Allegation in Dally Case Dismissed

Saying prosecutors misled the Ventura County Grand Jury, a Superior Court judge has dismissed one of two allegations that made accused murderers Michael Dally and Diana Haun eligible for the death penalty.

In a seven-page ruling released Friday, Judge Frederick A. Jones said prosecutors erred while seeking an indictment last year by misinforming the grand jury about what constitutes a murder committed while lying in wait.

And in their final summation, he said, prosecutors drew conclusions from the facts of the case that improperly influenced the grand jury’s decision.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth addressed the grand jury during that summation.

“The grand jury was told in effect that the evidence presented, as a matter of law, established the lying in wait special allegation,” Jones wrote. But the law as read to the grand jury, Jones said, “was incomplete, inadequate and misleading.”

The ruling means that Dally and Haun now face only one special circumstance allegation making them eligible for the death penalty: that the slaying of Sherri Dally was committed for financial gain.

A request by defense attorneys to also dismiss that allegation was denied by Jones, who had taken both matters under submission a few weeks ago.

Although the judge did not rule entirely in their favor, defense attorneys were pleased with his decision, which substantially reduces the odds that their clients will face death if convicted.

“It’s a good day,” said Deputy Public Defender Neil B. Quinn, who is representing Haun. “I am hopeful that this ruling will set a course away from a death-penalty case for my client.”

“I think it cleans up the case tremendously and eases our burden just a little,” added defense attorney James Farley, who is representing Dally. “It takes away one of their allegations and it is always easier to face one allegation than two.”

With the trial of Dally and Haun about seven weeks away, prosecutors said they do not expect the ruling to have a significant impact on their case and are weighing whether to file a writ with the Court of Appeal on the decision.

“We haven’t looked into what our options are, but we might petition for a writ,” Henke-Dobroth said. “We respect the court’s ruling, but we respectfully disagree with it, obviously.”

Prosecutors have various options at this point. They could take the case back to the grand jury for a third time in an effort to secure an indictment that includes the allegation of lying in wait.

They could dismiss the case entirely and start over with a preliminary hearing, or they could file an appeal charging that Jones abused his authority in issuing the ruling.

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The other option is to simply move forward with the case as it is.

Dally, 36, and Haun, 35, are accused of plotting and carrying out the slaying of Dally’s 35-year-old wife, Sherri.

They are charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, plus the remaining allegation that those alleged crimes occurred for financial gain.

Sherri Dally’s beaten and stabbed body was found June 1, about a month after she disappeared from the parking lot of a Ventura shopping center.

Among the points addressed in his ruling, Jones questioned the prosecution’s theory on how the slaying occurred and concludes that the grand jury was misadvised.

Jones specifically cites a supposed sequence of deadly acts and quotes from a previously undisclosed portion of the grand jury transcripts from August.

Haun was indicted on murder and related charges Aug. 16 after 57 witnesses testified before the grand jury over nine days. Dally was indicted three months later.

Prosecutors presented a scenario during the first set of proceedings, asserting the following events:

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Sherri Dally was abducted by Haun on May 6 in the parking lot of a Target store.

Although Haun was disguised and wearing a wig, prosecutors contend, Sherri Dally must have quickly realized she had been kidnapped under false pretenses.

“It is very likely Sherri soon realized what had happened to her and Haun’s concealment then came to an end,” one prosecutor argued before the grand jury.

It was at that time, perhaps as soon as Haun’s rental car pulled to the rear of the Target parking area, that “Haun began her lethal attack,” the prosecutor said, telling the grand jury that Haun struck Sherri Dally with the blunt end of a hatchet, shattering her jaw and knocking her unconscious.

“She then stabbed her repeatedly in the chest, splattering blood on various parts of the backseat and headliner. Sherri may well have died at that moment,” the prosecutor told the grand jury.

Haun then drove about 10 1/2 miles to Canada Larga Road, north of Ventura, to a remote place where she had already decided to dump the body, prosecutors argued in their final summation.

Repeating a statement he made during a court hearing last month, the judge said that while certain inferences and conclusions could be drawn from the facts in the case, it was misleading for prosecutors to assert their theory with such certainty.

“To advocate with such surety,” the judge writes, “was itself a prohibited call and encouragement to the grand jury to likewise speculate upon, and find to be true, facts about which no competent proofs had been presented.”

Quinn said he is hopeful the judge’s ruling will prompt prosecutors to reevaluate their decision to seek the death penalty.

“I am just very hopeful,” he said, “that the D.A. will change his mind.”