysat her on many occassions and saw such joy from her. I still feel many emotions that I cannot get over. I still can’t believe one of the local kids did such a thing to his own Daughter. I just can’t imagine this boy that I saw daily would deliberately kill his own child. Why??? Thanks to the Seward police dept., we will never know. Good work guys, you are the ones needing to be behind bars.
I dont really think u know LUCAS at all and if u did u would know that he would of never hurt trista . i dont know who this is that says he was there or with u at this depressing time in our lives. but what i do know is lucas and i did babysit trista also. she is dearley missed by all . and yes we all cry about this from time to time. embarassed to know him, well not me. real friends and family stay togetger ALWAYS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Really asshole? That’s funny, because he was the one who led police to the grave where he buried little Trista’s body.
And the Seward County Sheriff’s department are either a bunch of dumb, incompetent Barney Fife’s or they intended to get Lucas off the hook, because when he led those deputies to Trista’s grave, he completed a “Cooperation Agreement” and cops couldn’t charge him with anything heavier than a misdemeanor. They did this without the knowledge or permission of the DA – Prosecutors tried to charge Lucas with Felony Child Abuse Resulting In Death, but the judge forced them to honor the Cooperation Agreement.
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2008/02/23/news/local/doc47bf674960047265679891.txt
So watch what you say around here much mo. who. Lucas Peterson murdered his little daughter Trsista, that’s clear. He got off on a technicality because of an incompetent or corrupt police force. That isn’t anything to brag about.
Oh Heavens To Betsy!! Another one of “these” people?
Jimney jesus!!
How is it possible to deny his actions? He lead police to her body–how did he not have anything to do with it knowing that kind of information? Did he get a premonition? Did she come to him in his dreams and tell him where she was?
The only time I laugh while reading this site is when I read testimonials from people in the lives of these pieces of scum written up on PYSIH; I cant seem to understand the need to defend someone –just because you know them.
As for “real friends and family” sticking together always–I, for one, would expect everyone I love to distance themselves from me if I ever did anything warranting a write up here–or anywhere else. I wouldn’t expect them to lovingly defend me and put themselves in any kind of danger. Hell, if they didnt disown me; I would be a little pissed off.
They never cease to amaze me Min_Duhh. It’s like they live in another dimension or something. Common sense says that if Lucas knows where the body is buried, he probably was the one who put it there, but not to this idiot. Oh no, they know he could NEVER do something like that. We just don’t know him as well as they do, that why we’re accusing him of all these terrible crimes. It has nothing to do with all that EVIDENCE, or his own ADMISSIONS.
Morons….
Don’t you just love stupid rednecks?
Yes, I also knew (of) this piece of sh**. And yes, the county of Seward, NE likes to make up it’s own laws and protect the home boys, which is what happened here. They don’t like to admit that anything like that could happen in a small town. Wake up! And yes, Lucas was probably scared, but that does not EVER warrant murder, especially your own. I don’t care how old you are, if you can murder a child, you won’t ever have trouble murdering again. Lucas comes from a long line of bad seed, no guidance, and not having the ba**’s to remove himself from a bad situation early on. Yeah, I’m sure he’ll be in hell, he’s already living it.
SADNESS!! I hate to report this but today’s Lincoln journal star story basically says that this jerk is going to go free…The Nebraska Court of Appeals rejected the latest attempt to have him prosecuted for felony child abuse-basically the court agrees that Seward county law enforcement offered Peterson a deal if he would tell them where the little girls body was. Total mess and this jerk who beat his daughter to death is going to get off of a murder charge on a technicality…..
Unless I’m misreading, it looks like he was released April 21st. Did he get transfered somewhere else, or is killing your child and burying them in a shallow grave only worthy of 2 years?
YOU’RE KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?!??! I hope his community gets ahold of him.
He is about to be released next week.
Implied deals that preclude a felony conviction on something, when dealing with murder, seems absolutely unconscionable.
http://journalstar.com/news/local/article_26e424ea-8d14-11de-96ed-001cc4c03286.html
Lucas Peterson’s release appears imminent
BY ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star
Prosecutors appear to have run out of options for keeping a Seward County man implicated in his daughter’s 2007 death behind bars.
Lucas Peterson, 24, led law enforcement officers to daughter Trista’s grave in rural Butler County in April 2007 and remained in jail in Butler County on Wednesday.
But the Nebraska Court of Appeals has rejected the latest attempt to clear a path to a felony child-abuse prosecution, and Butler County Attorney Julie Reiter said Peterson could regain his freedom as soon as next week.
“It is unfortunate,” Reiter said, “but I have to work with the facts and the circumstances that I am given.”
The pivotal legal point in the case is District Judge Alan Gless’ decision that Seward County law-enforcement officials offered Peterson “a cooperation agreement” as they tried to resolve the whereabouts of his year-old child.
Gless concluded that Peterson cooperated only because he’d been promised -some four months after Trista’s death — that he would not be charged with a felony.
Reiter filed her own felony charges for “concealing human skeletal remains,” because the body was buried in Butler County and because Butler County had not been a party to the cooperation agreement.
But in a 10-page decision, Chief Appeals Court Judge Everett Inbody said any evidence of a crime must be excluded because it was “the fruit of the poisonous tree.”
Peterson’s attorney, Todd Lancaster of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, said the outcome of the latest appeal leaves no grounds for keeping his client in jail.
“So, essentially, if the Butler County case is dismissed,” Lancaster said, “Mr. Peterson is released and he’s free to carry on with his life.”
He noted Seward County still has an appeal pending. But it resulted from Gless dismissing multiple felony charges there, because of the cooperation agreement, and from prosecutors’ refusal to turn to a misdemeanor approach.
Since that means there are no pending charges, Seward County can’t keep Peterson in a cell there either, he said.
An investigation by Seward County Attorney Wendy Elston and the Seward County Sheriff’s Office came at a time when Peterson was already in jail on charges related to removing his car from an impoundment lot.
It also occurred at a time when Trista’s mother, Jennifer Williams of Milford, was serving out a sentence on theft and bad-check charges at the women’s prison in York and as other family members became increasingly alarmed about not seeing Trista.
An autopsy determined she died of injuries that Elston described at the time as “severe, multiple, blunt force trauma to the head, neck and trunk.”
As the Peterson prosecution bogged down last year, Elston and Seward County Sheriff Joe Yocum became targets of recall petitions. That fell by the wayside when citizen critics couldn’t reach their signature goal.
Yocum said Wednesday he’s still hoping to see justice. “Our position has always been that we feel that he is the person responsible for Trista’s death,” he said of Peterson, “and we would hope the criminal justice system would work toward that end.”
Elston was unavailable for comment.
The Nebraska Attorney General’s office has been a partner in the prosecution. Spokeswoman Leah Bucco-White said attorneys there are working on the remaining appeal and are scheduled to file written arguments by a Monday deadline.
Reiter said the appeals court support for suppressing any evidence gathered through the cooperative agreement, in effect, “leaves me without a body to produce as evidence in unlawful burial of human remains.”
In April 2007, Reiter was among those who came to an abandoned Butler County farm as Trista Peterson’s blanket-wrapped remains were unearthed. “It’s not something I’ll forget,” she said Wednesday.
“I’m disappointed,” she said of what’s happened since then in the court realm. “It’s unfortunate and disappointing.”
I happen to be a very good friend of Tristas mother…and I would have to agree this Man(well I am not sure we can call him a man) will deffinatly be in HELL ( I just wish it was sooner as opposed to later) . And yes it does look like he will be getting out soon with no repricussions since he as been serving time on other charges. I just hope the people of this town, state , country & world learn a lesson and DO NOT let something like this ever happen agian. No chid should die at the hands of their parent or any other human. What really sucks is Lucus had outs many family members from both sides of Tristas family offered him help with her no questions asked! He just didnt’ care! HE is selfish! Please lets all learn a lesson from Tristas death and make sure our leagle systems & child protective services do not fail us again!
You can place all the blame for Peterson not going to jail for this crime completejy on the shoulders of the Seward County Sheriff Department and the Seward Coumty Attorney they are the ones that screwed up so bad it can’t be fixed, I hope all the people who would not sign the petitions that went around to get rid of these idiots that caused the mess are happy with the out come. If your not then let your vote show it! Or the next time it could be your family that never gets to see Justice !
Tragedy on two levels-the beaten child and the travesty of justice that gave this guy a literal get out of jail basically free on murder card..I don’t think the sheriff and deputies were corrupt-you have a group that doesn’t have much crime besides traffic stops and they screwed up-badly-in their attempt to find the girl. I think with this guy’s past he will end up in prison in the future or just maybe if karma works-be found in a ditch after someone bigger, stronger, meaner and just as evil as he is beats the hell out of him