Timothy Davenport said the only attacker he could identify from the night of his stabbing had a mustache and red hair. And the defense team has a problem with that. Dale Hausner, the man sitting in court today accused of the crime, is clean shaven and sporting arguably dirty blond hair. The jurors might have to squint hard to picture Hausner with either of the other characteristics.
It’s not so hard to imagine it, though, if you see the photos from the time of Hausner’s arrest. Take a look at his booking photo to the far right. It’s strikingly different than the image of Hausner in court last month. The booking photo distorts Hausner’s skin tone and hair color a little bit, but it shows him with a mustache and beard. Other photos from the time of his arrest show that Hausner’s hair was lighter and reddish in August 2006 when police arrested him and his confessed co-conspirator Samuel Dieteman.
Still, Hausner’s defense team attacked these differences this afternoon, quizzing Davenport about his attackers and how he identified Hausner as one of them. Davenport said he was able to see Hausner’s face for 6 seconds the night he was stabbed. He said Hausner pulled up in front of him one night while he was walking in a parking lot and asked if he was OK. That’s when “a dark figure,” who authorities have said was Jeff Hausner, Dale’s brother, came up behind Davenport and stabbed him multiple times.
Davenport admitted, however, that it was dark that night and he didn’t get a very good look at either man. “That night, the only light was coming from the streetlights themselves,” he testified. Hausner’s attorneys seized on this, trying to show that his identification of Hausner may not be reliable.
