Archive for the 'Judge Steinle' Category
January 2nd, 2009, 4:18 pm by Nick R. Martin
A couple weeks into the Dale Hausner trial, the lights went out in the courtroom, leaving the place pitch black. When they came back on about 30 seconds later, Judge Roland Steinle joked with the jury. “Kind of thought the county forgot to pay the electric bill,” he said from the bench.
I’ve been in the courtroom, representing the East Valley Tribune almost every day since opening arguments began back in October. Sadly, this marks my final post for the newspaper. The Tribune couldn’t keep its own lights on without losing a few people in the process. I’m one of them.
I plan independently to spend some time in the courtroom this month and blog about it on a web site to be named later. When I know where that will be, I will post the address of the new blog in the comments here. So stay tuned. Thanks for all your following and support over the past few months. If you would like to contact me in the interim, you can e-mail me at emailnickmartin@gmail.com.
Farewell.
Tribune file photo. Dale Hausner is shown being led into the Maricopa County jail just after his arrest on suspicion of being the Serial Shooter.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Judge Steinle • Serial Shooter | 1 Comment »
December 18th, 2008, 4:13 pm by Nick R. Martin
Since the beginning of the trial, Dale Hausner has been wearing a special security brace around one of his legs to keep him from bolting from the courtroom. He wore it underneath his pants, and it was worn instead of shackles or cuffs.
 Last week, Hausner asked Judge Roland Steinle to let him remove the brace because he has shown good behavior throughout the trial. The Maricopa County attorney’s and sheriff’s offices strongly opposed the move. But today, Steinle said he would grant the request starting on Jan. 5, when the trial resumes after a few weeks off.
Basically, he said, neither the prosecutors or sheriff’s deputies provided any reason other than the crimes he’s accused of to keep the leg brace on. “If I read the case law correctly, I have to have something more than that,” Steinle said. He told prosecutors that the decision could be appealed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, if they’d like.
Hausner will still have to wear one security device on him during the trail — something called a “rack belt,” which is controlled by a remote control and can send an electrical shock through Hausner, should he act up.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Judge Steinle • Prosecution • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
December 11th, 2008, 11:01 am by Nick R. Martin
For the length of the trial so far, Dale Hausner has worn a brace around one of his legs. It is a mechanism put on to keep him from bolting from the courtroom, and whenever he’s walking to or from the defendant’s table, he can be seen sort of hobbling through the courtroom.
Today, Hausner asked the court to remove the brace for the remainder of the trial, on account of good behavior. He’s asked for this before, and Judge Roland Steinle denied the request. But he’s asking for it again, with his attorney’s pointing out that he has not caused any trouble since the trial began. The Maricopa County attorney’s and sheriff’s offices are opposing the request, but Steinle said today that he would think about it and rule soon.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Judge Steinle • Prosecution • maricopa county • Serial Shooter • sheriff | Post a Comment »
December 10th, 2008, 12:16 am by Nick R. Martin
Out of the soft fuzz and hiss of background noise came a voice, rough and deep.
“It now brings the total to six,” the man said, talking about news reports of a spate of recent killings throughout the Valley.
“It’s higher than that!” said another, his voice higher-pitched and louder. “What about the guy I (expletive) shot at twice at 27th Avenue in the yard?”
Jurors on Tuesday in a downtown Phoenix courtroom heard the garbled recordings of two men boasting and cheering about the Serial Shooter killing spree, which in reality had left eight people dead by that point.
Dale Hausner, the man heard with the higher-pitched voice, was only a few feet away in the courtroom, sitting stone-faced and listening as prosecutors and police said it helped prove that he and the other man, Samuel Dieteman, were responsible for the killings.
In all, prosecutors played about a dozen snippets from more than four hours of secret police recordings made on Aug. 3, 2006, just prior to midnight when they arrested the pair at their Mesa apartment.
The audio recordings were some of the most-anticipated and explicit evidence to be presented by Maricopa County prosecutors as part Hausner’s lengthy murder trial.Dieteman, believed to be the accomplice, has pleaded guilty to two murders and agreed to testify against his former roommate in the coming weeks.
The recordings, played publicly for the first time, revealed that Hausner and Dieteman talked almost obsessively about media coverage of the Serial Shooter killing spree, which had been going on since May 2005.
In one snippet played for jurors, they talked about a news report that mentioned a “new” detail that the Serial Shooter often roamed and circled around certain areas of the Valley looking for victims.
“You think?” Hausner shouted on the recording. “You dumb (expletive.) It took you a year-and-a-half to come up with that? Wow.”
In another snippet, the men talked about their individual techniques.
“I try to wait to the last second when somebody’s getting near me,” Dieteman said. “I don’t even think I get it level. I just get it to where it’s pointed at somebody.”
Hausner was heard mumbling something inaudible in the recording, then mimicking a gunshot. “And bam!”
Read full story…
Submitted photo. Dale Hausner shakes hands with boxer Mike Tyson in this undated photo. Hausner was heard on secret audio recordings Tuesday saying he hoped Tyson would volunteer his time searching for a suspect in the Serial Shooter killings that plagued the Valley in 2005 and 2006.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Judge Steinle • Jurors • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Andrew Thomas • maricopa county • Mesa • Mike Tyson • phoenix • police • Serial Shooter • wire • wiretap | 1 Comment »
December 9th, 2008, 1:45 pm by Nick R. Martin
The secret recording of Dale Hausner and Sam Dieteman will likely be hard for the jury to ignore, but it almost didn’t make it into the trial at all. More than a year ago, Hausner’s defense team started trying to get the recordings thrown out, saying they were illegal because they were obtained without a search warrant.
At issue was the somewhat unconventional way that authorities went about getting approval to plant bugs in the car, apartment and telephones of the Serial Shooter suspects. Instead of going to a judge and getting a warrant, authorities went to Maricopa County’s chief prosecutor, Andrew Thomas, for what’s known as an “emergency” wiretap. Under state law, an elected prosecutor can OK the secret wiretap under dire circumstances. Once it’s approved, a judge must sign off on the already-planted bugs within two days.
Hausner’s defense team basically said the procedure was unconstitutional. The issue even became political as one of Thomas’ challengers prior to his re-election in November said the prosecutor put the entire case in jeopardy by approving this unusual procedure.
The defense ended up forcing a series of hearings on the recordings, which peaked in April with dramatic testimony from Thomas himself in which he said he approved the emergency wiretaps to “stop the killing.”
Eventually, in June, Steinle approved the wiretaps, giving jurors the change to hear the recordings.
Today, those wiretaps will be heard in public for the first time as prosecutors begin to present hours of the recording, beginning any minute now.
Photo by pool photographer. Dale Hausner, left, listens to testimony with one of his attorneys, Timothy Agan, in October.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Judge Steinle • Jurors • Life in trial • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Andrew Thomas • maricopa county • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
December 3rd, 2008, 11:19 am by Nick R. Martin
A woman named Debbie Dryer testified briefly this morning about her relationship with Sam Dieteman, the confessed co-conspirator in the Serial Shooter killings. She met Dieteman in a west Phoenix bar called Pollock Joe’s where she often went with her lover, Ron Horton, who later became one of the key witnesses in the investigation. Her relationship with Dieteman was as an acquaintance. She and Horton would give him rides home from the bar sometimes, but they never quite knew exactly where he lived, only a general area where they would drop him off.
 Dryer’s testimony was brief, but it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Before she took the stand, Dale Hausner’s defense attorney, Ken Everett, got most of her testimony suppressed. Prosecutors were trying to have her testify about a conversation that she had with Dieteman (pictured) one night at the bar.
Prosecutor Vince Imbordino put it this way: “When she’s closing up a bar, Mr. Dieteman said, ‘There’s been a lot of shootings going on around here. A lot of them have not been on the news yet.’ Then he told her, ‘Keep watching the news.’”
However, the defense objected to this type of testimony, saying it was heresay. Judge Roland Steinle agreed. Dryer’s testimony could have been key to the case, yet it’s very likely the jury will never hear it.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Judge Steinle • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Dale Hausner • phoenix • pollock joe's • ron horton • Samuel Dieteman • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
December 1st, 2008, 11:53 am by Nick R. Martin
Clocking in at three months so far, the trial of Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner has already lasted far longer than the average capital case in the Valley. It’s been a grueling process, with prosecutors spending nearly two months questioning witness after witness about every shooting, stabbing and arson charged to Hausner.
In an April letter (PDF) to Judge Roland Steinle, the defendant himself acknowledged that the case against him is enormous. “The state has between 500 and 1,000 police officers working against me, not to mention the prosecutors, all their legal staffs, and now Sam Dieteman’s team as well, since he has turned states evidence against me,” Hausner wrote. He was asking the judge to assign another lawyer to help defend him, but according to court documents (PDF), Steinle denied it.
While more than 100 witnesses have testified so far, only three have been able to connect Hausner to any of the crime scenes. The evidence against Hausner during the trial so far has been slight, but that’s expected to change as prosecutors today move into the second phase of their case today. Prosecutors have spent the morning talking to the last witnesses in the “scenes” part of the case, which documented the scenes of every one of the 87 crimes charged to Hausner.
The next phase will be all about the hunt, so to speak. Detectives and investigators are expected to spend massive amounts of time testifying about how they came to suspect Hausner and Dieteman were the suspects in the 14-month string of serial killings and attacks. Among the evidence will be hours of secret audio recordings that detectives obtained of the two men reportedly talking about the crimes.
If all goes according to the prosecution’s plan, the complicated case will become a lot simpler after the next phase of the trial comes to a close.
Image above is excerpted from a June 2008 letter Hausner wrote to the judge.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Judge Steinle • Life in trial • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
November 20th, 2008, 1:31 pm by Nick R. Martin
Even the most-scripted trials run into a wall sometimes. Judge Roland Steinle announced before the lunch break that one of the jurors has come down sick. That means the testimony about Robin Blasnek’s murder, as well as the end of the first segment of the prosecution’s case, will be delayed until after Thanksgiving.
The trial is off all next week for the holiday, but check back here tomorrow for a small story wrapping up this week’s developments. Then, live blogging from the trial will begin again on Dec. 1.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Judge Steinle • Jurors • Life in trial • Prosecution • health care • Judge Steinle • jury • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
November 18th, 2008, 3:31 pm by Nick R. Martin
 It has been almost a month since a young juror in the front row was caught napping and told to stay awake. He denied he was sleeping, but still promised to load himself up with “a couple Red Bulls” to remain alert during testimony. Well, according to defense attorney Ken Everett, it hasn’t been enough.
This afternoon, while the jury was out of the room on a short break, Everett complained to Judge Roland Steinle that the young man was again seen with his eyes closed and appeared to be snoozing during testimony. Steinle said he would keep an eye on it for the rest of the day. When the man came back into the room after the break, he was carrying a bottle of Mountain Dew.
Photo used under free distribution licensing from Wikimedia Commons.
Posted in: Defense • Judge Steinle • Jurors • Life in trial • Dale Hausner • Judge Steinle • Jurors • phoenix • red bull • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
October 29th, 2008, 11:23 am by Nick R. Martin
Judge Steinle warned the courtroom that the building may have to be evacuated this morning because of a fire drill. Apparently a rumor is circulating in the halls that an alarm will go off any minute now. If that’s the case, jurors will be the first to leave the courtroom, then Hausner will be escorted out a side door. Elevators are off limits and the court staff will have to figure out how to maintain order as the three high-rise buildings that make up the courthouse are emptied.
Meanwhile, Phoenix police detective Cliff Jewell continues his testimony about the Toyota Camry spotted near the scenes of three shootings the night of Dec. 29, 2005. The testimony is important because Hausner drove a car seemingly identical to the one captured on camera that night. This is at least the third day of testimony involving a surveillance camera and the car.
Photo from Google Street View. Maricopa County Superior Court’s Central Building.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Judge Steinle • Jurors • Life in trial • Dale Hausner • detective • drill • evacuation • fire • high rise • judge • phoenix • police • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
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