REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Scott Peterson’s lawyers rested their case yesterday without calling the former fertilizer salesman to testify on charges he killed his pregnant wife and dumped her body in San Francisco Bay.

The defense called just 14 witnesses over six days – a fraction of how long it took prosecutors to complete their case. Some legal experts were surprised by the lack of punch in the defense case, calling it a disappointing and potentially “dangerous” strategy.

“The defense case was a huge disappointment,” said trial watcher and former prosecutor Dean Johnson. “None of the promises made by (defense lawyer) Mark Geragos during opening statements have been fulfilled.”

Judge Alfred Delucchi said the prosecution would call eight rebuttal witnesses beginning today. Closing arguments are set to begin Monday, and jurors should get the case by November 3.

Prosecutors had rested their case October 5, presenting 174 witnesses over 19 weeks including Mr. Peterson’s former mistress Amber Frey. The trial has lasted more than five months.

Prosecutors allege Mr. Peterson killed his pregnant wife Laci on or around December 24,2002.The remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore about four months later, a few miles from where Mr. Peterson claims to have been fishing alone the day his wife vanished from their home at Modesto.

Defense lawyers claim someone else abducted and killed Laci Peterson.

Mr. Geragos had promised jurors would see “zip, nada, nothing” from the prosecution’s case that directly implicated his client. Mr. Geragos also highlighted the lack of physical evidence – no murder weapon, no bloody crime scene, no cause or time of death and no direct witnesses to the killing.

Mr. Geragos added that he could prove Mr. Peterson didn’t kill his pregnant wife because the fetus was born alive. If that were the case, given Laci Peterson’s February 10 expected due date, the intense media coverage, and police surveillance of Mr. Peterson after she vanished, he couldn’t have killed her, Mr. Geragos said.

But a key defense witness, Dr. Charles March, came under heavy attack from prosecutors when he testified that the fetus probably died on December 29, 2002, at the earliest.

“He promised to show the baby was born alive and there’s been no evidence of that,” said Mr. Johnson, the legal expert. “He promised to show that Peterson was ‘stone cold innocent’ and he hasn’t done that, so this is now a case that’s going to come down to reasonable doubt.”

The final witness was Modesto Police Officer Michael Hicks. Defense lawyers used him to imply that burglars who robbed a neighbor’s home around the time Laci Peterson vanished may have been involved in her death.

Mr. Hicks interviewed one of the suspects who admitted to the burglary but waffled on the date, first telling police it occurred on December 27, 2002, and later acknowledging it had happened a day earlier. Mr. Geragos suggested the man couldn’t be trusted.

Paula Canny, a former prosecutor and regular trial observer, called the finish “potentially dangerous.”

“If he’s going to argue that somehow this burglar was the killer, I just don’t buy it,” Ms. Canny said.

Mr. Peterson is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of his pregnant wife and the fetus. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole.