Grand Jury Indicts Haun on Murder Charge

As a county grand jury indicted grocery clerk Diana J. Haun on Friday for the slaying of Ventura homemaker Sherri Dally, a lawyer for the victim’s husband said he expects prosecutors to now try to get Haun to implicate Michael Dally in the crime.

“Sure, everybody knows that,” said attorney James Farley, legal advisor to Dally, an uncharged suspect in the case and Haun’s longtime boyfriend.

As Haun’s kidnapping and murder trial approaches in the next several months, prosecutors will probably offer not to seek the death penalty if Haun will implicate Dally in the crime, Farley said.

“Sure, they’ll say you got a choice between life and death, and here’s what we want you to say,” Farley said. “The problem is that if she attempts to implicate Dally, then she has admitted that she has done something herself. And as it stands right now, she is still presumed innocent.”

Farley’s comments came as the grand jury concluded its 10th day of deliberation by indicting Haun on kidnapping and first-degree murder charges with special circumstances, which will allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty if she is convicted.

Haun had already been charged with the same crimes in a criminal complaint. But the grand jury indictments allow prosecutors to avoid the lengthy and expensive process of a preliminary hearing and send the case directly to trial in Superior Court.

Prosecutors also prefer to avoid a preliminary hearing because--unlike the secret grand jury proceedings--defense attorneys can cross-examine witnesses and get an early look at evidence in the open hearing.

Haun, arraigned two weeks ago, will face murder charges for a second time at 9 a.m. Monday.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, who directed the grand jury inquiry and may take the case to trial himself, emerged from the grand jury chamber shortly before 6 p.m. Friday.

Bound by a judicial gag order imposed because of media coverage, Bradbury refused comment on the case.

Haun has pleaded not guilty to killing 35-year-old Sherri Dally, a day-care operator and mother of two who was abducted May 6 from a Ventura discount store parking lot. Her skeletal remains--skull bludgeoned with an ax and torso stabbed repeatedly--were discovered by a search party of friends in a ravine north of Ventura on June 1.

While Friday’s grand jury indictment was expected, Farley’s comments cast the case in a fashion that has been quietly contemplated by defense attorneys and prosecutors for weeks. As the case progresses, they have said, the Haun prosecution increasingly includes a Haun versus Dally element.

Haun’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Neil Quinn, could not be reached for comment on Farley’s comments Friday. Assistant Dist. Atty. Kevin McGee, office spokesman on the Dally case, refused comment, citing the gag order.

But Farley said he has spoken to Dally at length about the possibility that Haun--who still telephones Dally two or three times a week from jail--could turn on him in the end.

“Michael believes that Diana was not involved in this,” Farley said. “If he thought that Diana Haun was involved in the killing of his wife, I think there would be a much different relationship between the two. These two people seriously like each other.”

Dally, 36, a grocery clerk who worked with Haun for 2 1/2 years at a Vons in Oxnard, was one of numerous witnesses called by the grand jury. He has consistently maintained his innocence.

And Farley said he doesn’t think prosecutors have a case against Dally--even if they were to convince Haun to testify against him.

“Her testimony would be very suspect unless they have some corroborating evidence,” he said. “And if they had that, they would have been seriously trying to indict him. I don’t believe they have any evidence.

“A naked statement by someone who is facing the death penalty, who has been allowed their life by the grace of government, would be highly suspect,” he added.

And that case would not stick, Farley said.

As things are now, Dally and Haun carry on their relationship the best they can, considering she is being held in County Jail without bail, Farley said.

“He can’t call her, she calls him collect a couple or three times a week,” the attorney said. “All these calls are monitored. All her mail is opened. So there are no secrets.”

Farley said he made no recommendation to Dally about whether he should maintain contact with Haun, except to do as he wishes.

And the attorney said he sees no significance in the fact that someone using Haun’s telephone credit card called Dally at work about 50 minutes after Sherri Dally was abducted in May.

About two hours later, someone using Haun’s credit card also called Dally’s home from a phone near a car wash in Camarillo, where authorities think the defendant was having blood washed from a rental car used in the abduction.

“You’ve got to remember that these two are very close friends and confidants,” Farley said. “So naturally that’s who she would call. . . . If she had confided in him, that wouldn’t be surprising.

“But everybody is assuming Diana is guilty,” he added. “Unless I’ve missed it, we haven’t had a trial yet.”