Dally’s Murder Trial Exerts a Sort of Fatal Attraction

Butch Hernandez remembers vividly the day he and eight other searchers discovered Sherri Dally’s decomposed remains in a Canada Larga ravine, how they stood around in a circle, held hands and prayed.

He also remembers Dally’s funeral, days later, and the stoic stance of her husband, Michael.

“We cried more than he did,” Hernandez said during a break in the first day of Michael Dally’s murder trial.

His palms sweating throughout the prosecution’s opening remarks, Hernandez was among just seven members of the general public able to squeeze into court.

The case, one of the most closely watched in Ventura County history, drew the customary slew of courtroom observers and media.

They were joined by a pair of screenwriters taking careful notes for a television movie, relatives of both Sherri and Michael Dally, even four jurors who three months ago sentenced Dally’s lover, Diana Haun, to life in prison without parole for committing the murder of Sherri Dally.

“Part of the suspense is that it could go either way,” said screenwriter and producer Lauren Sand. Armed with a press pass and a front-row seat, Sand is working with a partner on a made-for-television movie about the case.

“We don’t have an ending to the movie until we have a verdict,” she said. “When you’re writing, that’s very challenging because you don’t know what’s going to happen yet.”

Donna Morlock and Carol Garcea, jurors in the Haun trial, said they could relate to the shock they saw in some of the newly seated jurors who were hearing the grim details of the case for the first time.

“I saw one juror. He’s getting hit pretty hard,” said Morlock, an alternate in the Haun case.

“He doesn’t like what he’s hearing,” Garcea added.

The jurors will find their roles even more perplexing as the defense begins to argue, the two said.

Later, their confusion could mount as they learn what they may and may not discuss, and what the law allows them to conclude.

“The first day is just so overwhelming,” Garcea said. “You go in there and you have this very confusing bill of indictment in front of you. Then they read you all the rules and regulations . . . “

About 20 members of the public began showing up nearly two hours before the 9 a.m. start of the trial. With so many seats reserved for media and family, just seven were left.

Many of those who trooped to the courthouse had sat through hours of testimony in the Haun case. Their return is a telling sign of the sweeping interest the case has received both locally and beyond.

Two women who would not give their names said they came hoping to watch Dally be convicted and punished.

The pair spoke little about evidence, focusing instead on Dally’s appearance.

Despite the numerous references to him in the Haun case, the women never had seen him in person.

“He doesn’t look anything like the pictures in the paper,” one said to the other.

“His hair is curlier than I thought,” the other replied, “ . . . and darker.”

For the past year, Michael Dally has awaited trial in Ventura County Jail, unable to respond to the allegations against him.

During Haun’s trial, he was portrayed as a manipulative womanizer who cheated on his wife, used drugs and frequented prostitutes--descriptions that the prosecution in Dally’s case used again in opening statements.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth said testimony about Dally’s lifestyle is not going to be offered to imply he is a bad person, but to show his disrespect for his wife and a motive to kill her.

Defense attorney Robert I. Schwartz said “so what?” if his client is a womanizer, as he acknowledged Dally is. That has nothing to do with the core issues of the case, he told the jurors.

The lawyers’ opening statements lasted the entire day--from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. During that time, Dally listened intently and occasionally passed notes to his lawyers when the prosecutor made specific references to his alleged actions or statements.

At one point during the proceedings, Henke-Dobroth projected an enlarged picture of Sherri Dally on a white screen at the front of the courtroom, between the judge and the jury box. Michael Dally looked at the image--the same one used in hundreds of fliers when his wife was reported missing--and listened closely as the prosecutor spoke.

“Michael Dally hated his wife, and hated her with a vengeance,” Henke-Dobroth said.

For some court watchers, it was the drama of such moments that lured them to the courtroom. For others, weather and chance played a role.

Edie Klein of Ventura usually golfs with her husband on weekday afternoons.

On Monday, she finally had the chance to get inside Courtroom 45--the next-best alternative to washed-out golf courses.

“If the weather holds out, I won’t be here” when the trial continues today, she said.

“At the lunch break I went home and made a tee time.”

Times staff writers Tracy Wilson and Scott Hadly contributed to this story.

MURDER TRIAL: Michael Dally had nothing to do with his wife’s slaying, defense says. A1