Woman Who Killed Rival Appeals Verdict as a ‘Witch Hunt’

Lawyers for the Port Hueneme woman who bludgeoned her lover’s wife to death will ask an appellate court this week to overturn her conviction, arguing that the trial literally was a witch hunt.

In one of Ventura County’s most sensational murder cases, Diana Haun, 39, was convicted in 1997 of kidnapping and killing Sherri Dally, a 35-year-old homemaker.

Haun’s lawyers say the judge misled the jury about the meaning of murder for financial gain and allowed prosecutors to present highly prejudicial evidence about Haun’s dabbling in witchcraft and her affairs with married men.

“The prosecutor turned this trial into a witch hunt instead of a search for the truth,” Sherman Oaks lawyer Carla Johnson argued in her opening brief. “The case should be reversed.”

But state prosecutors say the evidence presented against Haun was overwhelming, and that rulings by now-deceased Superior Court Judge Frederick Jones during the 11-week trial were correct.

Haun, a former Vons deli clerk, and her lover, Michael Dally, now 40, were accused of plotting an elaborate murder scheme to kill his wife so he could avoid a costly divorce.

Haun abducted Sherri Dally from a retail store parking lot on May 6, 1996, then stabbed her with a knife and beat her with an ax before dumping her body in a ravine along Canada Larga Road between Ventura and Ojai. A search party found Dally’s skeletal remains a month later, and the coroner concluded she may have been beheaded.

Death Penalty Had Been Sought

A grand jury indicted Haun and Michael Dally for murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. Prosecutors sought the death penalty against each of them in separate trials and alleged the killing was for financial gain.

Haun’s jury rejected the death penalty. Dally’s jury convicted him of the same charges but deadlocked on the death penalty.

Both were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole and are appealing their convictions. Haun’s appeal will be argued Wednesday before justices of the 2nd District Court of Appeal; Dally’s case is expected to be argued in November.

Haun’s lawyers argue that the financial gain allegation, which makes Haun ineligible for parole, should be reversed because the judge gave an incorrect jury instruction.

Before deliberations, Jones told jurors they did not have to find that the defendant hoped to personally profit from the murder to find it was committed for financial gain. Jones said the benefit could have been intended for another.

But Haun’s lawyers say Jones was wrong.

“No court has construed the meaning of the term ‘for financial gain’ in a case where the facts indicated that a defendant killed for love with an incidental result of causing a financial gain for another,” Johnson argued.

She also contended Jones erred by allowing prejudicial testimony about witchcraft, Haun’s previous relationship with a married man and a hearsay statement from her mother to be admitted as evidence.

In a reply brief, Deputy Atty. Gen. Lawrence Daniels argued that Jones’ rulings were correct and said the law does not require a defendant to personally benefit financially for the allegation to be true.

He pointed out that in murder-for-hire cases, state courts have found the person who hires a killer is equally liable under the financial gain statute.

Meanwhile, Haun’s lawyers have filed a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that she was denied her constitutional rights to hire a private attorney and has been unlawfully held in prison as a result.

In the writ, filed in late August, appellate lawyers accused the Ventura County Public Defender’s Office of telling Haun she could not afford a private attorney and then garnishing $240,000 from her annuity to repay costs of her defense.

Appellate co-counsel Eric Chase said that the annuity was available at the start and that the public defender’s advice deprived Haun of her rights to choose her own lawyer.

The issue will not be argued Wednesday, but the justices are expected to issue a decision on the writ when they rule on the appeal in the coming weeks.