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Archive for the 'Judge Steinle' Tag

Juror gets sick; trial ends for the day

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 • • • • | Post a Comment »

Deja vu: Juror caught snoozing again

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 • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

Programming note: Off until Monday

October 24th, 2008, 2:15 pm by Nick R. Martin

The trial of Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner is off today, but it will return on Monday, Oct. 27. Live blogging will also resume that morning. In the meantime, catch up with the trial.

Last week’s highlights:
Bloody night of shootings reached across Valley
Surveillance camera capture car near 3 shootings
Juror denies napping in court
Everett’s antics earn him an earful from judge
Witness says Hausner confessed to shooting
Hausner disputes Tribune story

Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Judge Steinle • Jurors • Life in trial • Prosecution • • • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

‘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.

Posted in: Judge Steinle • Jurors • • • • • | Post a Comment »

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 • • • • • | 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 • • • • | 1 Comment »

Everett’s antics earn him an earful from judge

October 22nd, 2008, 10:22 am by Nick R. Martin

He rolled his eyes. He flailed his arms. He yelled. He cursed. He did everything but spit.

Defense attorney Ken Everett did his best Tuesday to try to discredit a key witness in the case against his client, Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner.

In the end, the full-throated attack on witness John Kane appeared only to agitate the one man no attorney wants to upset - the judge.

“The questions are becoming repetitive,” Judge Roland Steinle warned Everett from the bench. “And nothing more than harassing.”

A day earlier, Kane, a former bartending instructor from Gilbert, testified that Hausner confessed to him about shooting an empty car in December 2005 in the parking lot of the Tempe bartending academy where they first met.

Kane told the jury that he and Hausner had become friends, and that Hausner thought he was doing his newfound pal a favor by shooting the car of a woman who recently filed a sexual harassment complaint against Kane.

The testimony was the first time anybody so far in the marathon trial directly tied Hausner to the Serial Shooter crime spree, which included eight murders and dozens of other shootings.

In court on Tuesday, Everett worked hard to debunk Kane’s story by forcefully and loudly attacking the man’s credibility.

Everett brought up Kane’s four prior felony convictions, his drug use and his alcoholism in an attempt to destroy his character. Then, he went after Kane’s motives for agreeing to testify.

He pointed out that Kane was arrested in April 2006 on drug and gun charges, and the testimony was part of an agreement he struck with prosecutors to get out of jail.

Along the way, the normally baritone voice of Everett grew ever stronger, and his attitude more critical, as he tried to show that not even he believed what Kane was saying.

Read full story…

Photo by pool photographer. Defense attorney Ken Everett questions a witness during the trial of Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner.

Posted in: Dale Hausner • Defense • Judge Steinle • • • • • • • | Post a Comment »
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