Archive for the 'Samuel Dieteman' Category
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 2nd, 2008, 3:13 pm by Nick R. Martin
A woman named Joetta Gonzales, known to her friends as “Jody,” was the first person to come forward to tell investigators she thought she recognized one of the suspects in the June 2006 Wal-Mart arsons, which have since been tied to the Serial Shooters.
Glendale Fire Department investigators had distributed photos of their then-unnamed suspects to local media and asked for the public’s help to figure out who they were. The two had been spotted on surveillance cameras in both of the burned Wal-Marts, but local and federal investigators had no clue about who they were.
Gonzales apparently saw the photographs in a newspaper and recognized one of the men. It was Sam Dieteman, said special agent Kevin Schuster of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Dieteman has since pleaded guilty to two of the murders attributed to the Serial Shooters and agreed to testify against his old friend, Dale Hausner, who is on trial, charged with eight murders.
Update (3:47 p.m.): In fact, according to Schuster, Gonzales agreed to try to help authorities find Dieteman and bring him in for questioning. She called him with a tape recorder running on June 21 of that year, but couldn’t reach him. Then she called him again the next day, and though she reached Dieteman that day, he denied taking part in the arsons, Schuster said. Unfortunately, however, the tape recording of that conversation were flawed and didn’t pick up Dieteman’s side of the conversation.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • ATF • Dale Hausner • 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, 11:27 am by Nick R. Martin
For a month and a half, the testimony in the trial of Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner has been a litany of victims, family members and first responders — the police and paramedics called out to the incidents as they happened. Prosecutors call it the “scenes” segment of the trial. It was their chance to document every shooting, stabbing and arson they’ve linked to the Mesa man in the defendant’s chair.
That segment of the trial is expected to end today. Prosecutors are bringing out their final witnesses laying out the 87 crimes attributed to Hausner. More than 100 witnesses have taken the stand so far. Only three of them have linked Hausner to any of the crimes or crime scenes:
- John Kane, a Gilbert man, testified that Hausner confessed to shooting up an empty car outside of a Tempe bartending school on Dec. 29, 2005. That shooting is believed to have kicked off the bloodiest night of the killing spree.
- Timothy Davenport testified that Hausner distracted him on May 17, 2006 so that another man could stab him from behind. He identified Hausner “100 percent” as one of the men who participated in the nearly fatal attack.
- Marianne Thone said that Hausner and his suspected co-conspirator Samuel Dieteman appraoched her outside the scene of her brother’s shooting on May 30, 2006 and told her they were looking for a lost cat.
Some of the final testimony will be in the shooting death of Robin Blasnek, who was killed while walking alone in Mesa on July 30, 2006. Blasnek is believed to be the final victim of the Serial Shooter.
After the Thanksgiving break next week, prosecutors will return with riveting testimony about how investigators began to track a serial killer and eventually came upon Dieteman, who has already confessed to two murders, and Hausner as the suspects. The evidence will include hours of secret recordings that police obtained of the two men reportedly discussing the crimes. The jury may get to hear the recordings by the first week of December.
Photo by pool photographer. Prosecutor Laura Reckart questions a witness while defendant Dale Hausner looks on in the background.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Dale Hausner • gilbert • Mesa • phoenix • police • Samuel Dieteman • Serial Shooter • shooting • tempe • victims • witnesses | Post a Comment »
November 12th, 2008, 2:44 pm by Nick R. Martin
Prosecutor Vince Imbordino showed security videos this afternoon of defendant Dale Hausner and his confessed co-conspirator Samuel Dieteman wandering two West Valley Wal-Mart stores moments before arson fires broke out there in June of 2006. The pair would grab a shopping cart, fill it with fabrics and other items and then, just out of view of the cameras, a fire would begin. The two Wal-Mart arsons of June 8 did millions of dollars in damage.
The arsons are considered to be part of the “Random Recreational Violence” the two engaged in for months, according to authorities. The fires were also some of the least violent crimes attributed to the pair. Hausner is on trial in Maricopa County Superior Court on suspicion of eight murders and dozens of other crimes including assaults and animal cruelty.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Dale Hausner • glendale • Samuel Dieteman • Serial Shooter • vince imbordino • wal-mart | Post a Comment »
November 12th, 2008, 1:42 pm by Nick R. Martin
Dale Hausner is not in court today, but the trial continues to churn without him. He decided to stay in his cell today to mark the anniversary of the 1994 deaths of his sons in a car crash, according to a report from earlier this week.
Meanwhile, a Glendale firefighter is testifying about the investigation into arsons at two Wal-Mart stores in that city. The fires were reportedly set on June 8, 2006 by both Hausner and his suspected co-conspirator, Samuel Dieteman. Prosecutors are also showing video of Dieteman inside one of the Wal-Marts just moments before the fire.
Photo by Paul O’Neill, Tribune. Dale Hausner whispers to his attorney while a witness testifies last week during his trial on suspicion of eight murders and numerous other crimes.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Dale Hausner • glendale • Samuel Dieteman • Serial Shooter • shopping • wal-mart | Post a Comment »
November 5th, 2008, 8:51 pm by Nick R. Martin
Two witnesses. Both with different stories. Both with the same conclusion: It was Dale Hausner.
A month into a marathon eight-count murder trial, two people on Wednesday placed Hausner, the Serial Shooter suspect, at the scenes of separate attacks in May 2006.
It was the clearest link yet between the 35-year-old Mesa man and the 14-month string of murders and assaults that stretched across the Valley two years ago.
Hausner looked fidgety and nervous in court as the witnesses told their stories, but that didn’t keep his defense attorneys from aggressively trying to pick apart the testimony.
The first person to identify Hausner in court was Timothy Davenport, who was stabbed nearly to death by two strangers on May 17, 2006, as he was walking to a friend’s house in west Phoenix.
Davenport, 36, said he was crossing through a church parking lot just after midnight near 73rd Avenue and Camelback Road when a car pulled into the lot and the driver stopped to ask him a question.
“Are you OK?” the driver asked, according to Davenport.
Before he could answer, another man came from behind and stabbed him in the back, side and face. Davenport pointed to the scars he has from the attack.
Asked whether either of his attackers was in court on Wednesday, Davenport pointed to Hausner and identified him as the driver.
“He was the one that distracted me while the other guy stabbed me,” Davenport said. “One hundred percent.”
Read full story…
Programming note: The trial is taking a long weekend, and so is this blog. Live courtroom updates will resume Monday.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • attorneys • Dale Hausner • jeff hausner • knife • Mesa • phoenix • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Serial Shooter • Witness | Post a Comment »
November 5th, 2008, 4:27 pm by Nick R. Martin
 Late this afternoon, a witness placed Dale Hausner at the scene of another attack with which he has been charged. Marianne Thone said Hausner and a dark-haired man approached her the night of May 30, 2006 just outside the scene of where her brother, James Hodge, was randomly shot in the back.
Hausner told the woman that he and his friend were out looking for a runaway cat when they saw her brother get shot, Thone testified. The two men told her they helped take care of her brother until emergency crews arrived. In reality, prosecutors allege, the two men were the shooters and got involved after the shooting as a ruse. The dark-haired man, the authorities believe, was Samuel Dieteman, Hausner’s confessed co-conspirator (pictured).
Thone’s brother, a schizophrenic Vietnam veteran who was off his medication at the time, survived the attack.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • attorneys • Dale Hausner • phoenix • police • prosecutors • Samuel Dieteman • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
October 23rd, 2008, 3:54 pm by Nick R. Martin
 A surveillance camera caught sight of a silver Toyota Camry cruising the small pocket of central Phoenix where two men were killed another injured the night of Dec. 29, 2005. Phoenix police detective Cliff Jewell testified this afternoon that the camera spotted the same car four times within an eight minute period the night of the shootings, marking the first time the Serial Shooters may have been caught on camera.
The sightings took place within moments of the shooting deaths of Jose Ortiz and Marco Carillo, as well as the wounding of Timmy Tordai. The camera, Jewell said, was at 10th Ave and Adams in Phoenix, not far from the state Capitol. The three men were shot within blocks of the camera.
The shootings all took place at about 11:40 p.m., and the camera first spotted the car at 11:41 p.m., Jewell said. The car then passed through the intersection three more times, each time heading a different direction.
Jewell did not say what the significance of sightings was. However, when authorities arrested suspects Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman in August 2006, they also seized a silver Toyota Camry parked outside the men’s apartment. The description of both cars is identical.
Map by Gabriel Utasi, Tribune. File photo by Tim Hacker, Tribune. Investigators gather around a vehicle believed to be linked to the Serial Shooter case in August 2006 at the Windscape Apartments in Mesa.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • camera • car • Dale Hausner • police • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
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