Dally Found Guilty of 1st-Degree Murder

One of Ventura County’s most sensational murder trials came to a dramatic end Monday as 37-year-old grocery clerk Michael Dally was found guilty of first-degree murder for plotting with his lover to kill his wife.

After four days of deliberations, the jury found Dally guilty of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, plus special circumstances that make him eligible for the death penalty.

The decision capped a seven-week trial in which prosecutors depicted Dally as a self-absorbed braggart who preyed on women, bought sex from prostitutes and ultimately persuaded his girlfriend--Diana Haun--to murder his wife, Sherri.

Though prosecutors had no “smoking gun” linking him to the 1996 crime, they presented a complex web of circumstantial evidence that legal experts said proved too overwhelming for the jury to ignore.

“I don’t think that you can discount the possibility that the jury found him to be a despicable person,” said Oxnard lawyer David Shain, “and that helped sway their judgment.”

The jury reached its decision at 11 a.m., but the verdict was held for more than three hours to give the victim’s family time to assemble in court. As they took their seats, Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell addressed the anxious crowd.

“I have been informed the jury has reached a verdict in this case,” he said, turning to the trial attorneys. “Anything we should do before we bring them in?”

“No, your honor,” the lawyers responded.

One by one, the eight men and four women of the jury filed into the courtroom. They took their designated seats without looking at the defendant, dressed in a stylish gray suit.

The foreman handed the bailiff a thin stack of verdict forms. The judge asked Dally to stand. And the decision was read.

Guilty on all counts.

Dally stood with his chin high and his back straight as the findings to each charge were announced to the hushed courtroom. He did not flinch as a crowd of spectators outside the courtroom erupted in cheers as news spread quickly to the hallway.

The jury also found that Dally killed his wife for money and planned that the crime would occur while Sherri Dally’s attacker was lying in wait--circumstances which mean he will now face a possible death sentence.

Inside the courtroom, Dally’s father and two nieces looked stunned. Seated a few feet away, Sherri Dally’s relatives clasped hands and wiped away tears of joy.

After the jury was excused, her relatives collapsed in one another’s arms.

“It was a just verdict,” a tearful and exhausted Karlyne Guess, Sherri Dally’s mother, said later as she pushed her way through a crowd of reporters and television cameras.

Outside the courtroom, Dally’s niece, Hannah Murray, broke into tears, thinking about how Dally’s two sons--9-year-old Devon and 8-year-old Max--would react to the news.

“I’m really upset because now I have to go home and tell Devon,” said Murray, slumping against a courtroom wall and explaining that Devon’s 10th birthday is Wednesday. “He already knows something about what’s going on, but now I’ve got to tell him this.”

The jury’s decision came nearly two years after Sherri Dally, a 35-year-old day-care operator, was kidnapped and fatally stabbed by Haun.

Haun was convicted last fall on all charges and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Michael Dally, who was being closely monitored Monday night to ensure he didn’t try to commit suicide, could face the same punishment if the jury spares him execution. The penalty phase of his trial is scheduled to begin next week.

With a second victory in the high-profile murder case, Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury walked out of the courtroom with a wide smile on his face Monday and gingerly showed a thumbs-up sign to the crowd.

“Justice was served today,” he said. “I’m very proud of my team. They did a great job. It was a tough case, but they did a great job.”

Prosecutors charged Haun and Dally as co-conspirators, arguing that he wanted his wife dead and duped his girlfriend into carrying out a calculated murder scheme.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Dally was motivated by hatred and greed. They said he despised his wife, but was unwilling to suffer the financial consequences of a divorce.

Defense attorneys, however, told the jury that their client played no role in his wife’s slaying. They described Haun as an obsessive mistress who killed Sherri Dally to steal her husband.

More than 100 witnesses testified during the trial, including Michael Dally’s relatives, co-workers and family friends.

They portrayed Dally as a cruel husband who often cursed at his wife and forced her to sleep with a body pillow adorned with the silk-screen picture of his mistress, Haun.

Ex-girlfriend Sallie Lowe testified that during her three-year relationship with Dally, he told her he hated his wife and felt trapped like a “caged animal” in his marriage.

Lowe, who became involved with Dally in 1989, said he told her he wanted someone to stab his wife or throw her off a cliff.

Dally’s drug dealer and several prostitutes also testified about his use of rock cocaine and the amount of money he typically spent on drugs and sex. In part, prosecutors argued that Dally decided to kill his wife after she pressured him to give up the seedy lifestyle.

According to legal experts, the jury’s decision to convict Dally had to be influenced, in part, by the substantial testimony about his arrogant personality and unrepentant demeanor after Sherri’s death.

“Clearly the evidence in this case demonstrates that Michael Dally was a bad person,” said defense attorney Kevin DeNoce, a former prosecutor who once worked on the Dally case.

“It’s not like he hides it,” DeNoce said. “He comes into court just boasting. . . . In that respect, the defense had a very hard time to defend him.”

Given the jury’s decision and the character evidence already presented, said Laurie Levenson, associate dean of Loyola Law School, it may not be a stretch for the jury to vote in favor of a death sentence.

“It is still very difficult for jurors to look him in the eye and recommend the death sentence,” Levenson said. “It doesn’t mean they won’t do it. And frankly, things are not going his way.”

Sherri Dally vanished on the morning of May 6, 1996. She was last seen climbing into the back seat of a teal-colored car driven by a blond woman wearing a tan pantsuit. The woman handcuffed Dally before driving away, and police later suspected the kidnapper had posed as a security guard.

For the next few weeks, friends combed the hills of western Ventura County searching for the missing mother of two.

On June 1, a search party found her skeletal remains at the bottom of a steep ravine 11 miles north of Ventura. She had been beaten and stabbed to death, and a clear cut to the base of her skull indicated that she may also have been beheaded, the medical examiner testified.

Almost immediately after Dally disappeared, police focused their investigation on Michael Dally and Haun. The pair had been having an affair for two years. Friends said Sherri Dally knew about the liaison and was trying desperately to win back her husband.

On Aug. 1, Haun was arrested and two weeks later the Ventura County Grand Jury indicted her on murder charges. Prosecutors later secured an indictment against Michael Dally as well.

In June 1997, defense attorneys sought to separate the trials of Dally and Haun on the grounds the pair would turn on each other. The judge granted the request and decided Haun should be tried first.

Haun’s trial lasted six weeks, ending in her conviction on all charges and one of the two special-circumstance allegations in the case.

Prosecutors showed that days before the murder, Haun bought a blond wig, tan pantsuit and rented a teal-colored car. That vehicle was later recovered by police, and the back seat was soaked in Sherri Dally’s blood.

Although Haun’s attorneys argued that there was no direct evidence linking her to the crime, such as fingerprints or hair fibers, she was convicted on Sept. 26, 1997. The jury rejected a special circumstance allegation that Haun murdered Sherri Dally while lying in wait, but decided that Haun killed for financial gain.

The finding prompted a second, penalty phase of the Haun trial in which the jury decided she should spend the rest of her life in prison. Haun is now serving her sentence at a women’s prison in Chowchilla, Calif.

At the time of Haun’s conviction and sentencing, friends of Sherri Dally said the verdicts helped bring a sense of closure to a seaside community rocked by the high-profile kidnapping and murder.

On Monday, those same friends said Michael Dally’s conviction closes the final chapter of a tale of greed and betrayal that tragically ended in the brutal death of a loved one.

“While the verdict was being read, all you could hear from outside were people screaming hooray,” said Gary Aanerud, a friend of Sherri’s who worked his way into the courtroom.

Before her death, Sherri Dally looked after Aanerud’s two children. And after she was missing, he helped organize the search party that eventually found her remains.

“The nice thing was the whole community participated. People who didn’t even know Sherri came out and helped,” he said. “I think there was that same kind of feeling in the courtroom [Monday]. This was a huge event in our community.”

Ventura resident John Avila, Dally’s boyhood pal who later became close friends with Sherri, said he took time out of his work day Monday to listen to the verdict on the radio.

He said he was pleased with the jury’s decision and relieved that the painful ordeal was nearing its end.

“I spoke at her funeral and at that time I stated that she was in a place of rest,” Avila said. “She can now rest assured that justice has been served.”

*

Times staff writers Fred Alvarez, Daryl Kelley, Miguel Bustillo, Hillary E. MacGregor, Scott Hadly and correspondent Nick Green contributed to this story.

* LEGAL ANALYSIS

Experts say verdict based on character, not evidence. B1

* COURTHOUSE REACTION

A collective whoop of joy exploded from the spectators. B1