Archive for the 'Prosecution' Category
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 9th, 2008, 11:24 am by Nick R. Martin
 Two large speakers are set up on tripods in the center of the courtroom this morning in anticipation of playing the secret wiretap recordings essential to the case against Dale Hausner. While prosecutors have presented plenty of testimony and evidence in the past two months, little of it has linked Hausner to the string of 87 crimes he’s been charged with. But the wiretaps are expected to change that dynamic entirely.
Hausner (pictured) and his Mesa roommate Samuel Dieteman were reportedly recorded talking rather explicitly one evening in August 2006 about their body count and compared themselves to another serial killer.
The following is from a July 2007 report in the Tribune about the wiretaps:
The transcripts of that evening’s recordings say that Dieteman told Hausner: “The D.C. sniper is more experienced than us with more technology and know how.”
A few minutes later, the duo discussed the news media’s version of the death count: six.
Hausner said: “The death toll is higher than that. What about the (expletive) guy I shot at 27th Avenue and Northern?” He then called Dieteman and himself “pioneers” in killing.
“It feels good, doesn’t it?” Hausner said.
It’s not clear when the secret recordings will be played for the jury, but given the set up in the courtroom, it could take place as soon as today.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • audio • Serial Shooter • wire • wiretap | Post a Comment »
December 9th, 2008, 10:53 am by Nick R. Martin
A team of undercover police officers faced a daunting task in August 2006 when they were assigned to spy on two Mesa men who had become the prime suspects in the Serial Shooters killing spree.
The team of at least five detectives was told to secretly follow and track suspects Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman without attracting attention to themselves.
Above all, they needed to make sure the suspects didn’t strike again.
But that mission became almost immediately dire and impossible on the first night, as the pair cruised the East Valley - presumably looking for a new target - with the undercover officers nearly powerless to intervene, according to several detectives who testified Monday in the ongoing eight-count murder trial against Dale Hausner.
In the depths of night, the team, riding in multiple unmarked cars and taking turns trailing the men, watched as Hausner and Dieteman slowed numerous times as they approached people walking alone on Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert streets.
Sometimes the Toyota Camry, driven by Hausner, would make U-turns and come back up on the pedestrians, the detectives testified.
Phoenix police Detective Bryan Benson watched the car slow at least three times as it approached lone walkers or bicyclists in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 2.
“We were just sick,” Benson testified in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Read full story…
Reporter’s note: I was without an Internet connection in the courtroom yesterday, but this story encompasses the important events of yesterday. It also appeared in this morning’s print editions of the Tribune.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • chandler • gilbert • Mesa • phoenix • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
December 4th, 2008, 2:21 pm by Nick R. Martin
With the trial off until Monday, take some time to catch up with some of the stories from it you might have missed in recent weeks.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Mesa • phoenix • police • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
December 3rd, 2008, 11:57 pm by Nick R. Martin
As many as 24 people were being eyed in the summer of 2006 as potential suspects in the Serial Shooter killing spree until a secret informant led police to zero in on two men in Mesa.
That informant, since identified as Ron Horton, called police tip lines three times in July 2006 telling investigators that they should be looking at a man named “Sammy” for the killings.
In the first two calls, Horton kept his own name out of the messages. He also failed to provide a last name for Sammy.
But in the third call on July 25, Horton spilled everything he knew. The suspect’s name was Sam Dieteman, and he left his own name so he could be contacted.
It was a major break in the series of dozens of random shootings that had put the Valley on edge that year.
During testimony Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court in the trial against Dale Hausner, Phoenix police detective Clark Schwartzkopf told how he and the other investigators came across Dieteman and Hausner as the main suspects in the Serial Shooter case.
Before Horton first called the Silent Witness tip line on July 16, investigators were having little luck figuring out who was behind the series of killings and other attacks that already left seven people dead.
Read full story…
Tribune file photo. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon speaks during an August 2006 news conference announcing the capture of Serial Shooter suspects Samuel Dieteman and Dale Hausner. Programming note: The trial is off for the weekend. It will resume on Monday.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Clark Schwartzkopf • Mesa • phil gordon • phoenix • police • ron horton • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
December 3rd, 2008, 3:08 pm by Nick R. Martin
 If you were one of the hundreds of people who went to community meetings about the Serial Shooters killing spree in the summer of 2006, chances are you were recorded and tracked by the police.
Phoenix police detective Clark Schwartzkopf, the lead detective in the case, testified this afternoon that the license plates of every attendee were recorded and investigated by the Serial Shooter task force. It wasn’t clear from his testimony how deep the investigation into the license plates went or how long the information was kept.
“You were running the license plates of the vehicles that were coming to the town meetings. Is that correct?” asked defense attorney Ken Everett.
“Yes,” replied Schwartzkopf.
“The thinking there was that the actual perpatrator of these shotgun shootings might be so brazen that they might show up to the meeting,” Everett said.
“Yes, sir.”
Update (3:35 p.m.): Schwartzkopf just testified that every license plate at four separate town hall meetings was recorded. While he gave no estimate of how many cars were investigated, he said each meeting was “crowded.”
Update (4:06 p.m.): A review of previous Tribune stories, linked above, puts the number of attendees at these meetings as well above 1,000.
Tribune file photo. Cecilia Perez, right, of Mesa, holds her daughter, Priscilla, 10, while attending a meeting Mesa police held about the Serial Shooter on Aug. 1, 2006 at Longfellow Elementary School in Mesa.
Posted in: Defense • Prosecution • Clark Schwartzkopf • Mesa • phoenix • police • Serial Shooter • town hall | Post a Comment »
December 3rd, 2008, 2:17 pm by Nick R. Martin
  Did Dale Hausner and Sam Dieteman know authorities were closing in on them? According to Phoenix police detective Clark Schwartzkopf, the pair made at least two unusual moves in the weeks before their arrests.
First, they moved their attacks eastward from eastern-central Phoenix into the Scottsdale and Mesa areas. This came after a July 12, 2006 town hall meeting in which police gave detailed information about the attacks to the public in order to keep Valley residents safe. At the meeting, police talked about the pattern of the attacks, and that information was widely broadcast through the local and national media. Afterward, Schwartzkopf said, “The shooters went east to the city of Mesa with the shootings of Raul Lopez-Garcia and Robin Blasnek.”
The next unusual thing took place Aug. 2, 2006, just days before the men were arrested at their Mesa apartment. While the men were being watched by undercover police officers, Dieteman was seen throwing away a bag of trash. That bag, seized by police, was filled with evidence that has become key in the trial today. Inside it, Schwartzkopf said, was a map with dots all over it. Many of the dots coincided with shooting sites. “Some of them were close to shootings. Some of them were specifically on top of shootings. And some of them I couldn’t correlate to anything,” Schwartzkopf said.
Another item was a Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper can with a used shotgun casing stuffed inside it. The third item was a piece of paper that read “Robin Blasne 7-70-06 11:20p,” which perhaps was a reference to the shooting of Robing Blasnek, a Mesa woman who was killed at about 11:20 p.m. on July 30, 2006.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Clark Schwartzkopf • Dale Hausner • Dr. Pepper • Mesa • police • Sam Dieteman • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
December 3rd, 2008, 11:46 am by Nick R. Martin
In July 2006, the Valley was dealing with two sets of serial killers. One, the Baseline Killer was targeting and raping women in south Phoenix. The other, the Serial Shooters, were randomly shooting pedestrians in the east Phoenix area.
Because of the danger and tension gripping the Valley, Phoenix police, along with Silent Witness, set up tip lines and asked the public to help find these serial killers. On the witness stand this morning, Phoenix police detective Clark Schwartzkopf said that some 2,000 calls came in during a single two-day period in mid July.
Because of this, “there were a lot of mix ups between task forces,” Schwartzkopf said. Some of the tips intended for the Baseline Killer case were being routed to the Serial Shooter investigators and vice versa.
On top of it, there were a lot of off-the-wall calls that weren’t helping. “I had one person call and say they thought it was the Zodiac Killer, the infamous Bay Area serial killer,” the detective testified. “I had psychics. I had people with crystal balls. I had all kinds of people calling in to tell me who they thought it was.”
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Prosecution • Clark Schwartzkopf • phoenix • police • psychic • Silent Witness | Post a Comment »
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