Lawyers Seek Second Delay of Dally Trial

Michael Dally’s attorneys have asked Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones to delay his murder trial one month.

The trial is scheduled to begin May 12. But defense attorneys filed a motion for continuance Tuesday, requesting that it be changed to June 16.

Defense attorney James M. Farley would not comment directly on the motion, which was filed under seal.

But in previous court documents, Farley and co-counsel Robert D. Schwartz have expressed concern that they have not been allowed enough time to prepare their case.

“[The] defense attorneys, besides carrying full caseloads, have had only four months’ investigative time,” Farley wrote in a motion filed earlier this month.

In that brief, Farley pointed out that Schwartz joined the defense team only recently, after defense attorney Willard P. Wiksell stepped down to handle a different capital murder case.

Dally, 36, and Diana Haun, 35, are accused of planning and carrying out the slaying of Dally’s wife, Sherri, whose body was found last June 1, about a month after she disappeared from the parking lot of a Ventura shopping center.

The pair face charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, in addition to a special-circumstance allegation that the 35-year-old homemaker was killed for financial gain.

Although Haun was indicted on murder charges in August, Dally was not charged until November.

Two months later, his attorneys won a postponement of the murder trial--originally set for Feb. 3--on the grounds that they did not have adequate time to investigate and prepare a case.

A hearing on the second motion for a delay is set for next week.