Clerk Arrested 2nd Time in Slaying of Ventura Woman

Capping an intense three-month investigation, police arrested Port Hueneme grocery clerk Diana J. Haun on Thursday on suspicion of kidnapping and killing Ventura homemaker Sherri Dally, the wife of Haun’s longtime lover.

Quiet and calm, Haun, 35, was taken into custody from behind a Vons deli counter about 8:30 a.m., handcuffed and led to a police car. “I walked out with her, and she didn’t say a word,” Ventura Police Lt. Don Arth said.

Prosecutors said they will file kidnapping and first-degree murder charges with a special circumstance before Haun’s arraignment Monday, which would allow for the death penalty if she is convicted. Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury may try the case personally, going to trial for the first time in more than a decade, a spokesman said.

Still dressed in her white-and-black Vons uniform, Haun was booked into Ventura County Jail, where she was being held on $1-million bail. It was the second time Haun has been arrested in the case. She was jailed May 18 on suspicion of murder before the body was found, but was released four days later for lack of evidence.

Sherri Dally, a 35-year-old homemaker and day-care center operator, was abducted May 6 from the parking lot of a Ventura department store after dropping off her two young sons at school and buying a Mother’s Day gift.

Her decomposed remains were found by a search party of friends June 1 in a ravine north of Ventura. She had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest and the skull had been bludgeoned, authorities said.

Sherri Dally’s husband, Michael, 36, remains a suspect in the case, authorities said.

“We have not eliminated Michael Dally from our investigation,” said Arth, who led a team of 20 investigators who pieced together the complicated, circumstantial case. “I think there was more than one person involved in this crime. . . . We’re still asking for anyone who has information to contact us.”

Neil Quinn, the deputy public defender who has represented Haun since May, said Haun will plead not guilty.

“No one, including the police or the public, should start jumping to conclusions about what the actual facts are going to show,” he said.

Quinn said it would not be proper for him to talk about the facts of the case.

Haun, 35, professed her innocence last month in an interview with The Times. She said she passed a polygraph test in May, an assertion on which authorities have refused to comment.

Michael Dally, who has also said he had nothing to do with the death of his wife of 14 years, could not be reached Thursday at the Oxnard grocery where he works, or at his Ventura home.

Haun’s arrest climaxed an agonizing period for the family and friends of Sherri Dally. Although grateful that the investigation is moving forward, they said the arrest opens a new chapter in a tragic story.

“I was expecting them to arrest her,” said Claris Guess, Sherri Dally’s grandmother. “When you lose somebody it leaves a great loss in your life. The whole family was very close to Sherri.”

John Avila, longtime friend of Sherri and Michael Dally, expressed relief that at least one arrest has been made.

“It’s about time,” Avila said. “I just hope they get everybody.”

Friends and family of Haun and Michael Dally refused comment Thursday.

Police had said they would not make an arrest until they received the results of DNA tests on suspects’ blood and hair, and after delivery of an FBI analysis of suspects’ handwriting. The genetic analysis had still not arrived from a private lab on Thursday.

Ventura detectives presented their case to prosecutors late Tuesday, including the FBI handwriting results and tests done on physical evidence by the Sheriff’s Department crime lab, Arth said.

When police arrested Haun two months ago, “we had a few pieces of the puzzle,” Arth said. “We feel we have a pretty complete puzzle this time.”

Authorities said with the new evidence they believe they can prove the prosecution’s theory that Haun killed Sherri Dally so she and Michael Dally could marry and raise the Dallys’ two young sons without a financially ruinous divorce and child custody battle.

An object thought to be the instrument used to fracture Sherri Dally’s skull has been found, sources said.

Times staff writer Lorenza Munoz contributed to this story.