Haun Models Wig, Shoes for Defense

Donning a short blonde wig and floppy canvas shoes, Diana Haun was paraded before a jury Thursday as her attorneys tried to show that she could not have been the costumed kidnapper who abducted Sherri Dally.

Smiling beneath the straw-colored shag, Haun stood just a few feet from the jury box and posed, giving the group a good look at her from every angle.

At one point, members of the jury were invited to step down from their seats to poke and squeeze the defendant’s feet to determine how closely the shoes fit.

It was a courtroom production that left spectators enthralled, capping an otherwise sluggish day of testimony in a murder trial that has now spanned more than six weeks.

Defense attorneys had hoped to rest their case Thursday, but arguments between the lawyers delayed that goal and pushed the conclusion of the trial back another day.

The jury is scheduled to return this morning for rebuttal testimony from a handful of prosecution witnesses. The defense intends to rest today after admitting additional physical evidence. Defense attorneys called just two witnesses Thursday: Richard Haas, an investigator for the district attorney’s office, and Art Jimenez, an investigator for the public defender’s office.

Haas was briefly questioned about his interview with an eyewitness to Dally’s May 6, 1996, kidnapping from a Ventura Target parking lot.

It was Jimenez whose testimony dominated most of the court day, as Haun’s attorneys used his investigation as a launching point for their demonstration.

Throughout the trial, defense attorneys have argued that Haun could not have been the disguised abductor who drove away with Dally because her height is inconsistent with witness accounts of the blond kidnapper, described as being 2 to 4 inches shorter than Dally.

To illustrate that point, Jimenez took a series of measurements, first situating Haun in the well of the courtroom a few feet from the jury box.

Haun slipped out of her shoes and stood in her hosiery as Jimenez and Deputy Public Defender Neil Quinn measured her height at 5 feet 5 plus a fraction.

The 36-year-old defendant, dressed in a black skirt and gray blazer, was then escorted from the courtroom to a nearby holding cell, where attorney Susan Olson and two legal assistants helped her don the wig.

Authorities bought the hairpiece from the same shop where Haun bought a wig believed used in the kidnap-slaying. Beauty shop employees said the wig they sold police was similar to the one Haun bought.

Haun emerged after a court recess wearing the short shaggy wig. It puffed a little on top and curled up around the base of her neck in a ‘60s style similar to that of Florence Henderson’s TV character on “The Brady Bunch.” Haun’s dark bob was tucked neatly under the wig and could not be seen.

Again, she walked before the jury and this time she slipped on a pair of canvas shoes similar to the ones court records show she purchased at Kmart on May 4, 1996--two days before Dally’s abduction.

Wearing the shoes and wig, Haun was measured at 5 feet 7--the same height as Sherri Dally.

Two witnesses--Margaret Wilmeth and Dennis Dunlap--told police last year that the woman they saw with Dally in the parking lot was shorter by several inches. They each estimated the suspect’s height at about 5 feet 3.

But during court testimony, Wilmeth told the jury the suspect was shorter by only “an inch or two.” And in his testimony, Dunlap described at least a 1-inch difference between the two women.

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During the defense’s demonstration, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Frawley questioned Jimenez about the defendant’s appearance--questioning the placement of the wig and the fit of the shoes.

“Ms. Haun is not wearing pancake makeup at this time, isn’t that true?” he asked, shooting a rapid-fire sequence of similar questions.

“And you don’t know how this wig was combed or styled on May 6, 1996, isn’t that true?” Frawley asked Jimenez.

“Yes,” he answered.

Frawley also attacked the way Haun was trying on the shoes, at one point questioning whether she was really putting her feet into the size 9 canvas flats bought by the defense.

“I would request that if the shoes be put on, they be put on all the way,” he said.

Haun mumbled something in response to the prosecutor’s request--a remark about the fit that was not heard by the court reporter. The judge told jurors that the comment “must be utterly disregarded” if anyone heard it.

On cross-examination, Frawley asked Haun to try on a different pair of canvas shoes--ones purchased by the prosecution using Haun’s Kmart receipt as a guide. The defense used the same receipt when buying their shoes, Jimenez testified.

Still focusing on the snugness, Frawley said: “I’d like the record to reflect additional room at the toe of the shoe.”

On re-direct examination, however, Quinn placed the defendant before the jury for a third time. He put a prosecution shoe on one foot and a defense shoe on the other as members of the jury craned their necks to watch the Cinderella-esque production.

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This time, Quinn asked the jurors to individually come forward to feel Haun’s feet and determine for themselves the closeness of the fit. Not every juror accepted the invitation, although most did, squatting down and squeezing her toes like shoe salesclerks.

On May 4, 1996, Haun bought canvas shoes, a tan pantsuit, a camping ax and other items allegedly used during Sherri Dally’s kidnap-slaying. She also bought a wig at Oxnard Discount Wig and Beauty Supply the same day.

According to court testimony, Haun tried on blond hairpieces and bought one with a personal check. But her lawyers say she did not wear the wig to kidnap Dally or disguise herself from the Ventura homemaker.

Haun was having an affair with Dally’s husband, Michael, and they are both charged in his wife’s slaying. Michael Dally will be tried later on the same charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. Both could face the death penalty if convicted.