Prosecution Calls Its Last Witness in Haun Case

After four weeks of testimony from 106 witnesses, Ventura County prosecutors rested their case Wednesday against murder suspect Diana Haun and closed the curtain on the first act of the sensational trial.

Haun’s attorneys plan to call their first witness this morning and launch a defense that they expect will show the 36-year-old grocery clerk did not orchestrate or carry out the slaying of Ventura homemaker Sherri Dally.

The prosecution’s presentation of evidence wrapped up late Wednesday afternoon after a Ventura police officer testified about interviews he had with Haun after the May 6, 1996, disappearance of Sherri Dally.

Det. Matt Harvill told the jury that he went to Haun’s home in Port Hueneme on the morning of May 8, 1996, to discuss the disappearance of the 35-year-old homemaker, who was married to Haun’s lover, Michael Dally.

When he arrived, Harvill testified, Haun greeted him and his partner at the front door wearing a black camisole set. The victim’s husband, Michael Dally, later emerged from the back of Haun’s house--coming from the direction of her bedroom--wearing only a pair of shorts, Harvill said.

Dally and Haun were having an adulterous affair for two years before Sherri Dally was killed. After the mother of two was reported missing, her body was found in a ravine on the outskirts of Ventura nearly a month later on June 1.

Prosecutors allege that Dally and Haun--who are being tried separately on murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges--planned the killing to remove his wife from their lives while avoiding a costly divorce.

As an addendum to their case, prosecutors plan to present today a letter that Sherri Dally wrote to Michael before her death, asking him to choose between her and Haun.

“I love you more than I can ever say or show because you are blinded right now,” the 10-page letter begins. “I thought you were too smart to let a female sweet talk you into giving up your family.”

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“You need to make a choice,” Sherri Dally later writes. “You can’t have the both of two worlds.”

The letter, which was not dated, was found by authorities on top of the Dallys’ refrigerator during a May 18, 1996, search of the family’s home.

Prosecutors believe, based on references in the document, that it was written only a few months before Sherri Dally was killed.

The letter was among a dozen or more exhibits that prosecutors sought to admit as evidence in the case Wednesday. Phone bills, photographs and letters between Michael Dally and Haun were also discussed outside the jury’s presence as prosecutors sought to tie up remaining loose ends in their case.

They called just one other final witness Wednesday, investigator Richard Haas of the district attorney’s office, who testified about his role in the investigation of the Dally murder case.

Prosecutors did not call a witness whom they say had an incriminating conversation with the defendant while the two were being held on criminal charges in the Ventura County jail last year.

Lawyers in the case argued at length Tuesday about the admissibility of Marcie Fort’s possible testimony as well as her dealings with law enforcement officials.

Fort, a convicted drug user and one-time police informant, may have had hidden motives for testifying, defense attorneys alleged while seeking additional information about her past.

The issue became moot Wednesday when prosecutors failed to call her to testify.

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Meanwhile, Haas told the jury about tape recordings and other pieces of evidence outstanding in the case.

Haas played for the jury a tape recording that authorities found during a search of Haun’s home. On the tape, the defendant is heard repeatedly reciting a monologue that sounds like an advertisement for acting classes.

“It is my opinion,” she says on the tape recording, “that this world is one big theater and we are all playing the role of ourselves everyday.”

In other testimony, Haas told the jury he drove a 105-mile route between Ventura, Ojai, Camarillo, Oxnard and Port Hueneme--the same route prosecutors allege Haun took during the kidnap-slaying of Sherri Dally.

A blue sedan rented by Haun showed 126 miles on the speedometer after she returned it, according to earlier court testimony.

The car rental is just one piece of a mosaic of circumstantial evidence that prosecutors presented during these last four weeks.

At the end of the trial--after the defense presents its case and prosecutors call their rebuttal witnesses--they are expected to glue together the pieces of that mosaic in closing arguments.

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At that time, prosecutors hope to present to the jury a picture showing Haun as the kidnapper and killer of the wife of her longtime lover.

The prosecution presented its case in several segments. They began with witness testimony about the characters of Haun and Michael Dally and their alleged motives.

Dally’s former girlfriend, Sallie Lowe, told the jury that Michael Dally told her he wanted his wife dead. She testified that Dally specifically said he wanted to stab Sherri or push her off a cliff.

Various Vons workers told the jury about their observations of fellow employees Dally and Haun, both as a couple and as individuals. One co-worker, Teresa Estrella, testified that Haun told her she was a witch who wanted to perform a human sacrifice.

Several other witnesses, including Michael Dally’s sister-in-law and close family friends, testified about the Dallys’ strained marriage, his alleged drug use, and at least two confrontations that Haun, Michael and Sherri Dally had in the months before her death.

Prosecutors then moved into their next segment of the case: actions that they say Haun took days before the abduction to advance a conspiracy to kill Sherri Dally. Witnesses testified that Haun did the following:

* Rented a blue Nissan Altima from Oxnard Airport and paid for it with her credit card.

* Purchased a camping ax, tan pantsuit and other items at Kmart that were allegedly used in the killing.

* Bought a blond wig at an Oxnard wig shop that authorities say was worn by Dally’s abductor.

Prosecutors also called eyewitnesses who said they saw Sherri Dally allow herself to be handcuffed and get into the back seat of a blue sedan driven by a blond woman in a tan suit in the parking lot of a Ventura Target store the morning of May 6.

And they put on evidence to suggest that in the days that followed, Haun and Dally took steps to cover up a crime.

When defense attorneys launch their case today, they are expected to continue an assault on Michael Dally, who they claim was the mastermind of his wife’s killing.

In opening statements, Haun’s attorneys said that they would be calling prostitutes to testify about Dally’s involvement in drugs and adultery.

They also plan to present copies of love letters written to Dally from Haun, showing her devotion to a man who they say betrayed both his wife and his lover.