Woman Says Haun Stalked Her in ’92

Michael Dally’s attorneys concluded their case Thursday by calling a final witness to bolster their theory that Diana Haun was a psychotic, obsessive lover who would stop at nothing to keep her man.

Ann McGinty told jurors that seven years ago she was stalked, threatened and harassed by a woman she suspected was the lover of her estranged husband. She later found out that woman was Haun.

McGinty’s testimony was significant for the defense, which has maintained that long before Haun began a relationship with their client she had a propensity toward violence and irrational behavior.

Dally, 37, is facing murder charges in the May 6, 1996, kidnap-slaying of his wife, Sherri. But defense attorneys say he played no role in the killing and have pinned it solely on Haun.

The 36-year-old former grocery clerk was convicted of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy last fall and sentenced to life in prison.

For the past six weeks, testimony in Dally’s murder trial has centered primarily on his actions, statements and demeanor before and after his wife disappeared.

But on Thursday, testimony focused on Haun.

First, Christopher McGinty testified that in July 1991 he began an affair with Haun while his then-wife, Ann, was visiting relatives in England. The couple are now divorced.

Christopher McGinty met Haun while working as the manager of McGinty’s sports bar in Ventura. They were lovers for seven months and lived together for a short time after he separated from his wife.

But in early 1992, Christopher McGinty broke off the relationship and subsequently began to see his wife again. Haun was upset by the breakup, he said.

“She started to cry,” he recalled. “She asked me, ‘Why can’t I keep a boyfriend?’ ”

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Defense attorneys then called Ann McGinty to the witness stand, and she recalled a series of bizarre events that unfolded after her separation.

“I started receiving letters,” she said.

Some contained intimate information about her personal life that Ann McGinty said she had not shared with many people, such as the fact she had been diagnosed with cancer.

One letter suggested that Ann McGinty would be “damaged” if she stayed with her husband and would get cancer again. And another threatened that if she and Christopher McGinty did not divorce, “they would both suffer greatly.”

The letters were signed “Madame Teresa” and all bore a New York postmark, Ann McGinty said. In the middle of her testimony, attorneys offered a stipulation to the jury that Haun was a former postal worker.

During the same period of time, Ann McGinty said she also started to get phone calls from an anonymous woman who asked questions such as “Do you know where your husband is?” and “I know where you are.”

She also began to receive parcels and other objects after her husband moved out, such as a large ceramic tiger that appeared on her doorstep. Christopher McGinty told the jury his nickname for Haun was “tiger.”

Ann McGinty said she also received various books on witchcraft tied together with a black ribbon. The jury has already heard testimony about witchcraft books that were seized by authorities from Haun’s home.

On another occasion, Ann McGinty found a cardboard box on her doorstep filled with old clothes and two decapitated decoy ducks, she said.

“Their heads were off,” she said. “It looked as though they had been snapped.”

Amid the letters, phone calls and odd packages, Ann McGinty said she also began to notice someone following her--a woman with blond hair who drove two cars, one red and one white.

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Christopher McGinty told the jury that when he knew her, Haun drove a red car that she later painted white. Jurors have already heard testimony that Haun, a brunet, owned a blond wig.

Ann McGinty recalled a specific time in which she was having coffee and reading the newspaper at McGinty’s pub. She looked up and noticed the woman who had been trailing her in the reflection of a mirror behind the bar. The witness said she jumped up and followed the woman outside but did not confront her.

“Was there any question in your mind that that was the person who was following you all those times?” attorney Robert Schwartz asked.

“No,” Ann McGinty responded.

Schwartz then showed the witness a large poster board covered with various photographs of Haun taken from her modeling portfolio. McGinty gestured to one, a black and white of Haun wearing sunglasses and blond hair.

“That’s the person who followed me,” she said.

Ann McGinty eventually confronted her husband about the strange events. She said he told her that he had had an affair with Haun, but that they had since broken up. She also said that her husband questioned Haun about the harassment and she told him that she was not involved.

Prosecutors asked Ann McGinty only a few questions on cross-examination. She acknowledged that Haun never made any attempts to contact her in person and never threatened to kill or kidnap her.

Prosecutors wanted Ann McGinty to testify at Haun’s murder trial last fall, but her defense attorneys objected on the grounds the wife’s testimony would invite speculation and prejudice their client.

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Before Ann and Christopher McGinty took the stand Thursday morning, prosecutors made a similar objection with regard to aspects of their testimony. But Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. denied the request.

Defense attorneys say the McGinty-Haun affair had striking parallels to Haun’s later relationship with Michael Dally and his wife, including a similar modus operandi.

Haun wore a blond wig and a disguise to kidnap Sherri Dally. Authorities also believe from analyzing the 35-year-old homemaker’s remains that she may have been decapitated.

In opening statements, Schwartz told the jury that it was after Michael Dally moved out of an apartment he shared with Haun to return to his family that she began plotting Sherri Dally’s murder. He suggested that Haun was determined not to lose another lover to another wife.

Prosecutors did not call any rebuttal witnesses Thursday, and closing arguments are set to begin next Wednesday.