Jurors Told of Calm Dally Phone Call

Clutching a wallet-size photo of her slain daughter, Michael Dally’s mother-in-law told jurors at his murder trial Friday about a late-night phone conversation in which he calmly reported his wife had been kidnapped.

“He said, ‘She’s been snatched, she’s gone,’ ” testified Karlyne Guess, averting her eyes from Dally--the man who 16 years ago married her only daughter, Sherri, and is now accused of killing her.

The couple would have celebrated their wedding anniversary on Friday, Guess told the jury, wiping away tears.

As she spoke, Dally remained collected. The previous day he had shed tears while listening to a taped conversation in which he told a friend how much he missed his wife.

Prosecutors say he was the mastermind behind his wife’s fatal stabbing. They have charged him with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy.

Guess testified Friday on statements the 37-year-old defendant made after Sherri Dally was reported missing on May 6, 1996.

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Michael Dally contacted police the same afternoon. He was told to immediately call Karlyne and Ken Guess at their home in Santa Maria to find out whether Sherri had gone to visit them.

But Guess said her son-in-law made no effort to contact them until 8:45 p.m., when he left a message on their answering machine.

When he called back at 9:30 p.m., he told Guess that her daughter had been abducted while shopping for a Mother’s Day gift, she said. Guess told the jury that she distinctly remembers his tone.

“It was very quiet--very cruel and hurtful,” she said. “I got the feeling that maybe if she hadn’t been shopping for my Mother’s Day present, she wouldn’t have been kidnapped.”

In subsequent phone calls, Dally showed no concern for his wife’s disappearance and behaved in a hurtful manner toward her family, Guess said.

“He asked me if I had cried yet,” Guess recalled bitterly. “I said, ‘Yes, every day.’ And he said, ‘Well, I haven’t.’ ”

During the last six months of her life, Sherri Dally seemed unhappy and determined to win back her husband from his lover, Diana Haun, Guess said.

Haun was convicted of murder and related charges last fall and sentenced to life in prison for killing Sherri Dally.

According to Guess, Haun was not the first woman to drive a wedge into the rocky marriage.

Guess told the jury she suspected her son-in-law was having an affair years ago when he was working in Santa Barbara. At the time, he repeatedly would come home seven hours late and blame his tardiness on traffic.

Michael Dally called Sherri a “barn animal” when she was struggling with weight loss, and would criticize her in front of her family, Guess testified.

“I never thought that Michael treated Sherri with respect,” she said.

During the last conversation Sherri had with her mother, she said she knew she should leave Michael but couldn’t bring herself to do it, Guess testified.

But on cross-examination, Dally’s attorney questioned how much contact Guess had with her daughter in the months before her disappearance. The defense has argued the Dallys’ marriage was improving just before her death. They have suggested the relationship posed a threat to Haun, who then killed her lover’s wife in a jealous rage.

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Guess acknowledged she did not see Sherri for five months before her death, but said they spoke on the phone often. Guess also acknowledged that she never knew Dally to be physically abusive to her daughter.

At one point, attorney Robert Schwartz asked Guess whether she initially suspected that her son-in-law was involved in Sherri Dally’s disappearance.

“I trusted him at that time,” Guess replied. “I wouldn’t have any reason to think he was involved.”

Testimony is to resume next week.