Haun Acted Alone, Dally Defense Says

Likening the case to the movie thriller “Fatal Attraction,” attorneys for accused killer Michael Dally told a jury Monday their client played no role in his wife’s murder.

Rather, they contend, the May 1996 slaying of Sherri Dally was carried out by his obsessive lover, acting alone.

“Diana Haun did this all by herself,” said attorney Robert I. Schwartz, referring to his client’s former girlfriend as a “wacko” and “psychopathic crazy lady” who was determined to hang onto the man she loved.

“The evidence will show clearly she was a very, very coldblooded murderess who would do anything to get what she wanted.”

Opening the second chapter of one of the most sensational murder cases in Ventura County history, Schwartz made it clear the defense plans to distance its client from Haun’s reckless acts while attacking the circumstantial evidence prosecutors say links Michael Dally, 37, to the crime.

But prosecutors contend it was Dally--not Haun--who was the mastermind behind the homemaker’s brutal slaying: He had the motive to kill. And he had the perfect pawn in Haun to carry out his plans.

“Michael Dally hated his wife and hated her with a vengeance,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth told a courtroom packed with relatives of both Sherri and Michael Dally.

Sherri Dally disappeared from a Target store parking lot May 6, 1996, after witnesses saw her climb into a car driven by a blond woman wearing a uniform. Her skeletal remains were found weeks later in a steep ravine north of Ventura.

Within months, Michael Dally and his girlfriend were in jail facing murder charges.

Haun was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing Sherri Dally last fall, but jurors rejected a possible death sentence and instead sentenced Haun to life in prison.

The prosecution is also seeking the death penalty against Dally, who faces murder, conspiracy and kidnapping charges. In addition, prosecutors charge that he killed her for financial gain--a special circumstance that would make him eligible for a death sentence.

As with Haun’s trial, a jury from Santa Barbara County has been picked for Dally’s trial because of heavy pretrial publicity in Ventura County.

But unlike the earlier proceedings, where prosecutors had direct evidence linking Haun to the slaying, Dally’s prosecution relies more heavily on circumstantial evidence.

“There is no smoking gun,” Henke-Dobroth warned in her opening statement.

She acknowledged that Dally made none of the key purchases leading up to his wife’s kidnapping and murder--the clothing and blond wig used as a disguise or the getaway rental car.

Nor was he present when she was abducted from a Target parking lot. Nor when Haun stabbed her to death and dumped her corpse in a remote canyon.

But, she said, “That is because he designed it that way.”

Henke-Dobroth described Dally as a manipulative and self-centered man so obsessed with satisfying his own desires--which included cocaine, prostitutes and extramarital affairs--that he decided killing his wife would make it easier to continue his extravagant lifestyle.

A big spender, he ran out of money shortly before his wife died, and Sherri Dally refused to put up with his conduct any longer, the prosecutor said. Afraid that a divorce would leave him “financially devastated,” he turned to his girlfriend to kill his wife.

“The evidence will show that Michael Dally wanted his wife dead to satisfy his needs,” she said.

Defense attorneys acknowledged that for many years Dally had strayed into a reckless lifestyle, but said none of that has anything to do with the charges against him.

“A mere character assassination does not make him a murderer,” Schwartz said.

In his opening statement, Schwartz told the jury that the prosecution does not have a shred of direct evidence to prove Dally was involved in a plan to kill his wife of 14 years.

“Michael Dally is a womanizer,” he admitted. “He began a relationship with Diana Haun. And on top of that, Mr. Dally dated prostitutes and took drugs--that’s all true.”

But those relationships, he said, have nothing to do with this case.

“Did he conspire with Diana Haun? Did he commit murder for financial gain?” Schwartz asked. “There will not be any direct evidence whatsoever that Michael Dally conspired with Diana Haun. None.”

Rather, Schwartz suggested, Haun was obsessed with stealing her lover for herself and willing to kill to accomplish that goal. The impetus for her actions may have been Dally’s decision in October 1995 to return to his wife and two young sons after a three-month separation, Schwartz suggested.

“Diana Haun’s dreams came screeching to a halt,” he said. She was losing a boyfriend to a wife--a pattern in Haun’s life that Schwartz said will become significant during the trial.

Haun’s past relationships will take center stage during the trial because they show her obsessive behavior toward men, Schwartz told the jury. In fact, Dally’s jury will hear evidence about threats Haun allegedly made to her former lover’s wife--claims that were kept out of her murder trial because they were deemed too prejudicial.

Before she met Michael Dally, Haun had an affair with a man named Chris McGinty and sent threatening letters to his wife, Schwartz said.

At one point, he told the jury, she left a box containing two toy ducks with severed heads on Ann McGinty’s doorstep.

“Ms. Haun moved on to human beings with Sherri Dally,” he said, referring to evidence that Sherri Dally’s killer attempted to cut her head off.

To prove its case, the prosecution plans to call more than 100 witnesses in the coming weeks. They will include friends, relatives and co-workers who observed Dally’s demeanor before and after his wife disappeared. Haun is not expected to testify during the Dally trial. Her attorney could not be reached for comment Monday.

Today, the first witness is set to be a former girlfriend of Dally’s, Sallie Lowe, who will testify that he told her he wanted his wife dead and talked about stabbing her or pushing her off a cliff.

A former prostitute will also testify that a week after his wife’s disappearance, Dally asked her to party with him on Canada Larga Road. His wife’s body was found in a ravine along that road three weeks later.

In her three-hour opening statement, Henke-Dobroth told the jury that one witness would liken Dally’s cheerful demeanor after Sherri disappeared to “winning the lottery.”

The jurors will also hear from a San Clemente jet ski mechanic who worked on Dally’s jet ski the same weekend searchers were combing the hills for Sherri’s body.

“He is more concerned with hopping into bed with Diana Haun and taking care of his jet ski,” Henke-Dobroth said.

Finances, Henke-Dobroth told jurors, will emerge as a central part of the case.

She said prosecutors will present extensive evidence showing the Dallys were seriously in debt. Investigators found a trash bag full of unpaid bills--as well as ATM receipts for withdrawals of as much as $1,000 from Dally’s account.

“Drugs cost money, prostitutes cost money,” she said.

She suggested that, in part, Dally was motivated by the $50,000 life insurance policy he would collect upon his wife’s death.

Schwartz took issue with the prosecution’s suggestion that Dally wanted to kill his wife to collect on her insurance. He said the defense will present evidence to the contrary.

And in terms of the murder itself, Schwartz said that common sense would tell any juror that no two people could conspire to commit such a bungling crime.

He recounted the trail of credit card receipts, phone records and personal checks that Haun used to purchase items used in the planning of the slaying.

“It will become so patently clear that two of the dumbest people in the world could not conspire to commit such a stupid plan,” he said.

* TRIAL WATCHERS: Seats at the Dally proceedings were hard to come by. B1