DURHAM, N.C. — Novelist Michael Peterson's three books show his flair for the dramatic, but even he wasn't ready for the plot twist that came Monday, as the ninth week of his murder trial opened.

Peterson's jaw dropped and he turned to face lead defense lawyer David Rudolf when Judge Orlando Hudson Jr. issued a ruling that brought a gasp to the courtroom.

Hudson will allow prosecutors to present an English translation of a German woman's statement that she saw Peterson leaving neighbor Elizabeth Ratliff's home in a hurry late one night in 1985.

The following morning, Ratliff was found dead at the bottom of a staircase.

Peterson is not on trial for Ratliff's 1985 death, but he is charged with his wife's similar 2001 death. Like Ratliff, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase with several deep wounds in her head.

There was no eyewitness to Kathleen Peterson's death, but prosecutors believe that Karen Hamm, the German woman who gave the statement, saw Michael Peterson leaving Ratliff's home after beating her to death. Although a U.S. Army pathologist concluded that at the time of her death Ratliff suffered a brain hemorrhage and fell down the stairs, a North Carolina pathologist who performed a second autopsy in April contends that Ratliff's head wounds were too numerous and deep to be explained by a fall.

The ruling allowing Karen Hamm's written statement about what she saw from her daughter's bedroom window on Nov. 24, 1985, surprised many because it seems to conflict with a basic right enjoyed by criminal defendants in the U.S.: Peterson's lawyers will not be able to cross-examine her because recent surgery prevents Hamm from testifying in person.

Defense lawyer Thomas Maher argued unsuccessfully against allowing the statement, noting that a doctor's note submitted on Hamm's behalf did not describe her medical condition, was not from the physician who performed the surgery and did not indicate when she might be available to testify.

Maher's main objection, however, was that Peterson will not have a chance to confront a witness against him on cross-examination. Maher said that if Hamm did come to court, he would ask her why she never told authorities what she saw and press her on details in her statement.

For instance, Maher said, he would have asked Hamm if perhaps the man she thought was Michael Peterson leaving the Ratliff house might have been running because it was a cold winter night.

The defense will try one more time to get the judge to reconsider the ruling tomorrow. Before jurors return to court, the defense will question Ratliff's former nanny, Barbara Malagnino, about e-mails she wrote that suggested Hamm cannot be believed.

Malagnino was on the prosecution's witness list anyway. She found Ratliff's body on the stairs on the morning of Nov. 25, 1985.

Later that day, Dr. Larry Barnes, a U.S. Army pathologist based in Frankfurt, conducted the original autopsy performed on Elizabeth Ratliff's body. Barnes concluded that Ratliff died of a brain hemorrhage that lead to a fall, a finding backed up by the prestigious Armed Forces Pathology Institute.

Prosecutor Jim Hardin Jr. got Barnes to admit that he would have asked a "more qualified" forensic pathologist to conduct the autopsy if foul play was suspected by anyone at the time.  No one did, which may explain why police never even took photos of the body or blood that lined a wall adjacent to the staircase.

On cross-examination by Rudolf, Barnes said he is fairly certain he replaced Ratliff's internal organs in the body cavity for burial. The organs, however, were missing when Ratliff's body was exhumed in April for a second autopsy made at the prosecution's request.

Also apparently missing was some of Ratliff's brain. It originally weighed about 1,300 grams, Barnes said, but only 740 grams were found when the North Carolina pathologist examined it in April.

The defense highlighted the discrepancies to show that Barnes was in a better position to determine the cause of death in 1985 than a North Carolina pathologist would be 18 years later.

The disturbing reality of Ratliff's death and exhumation 18 years later were apparent when her sister, Margaret Blair of Rhode Island, testified Monday. The prosecution showed Black a photo of a body in a casket after it was dug up in Texas and opened.

"Yes, that's my sister Liz," said Blair, who cried several times while testifying.

"Do you recognize the dress she is wearing?" Black, the prosecutor, asked.

"That was her wedding dress," Blair said.

As Black showed the photo to the defense team, the image of Elizabeth Ratliff lying in her coffin was clearly visible to her orphaned daughters, Margaret and Martha Ratliff, in the front row. Now adults, they are supporting Michael Peterson, who has raised them as his own since 1985.

Margaret and Martha Ratliff's see images of their dead mother.

Both women burst into tears when they saw the photo and left the courtroom.

Blair also testified that, when she asked Michael Peterson whether there was blood associated with her sister's staircase fall, he told her there was only a small amount behind her ear. In fact, there had been a great deal of blood.

Over the objection of prosecutors, jurors were allowed to read a letter Peterson wrote to Blair in 1990 explaining why he would not allow her to adopt her nieces. The defense may have wanted the letter entered into evidence to suggest why Blair was testifying for the prosecution and not the defense.

"In all the years I've had with Margaret and Martha, I don't think anyone in Rhode Island ... has ever acknowledged or extended appreciation for my efforts," Peterson wrote Blair. "I assure you that it is unnecessary, but I think it explains the failure of your understanding of my deep commitment to the girls — if you can't appreciate it, you probably don't understand it either."

Testimony resumes at 11 a.m. Tuesday. The trial is being broadcast by Court TV.