Dally’s Attorneys Seek to Exclude Ax

Attorneys for Michael Dally want to keep out key evidence presented at his co-defendant’s murder trial and strike one of the two allegations that make him eligible for the death penalty, according to recently filed court documents.

Dally is scheduled to stand trial next week in the fatal stabbing of his wife, Sherri. A jury recently convicted Diana Haun, Michael Dally’s longtime lover, of killing his wife in an elaborate conspiracy.

During Haun’s six-week murder trial, the jury heard testimony about the planning that preceded the May 6, 1996, slaying, including the purchase of a camping ax.

Prosecutors theorized that the same ax was used to decapitate Sherri Dally, although the jury did not find that Haun used an ax in carrying out the killing.

Now, Michael Dally’s attorneys want Judge Frederick A. Jones to exclude any evidence about the possible use of an ax from his trial.

Attorneys James Farley and Robert Schwartz filed under seal a written motion on the matter earlier this month. Prosecutors responded last week.

Their brief was not filed under seal. They said testimony about the purchase and possible use of an ax should be allowed. Haun bought an ax, Sherri Dally’s head was cut off by an instrument similar to an ax, and after her death, Michael Dally asked a policeman whether his wife’s head was attached when her body was located in a ravine, prosecutors argued.

Those details are significant to the case and should not be kept from the jury, they argued in court papers.

Prosecutors also said in their motion that Haun’s jury was misled about the legal definition of lying-in-wait at the end of the trial. They want Dally’s jury to receive different instructions about lying-in-wait, one of the two special circumstance allegations in the case.

The matters will be discussed at a court hearing on Monday.