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‘Hard to keep a poker face’ but please try

October 23rd, 2008, 10:41 am by Nick R. Martin

Judge Roland Steinle dealt with more juror trouble this morning when he told juror No. 18 to stop talking to himself during testimony. “It’s distracting to the other jurors and it’s distracting to the lawyers,” Steinle told the middle-aged man in the front row. “It’s pretty hard to keep a poker face all the time,” Steinle said. But he asked the juror to still try.

The juror told Steinle he was having trouble hearing the testimony. “The reason that I make comments to myself all the time is because I can’t hear,” the man said.

Steinle asked him to sit in a seat closer to the witness stand, and said he hoped the little talk resolved the problem. “We’ll monitor the situation,” Steinle said.

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Juror: I may look like I’m falling asleep, but…

October 22nd, 2008, 1:04 pm by Nick R. Martin

The Napping Juror in the front row tells Judge Roland Steinle that he, in fact, is not napping when he closes his eyes. He says it’s a technique that he uses all the time at work while on conference calls. He drops his eyes, but still listens to what’s happening. “My body may look like I’m falling asleep, but I’m retaining all the information,” the unnamed juror told Judge Roland Steinle.

Still, the judge asked the young man to keep his eyes open during the trial and told him to sit where Steinle can see him.

“I’ll add a couple Red Bulls to my system now,” the juror said.

Steinle again denied the defense team’s request to kick the juror off the trial, but he said after the man left the room that the juror was now “in the hot seat.”

As for the Loose-Lipped Juror, he apparently took off before the judge could call him back into the room. Steinle’s assistant said she asked him to stick around, but he slipped out of the courthouse before he was called back in. Attorneys and other jurors have complained that the man is making offhanded comments during testimony. At best, it’s distracting. At worst, it is possibly skewing the opinions of other jurors.

At this point, the middle-aged man seems like the more-likely candidate to get canned as the trial goes on. “I’ll deal with him tomorrow morning,” Steinle said.

Programming note: Wednesday was a short day. The trial is on break until Thursday morning. Join us here again at that time for more live updates.

Posted in: Judge Steinle • Jurors • judge • Judge Steinle • Jurors • jury • Serial Shooter | 1 Comment »

Two ‘Serial Shooter’ jurors having issues

October 22nd, 2008, 11:46 am by Nick R. Martin

After testimony wrapped for the day yesterday, Judge Roland Steinle said he planned to pull aside two jurors and give them a talkin’ to, one for napping and the other for adding whispered commentary during the trial. Both jurors are men sitting in the front row. The first is in his 20s and was caught sleeping at least twice already. The other is middle-aged and was heard whispering things to other jurors, such as whether or not he believes a witness.

Steinle said this morning he plans to talk to the two jurors at about 1 p.m. when testimony ends for the day. He said in open court, he wants to keep things on the down low with other jurors. “We will have to deal with the gentleman at the end of today’s proceedings, but I want it to be very subtle,” Steinle said.

Photo by pool photographer. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle talks to attorneys during the trial of Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner.

Posted in: Judge Steinle • Jurors • Judge Steinle • Jurors • jury • Serial Shooter | 1 Comment »

Tearful tape hangs heavy on jurors

October 21st, 2008, 3:56 pm by Nick R. Martin

Prosecutors just played an emotional tape recording of a phone call John Kane made from jail to his wife late in 2006 while he was considering turning in Dale Hausner for one of the shootings. “I just want to get home, you know?” Kane could be heard saying on the tape. “That’s all I care about is getting home. That’s all I think about is coming home.”

“I’ll do whatever I have to,” he said on the tape.

The conversation was filled with tears and pleas from Kane to his wife, who was obviously upset that he had been arrested on drug and weapons charges in earlier that year after his long struggles with drug addiction. The recording appeared to hang heavy on many of the jurors, whose faces were long and stoic while the tape played for several minutes. It seemed most to affect two women in the jury who wiped their eyes as it played.

In the end, Kane’s apologies and tears to his wife didn’t do much to help their relationship. The two are now divorced.

Posted in: Dale Hausner • Jurors • Prosecution • Dale Hausner • gilbert • jail • Serial Shooter • tempe | Post a Comment »

Defense wants juror tossed for napping

October 20th, 2008, 2:55 pm by Nick R. Martin

During a break this afternoon, attorney Ken Everett complained to Judge Roland Steinle that today was at least the second time a young juror has been seen sleeping on the job. Everett said he even wanted to “ask that he be excluded right now” — lawyer speak for kicking him off the trial.

The 20-something man in the front row might be forgiven for having heavy eyelids, though, especially today. The room is a little warm and the air is stale. The testimony this afternoon is entirely from Maricopa County medical examiner Robert Lyon, who is going over detailed autopsies in which the most interesting info is a brief but intricate discussion on how lividity helps determine time of death. It’s dry stuff.

Steinle told Everett he wasn’t ready to yank the juror just yet. But, the judge said, if the man continues to nap, the court may revisit this issue sooner than later.

Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Jurors • Life in trial • attorneys • jury • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »

Hausner’s jurors get their turn

October 15th, 2008, 2:04 pm by Nick R. Martin

In criminal trials in Maricopa County, jurors get to ask questions of witnesses. After the prosecutors and defense attorneys finish running the witness through the ringer a time or two, the judge asks if the jurors have any questions of their own. If so, they scribble them down on a piece of paper and hand them to the judge. Often the questions are things the attorneys forgot to ask or needed clarifying. Even as a journalist in the courtroom, I’m grateful for some the questions asked.

Here’s a sample of some of the questions Tolleson detective Ronald Rock was asked by the jury at the end of his testimony. Most were about the death of 20-year-old David Estrada.

Q: You do not have a background in ballistics, do you?
A: No, I do not.

Q: From your investigation of the scene, was there any evidence that a struggle took place before Mr. Estrada fell to the ground?
A: No, there was not.

Q: What was the approx distance between the body and his belongings and the body and the freeway?
A: About 30 to 40 yards to the belongings and about 20 feet to the entrance of the freeway.

Q: Is it common to have panhandlers and hitch hikers near this exit?
A: Absolutely and there’s probably one there right now.

Q: Were there any blood stains from his belongings to where his body was found?
A: No, there were not.

Q: Did you investigate the murder as a random event or targeted killing? When your investigation was wrapping up, did you believe it was a random shooting?
A: Yes, it did. It did seem to be a random shooting. It did not look like anything else.

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