Prosecutors to Accept Life Term for Dally

Ventura County prosecutors will not keep pushing for the death penalty against convicted killer Michael Dally but will settle instead for life in prison and closure in a case that has dragged on for two years.

The decision, announced in court Monday, came two weeks after the jury that convicted Dally of plotting his wife’s murder deadlocked over what his punishment should be.

Without a new penalty trial, the 37-year-old former grocery clerk is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Dressed in blue jail garb and flanked by sheriff’s deputies, Dally smiled and embraced his two attorneys after the decision was announced. His sentencing hearing is set for June 9.

“Closure for the community and the family was probably the primary reason,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth said of the prosecution’s decision not to push forward.

“We tried this case the best we could,” Henke-Dobroth said. “The jury obviously agreed. In speaking with them, I can assure you there was no sympathy for Mr. Dally.”

*

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Dally as a dead-end drug user who preyed on weak women and eventually persuaded his mistress, Diana Haun, to kill his wife so he could avoid a costly divorce.

While not disputing his character, Dally’s lawyers say he played no role in his wife’s slaying and suggested Haun was obsessed and acted alone.

The prosecution’s decision not to retry the penalty phase came as a relief to Dally’s relatives, who feared a death sentence would irreparably harm his 10- and 8-year-old sons, Devon and Max.

“I am so happy,” said Hannah Murray, 21, Dally’s niece. “I don’t know what to do with myself, my whole life has been consumed for two years. Now it’s over and my family can move on and we can just concentrate on the boys and getting on with our lives.”

Sherri Dally’s mother, Karlene Guess, had anxiously awaited the decision by prosecutors and hoped the case would draw to a close.

“We are real relieved that they are not going to put us through that again,” she said. As a prosecution witness, Guess testified seven times in 23 months during the twin trials of her daughter’s killers and before the grand jury.

“I wasn’t physically or emotionally ready to do that again,” she said. “We are pleased that it all will be over shortly.”

Dally was convicted April 6 of first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy for planning his wife’s slaying with Haun. She was found guilty of the same charges last year and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In returning those verdicts, the jury in Dally’s trial found the killing was committed for financial gain and occurred while lying in wait. The two special-circumstance allegations made Dally eligible for the death penalty.

But after a two-day penalty trial in which Dally told jurors he had loved his wife and would never have hurt her, the panel was unable to reach a unanimous decision on punishment.

*

Seven jurors voted in favor of a death sentence, while five held out for life imprisonment. Given the impasse, Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell declared a mistrial of the penalty phase April 24.

Prosecutors were given two weeks to decide whether to seek a second penalty trial, as is their right under state law. But after discussing the matter with Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Kevin J. McGee, Henke-Dobroth told Campbell she would not seek a retrial.

“It was the right thing for them to do,” Dally’s attorney James M. Farley said later.

“There is no guarantee that the result would be any different,” he said. “If we try it again it would cost millions and open all the wounds for the Guess family and the Dally family.”

Farley plans to file a standard motion for a new trial before the sentencing hearing. It will be made on several grounds, he said. “It’s sort of a shotgun approach.”

The district attorney’s decision not to retry the penalty phase comes two years after Sherri Dally was abducted from the parking lot of a Ventura Target store May 6, 1996.

According to witnesses, the 35-year-old day-care provider was approached by a blond woman driving a teal-colored car who after a brief conversation placed handcuffs on Sherri Dally’s wrists and guided her into the back seat.

A month later, her skeletal remains were found by a search party at the bottom of a steep ravine between Ventura and Ojai. She had been beaten and stabbed to death.

Ventura police targeted their investigation on Michael Dally and Haun. They found a rental agreement she signed for a teal Nissan Altima as well as canceled checks for a blond wig and others items linked to the crime.

The lovers were indicted by the Ventura County Grand Jury and tried separately, both cases ultimately ending in the same sentence.

In a dramatic finish to Dally’s trial, he testified as the final witness in the penalty phase last month and professed his love for Sherri while admitting that he made mistakes during their 14-year marriage.

But he denied being involved in the plot to kill her and repeatedly told jurors he had no idea Haun had stabbed her to death and hidden her body.

*

After the trial, Henke-Dobroth spoke to jurors, who told her they thought Dally lied on the witness stand. She said they felt Dally’s testimony reaffirmed their verdicts.

“It gave the jurors a true and accurate picture of what he was like,” she said.

But despite his statements and the gruesome nature of the crime, Henke-Dobroth said several jurors told her they could not vote for death because of the potential impact on his children and other family members.

In weighing whether to retry the penalty phase, Henke-Dobroth said prosecutors also looked at the possible impact on the Dally children as well as Sherri Dally’s parents.

They also considered what they could do differently and decided there was no new evidence to be raised in a second trial that would change the outcome.

“I didn’t believe, and the district attorney didn’t believe we could present anything differently,” she said, adding that it was time to put the case to rest for everyone involved.

“It’s been a long two years,” she said.