Martial Arts Instructor Tells of Haun’s Strength

She might not look the part, but Diana Haun demonstrated surprising strength as a karate student while learning basic kicks and holds two days a week at an Oxnard martial arts studio, her former instructor testified Tuesday.

“I do feel she was stronger than she looked,” Jody Sasaki testified at Haun’s murder trial. “She was good for a beginner.”

Haun signed up for a one-year course in self-defense and fitness April 11, 1996, Sasaki said, less than a month before the abduction of Ventura homemaker Sherri Dally.

Haun is accused of kidnapping Dally, the wife of her lover, before beating and stabbing her to death. Prosecutors say Haun threw Dally’s body in a ravine north of Ventura, where it was found by a search party a month later.

In addition to the karate instructor--one of a dozen witnesses to testify during a marathon court session Tuesday--prosecutors began to present evidence about events that followed Dally’s disappearance May 6, 1996:

* Ventura Police Cpl. Ray Broomfield told the jury about his initial investigation into what started as a missing-person case.

* Two co-workers of Michael Dally, who is also charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in his wife’s killing, testified about suspicious statements he made after his wife went missing.

* An office manager at Blanche Reynolds School told jurors that Michael Dally acted surprised to learn that his son had been picked up from school late on the morning of May 6.

Sherri Dally dropped the boy off for class about an hour before she was seen getting into the back seat of a car driven by a blond woman in the parking lot of a Ventura Target store. Prosecutors say that woman was Haun, disguised and wearing a wig.

During the first two weeks of testimony, prosecutors asked other witnesses about Haun’s purchase of a short, blond wig and other items believed to have been used in the slaying.

They also asked about Haun’s physical appearance, her strength and exercise routine--points addressed by her karate instructor at Tuesday’s proceedings.

Sasaki told jurors that his former student may have appeared slight, but she showed impressive strength during class exercises. Her practice partner, he said, was a deputy sheriff.

Sasaki said his students “learned basic forms of defense” two nights a week. “They are for various forms of assault.”

Haun, a 36-year-old grocery clerk, completed 12 classes but did not finish the course, Sasaki said. She was working toward her yellow belt. Until she stopped coming in the summer of 1996, Sasaki said her attendance was impressive.

Aside from Sasaki’s statements, much of Tuesday’s testimony was focused on the actions of Michael Dally, Haun’s alleged co-conspirator.

*

Ellen Carpenter, an office worker at Blanche Reynolds School, said that Dally called the school at about 11:45 a.m. on May 6, 1996--about two hours after witnesses said they saw Sherri Dally get into another woman’s car.

“He asked me if Sherri had picked up Max and the other child,” Carpenter said, referring to Dally’s son and a child to whom Sherri Dally provided day care.

“I said, ‘Yes, I believe they had been picked up,’ ” Carpenter said. “He said, ‘Oh really?’ He sounded surprised.”

Carpenter explained to the jury that, in fact, she was wrong at the time. The children hadn’t been picked up. She said she immediately paged Michael Dally, who soon called back and within 15 minutes he arrived at the school.

Michael Dally did not come into the office, Carpenter said, but motioned from outside for the children to join him.

The next day, Carpenter said, the father called Blanche Reynolds and told school officials that his two boys, Max and Devon, were not in class that day because their mother had been “abducted.”

The first police officer to investigate Sherri Dally’s disappearance testified about his efforts to sort out what was then simply a missing-person case--not a homicide.

Cpl. Ray Broomfield said he first talked to Michael Dally during the late afternoon of May 6, while looking through Sherri Dally’s van in the Target parking lot. He described the husband as calm, matter-of-fact and not appearing to be upset by his wife’s disappearance.

*

Later that night, Broomfield said he went to the Dally home on Channel Drive in Ventura to ask Michael Dally additional questions.

But when he knocked on the door at 12:26 a.m., Broomfield said there was no response. He rang the doorbell four or five times, he said. He even had a police dispatcher phone the residence to see if anyone was home, but there was no response. After the fifth ring, an answering machine picked up.

In other testimony Tuesday, two Vons co-workers testified about statements Michael Dally made before and after his wife’s disappearance.

Moses Vargas and Jason County worked the night shift with Dally at a Vons store in Oxnard.

Vargas said that employees would tease Dally about having a girlfriend and a wife. One time, Vargas recalled, he told Dally: “One of them has to go.”

“He said, ‘You might be right,’ ” Vargas testified.

County told the jury that on the morning of May 6--hours before Sherri disappeared--Michael Dally was acting unusual. He insisted on being alone to clean a stockroom and refused to arrange shelves with his co-workers, County recalled.

“He didn’t really talk to us,” County said. “He was all by himself and Michael was the type that liked to showboat and be the center of attention.”

*

For the next four or five days, County said, Dally did not come to work. Meanwhile, he said, some Vons employees joked that Dally had probably killed his wife--even though she was still being treated as a missing person.

When Michael Dally eventually returned to work, County said, the tension was thick. At one point, he said, Dally asked a co-worker directly: “Do I look like the type of guy who’d kill my wife?”

And he later pulled out a jagged diving knife with a yellow handle, frightening a co-worker, County said. He said Dally always wore a knife on his belt.

On May 7, 1996, County said, he saw Dally driving in Oxnard and followed him for a short distance. But when Dally turned into the Oxnard Airport parking area, County said, he became frightened and drove away.

“I thought,” he said, laughing from the stand, “he had killed his wife and was flying to Mexico.”