Cocaine as Catalyst

It was one cynical Cupid who matched up Diana Haun with Michael Dally.

From the portraits of the two lovers that have emerged in court over the past nine months, they were like two unstable chemicals spewing volatile fumes into the cramped space of their small lives--and cocaine was part of the Dally’s appetite for thrills that made it all explode.

Separate juries have now found both of them guilty of first-degree murder for the death of Dally’s wife, Sherri, who was kidnapped and bludgeoned to death with an ax nearly two years ago, her mutilated body ditched in a lonely canyon.

Haun has been sentenced to life in prison without parole; on April 20 Dally’s jury will begin to determine whether he will get the same fate--or execution.

In both trials, parades of witnesses described the two as a perfect couple from hell:

Dally was called a self-absorbed braggart who preyed on women, bought sex from prostitutes and seemed unfazed, even delighted, by the disappearance of his wife. He was portrayed as a cruel husband who often cursed at his wife and forced her to share their bed with a large pillow bearing the silk-screened image of his mistress, Haun. He wanted out of his 20-year marriage but was unwilling to pay the financial costs of a divorce--and declared that he would never pay child support. A longtime friend said Dally spoke of seeing “Sherri’s ghost walking down the halls” after she vanished.

Haun called herself “just a normal, average person,” but those who knew her described how her life changed after she got close to Dally. She was portrayed as an obsessed woman who would do anything for her lover. She acknowledged using cocaine with him and told a co-worker she had cast an evil spell and was contemplating a human sacrifice.

A drug dealer and several prostitutes testified that Dally had often purchased rock cocaine from them. It is a drug that can make weaklings feel powerful, even invincible.

As the murder convictions of Diana Haun and Michael Dally eloquently demonstrate, that impression is a false one.