Lawyers for Dally Seek to Exclude Testimony

No testimony about Michael Dally’s alleged encounters with prostitutes. Or his alleged use of drugs. Or comments made to co-workers about his murdered wife. Or his alleged interest in Satanism.

Based on a series of motions filed with the court this month, Dally’s attorneys appear to be trying to gut the prosecution’s case against their client, who is accused of conspiring to kill his wife.

Defense attorneys James M. Farley and Robert Schwartz have challenged the proposed evidence as irrelevant and based on hearsay. They want it excluded from Dally’s trial.

But prosecutors say evidence linking Dally to drugs, prostitutes, extramarital affairs and Satanism should be fair game.

“Evidence of Dally’s resort to prostitutes would help demonstrate that his relationship with his wife was in fact in trouble and that he did not wish to be ‘trapped’ in a marriage,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth wrote in a responding motion.

Henke-Dobroth argued that such evidence goes directly to the prosecution’s theory of motive in the case: that Dally had his wife killed to avoid a costly divorce and to continue a decadent lifestyle.

In their continuing effort to paint Dally as the ultimate bad guy, prosecutors also want to present evidence to suggest that the 37-year-old defendant preyed on a vulnerable woman and had a controlling personality.

Dally is charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy for allegedly masterminding the killing of his wife, Sherri, last year with longtime lover Diana Haun.

Haun, a 36-year-old grocery clerk who worked with Michael Dally at an Oxnard Vons store, was sentenced this week to life in prison for her role in the crime after being found guilty of the same charges.

Prosecutors say the lovers conspired to kill Sherri Dally. They say Haun was the principal murderer but that Dally was an accomplice who had several reasons for wanting his wife dead, not the least of which was his alleged womanizing and drug use.

During Haun’s trial, a former lover, a prostitute and various co-workers testified that Michael Dally smoked rock cocaine and occasionally paid for sex with women. They told the jury that Dally disliked his wife and showed no remorse after her death.

But Dally was unable to respond to these statements during his girlfriend’s trial, many of which came into the court record as unobjected hearsay. Indeed, both prosecutors and Haun’s attorneys seemed to seek out statements that maligned Dally as a cruel husband and manipulative user of women.

Although Dally’s defense attorneys filed their motions opposing such testimony under seal, the prosecution’s response filed Friday gives a glimpse of the issues in question.

First, they want the jury to hear testimony about Dally’s alleged involvement with prostitutes and drugs both before and after his wife’s murder.

Specifically, they object to the defense attempts to keep out statements from prostitute Tracy Bixler, who told the Haun jury she slept with Dally after his wife’s May 6, 1996, disappearance.

“If in fact his wife had been kidnapped without his knowledge and consent,” Henke-Dobroth wrote, “he would have been worried and upset. Having flings with prostitutes would have been the last thing on his mind.”

Dally’s desire to be with other women, including prostitutes, constitutes another motive to the killing and therefore should be permissible testimony at trial, Henke-Dobroth argued.

According to the prosecution’s motion, defense attorneys are also seeking to exclude statements from John Avila, Dally’s childhood friend; Sallie Lowe, his former lover; Sherri Dally; and five co-workers.

In addition, the motion states that despite defense objections, evidence about the defendant’s interest in Satanism should be allowed.

Henke-Dobroth wrote that evidence will show Dally and Haun shared a “dark side” and a common interest in Satanism. Evidence will also show that Dally had rejected Christianity and resented his wife’s religious views.

“It is also anticipated that the defense will make every effort to depict Haun as the evil one in the relationship and not Dally,” the prosecutor said. “That she alone, perhaps in part due to the nature of her beliefs, planned out and murdered Sherri.”

The jury in Dally’s trial should have a complete picture of what the relationship was really like and what beliefs the couple shared, the prosecutor said.

Henke-Dobroth also contested the defense’s efforts to exclude beeper messages exchanged between the lovers before and after the slaying, arguing that the coded correspondence shows a consciousness of guilt as well as the intensity of Dally and Haun’s love affair.

She also filed a separate motion to admit 59 letters sent from Dally to Haun while she was in jail and some letters from her to him.

The motions are expected to be addressed next week during a series of pretrial hearings that begin Monday morning.