Father Offers Alibi for Dally on Night of Slaying

The father of accused killer Michael Dally took the witness stand in his son’s defense Wednesday, offering an alibi for Dally’s whereabouts on the night his wife was killed.

Gripping the edge of the witness stand and speaking in a firm voice, Lawrence Dally told jurors that his son was home on May 6, 1996, not covering up evidence of a brutal murder as prosecutors have suggested.

The father told jurors he had dinner that evening with his son, Michael, and his two grandchildren, Max and Devon. He said he watched the trio walk home together, and contrary to earlier testimony said the boys did not spend the night at his home.

“As far as I know, he [Michael Dally] was at his house,” Lawrence Dally testified, drawing a fiery response from prosecutors who suggested he was lying.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Frawley challenged the father’s statements, suggesting he had concocted a story to protect his son, who is facing murder charges in the kidnap-slaying of his wife, Sherri.

“Mr. Dally, do you believe it is important to your son’s case that the jury believe [he] was home after midnight on May 6?” Frawley asked, prompting a quick objection from the defense.

The father was not allowed to answer the question, but later acknowledged he had discussed the subject with his wife, Yaeko, and a defense investigator.

“We talked about that,” he said, adding there was now no doubt in his mind that the boys were home with their father that evening.

Prosecutors contend Michael Dally lied to police about being asleep at home on May 6 and was actually out with his lover, Diana Haun, concealing evidence of a crime.

When a police officer knocked on Dally’s door that night there was no response, and witnesses said they saw Haun’s car parked a mile from the site where Sherri Dally’s stabbed and beaten body was later found by a volunteer search party.

In August 1996, Lawrence Dally told the Ventura County Grand Jury he was unsure where his grandsons slept that night, while Yaeko Dally told the panel the children stayed with her and her husband.

Yaeko Dally later testified at co-defendant Diana Haun’s trial that she could not remember where the children had stayed. Haun was found guilty of Sherri Dally’s slaying in November and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Asked by Frawley when he became certain the boys were not sleeping over at his home on May 6, Lawrence Dally became flustered and explained he was confused when he testified to the grand jury.

“When I first testified, I was really screwed up because of my daughter-in-law,” he said, referring to her disappearance. “I could have said anything.”

At that point, Frawley bluntly asked Lawrence Dally whether he had changed his story after learning additional details in his son’s case. Frawley also asked the father if he had persuaded his wife to change her testimony.

Lawrence Dally responded angrily.

“We was under a lot of pressure,” he said in a raised voice. “We lost our daughter. We never thought that would happen to us--but it did.”

The elder Dally acknowledged that he and his wife met with a defense investigator to discuss the events of May 6. But he insisted the meeting was only to clear up his own recollections of what happened.

When the prosecutor concluded his examination, defense attorney James Farley responded with his own series of blunt questions.

“Mr. Dally, I’d like to cut through all the lawyer stuff,” he said. “Did you take the stand this morning to lie for your son?”

“No, I didn’t,” the father responded.

With his client watching intently, Farley then asked Lawrence Dally whether he loved his son.

“I love him,” he said. “But I’m the type of person that if you do something wrong, you pay for it.”

Later, Farley asked Lawrence Dally whether he got together with his son in the days following Sherri Dally’s disappearance to concoct an alibi. The father testified that he had not.

Although most of his testimony was narrowly focused on what occurred on the night of May 6, Lawrence Dally also told the jury about the close relationship he shared with his daughter-in-law, Sherri.

“We were like best friends,” he said, choking back tears as he recalled a time he helped Sherri Dally teach her youngest son how to ride a bike. “She was like my daughter.” Lawrence Dally also testified about his son’s emotional demeanor.

During his trial, witnesses had described Michael Dally as acting callous, disrespectful and cold about his wife’s disappearance. But the elder Dally said he taught his son to “be strong” in the face of adversity and not to show emotion in front of strangers.

In other testimony, the owner of a hotel in San Luis Obispo said Michael and Sherri Dally spent a night there together in February 1996. Another hotelier testified that the couple vacationed at a Holiday Inn in San Juan Capistrano in April 1996--just a month before her death. Michael Dally’s attorneys contend the Dallys were working on their marriage in the months before she was killed, prompting a jealous Haun to kill her lover’s wife.