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Archive for the 'maricopa county' Tag

Hausner wants leg brace removed

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 • • • | Post a Comment »

Tuesday wrap: Secret police recordings heard in courtroom

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 • • • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Secret recordings were hotly contested

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 • • • | Post a Comment »

Survivor told police far more than he lets on

November 17th, 2008, 2:58 pm by Nick R. Martin

On the witness stand this afternoon, the most consistent answer given by victim Joseph Roberts was “I don’t remember.” The young man was quiet, almost inaudible during much of his testimony, and he seemed reluctant to discuss his wounds and what he remembered.

A short time later, one of the main investigators in the case, Phoenix police detective Clark Schwartzkopf, told the judge that Roberts had originally told police far more than he let on today. “There were a number of things he didn’t remember this afternoon,” Schwartzkopf said with the jury out of the room. For one, Roberts described more about the shooting, including that he saw the silver car slow down and cut off its headlights as it approached him on July 3, 2006. He then saw the barrel of a gun leveled out the window.

“This witness claims he doesn’t recall,” said prosecutor Vince Imbordino. “I quite frankly don’t know whether he does or doesn’t.”

Prosecutors are trying to convince Judge Roland Steinle to let them use the young man’s previous description to police. After all, it’s far more compelling than the testimony he gave this afternoon. Steinle said he will decide tomorrow whether to let Schwartzkopf bring the description into the trial.

Update (11:32 a.m. Tuesday): Judge Steinle allowed Schwartzkopf to tell the rest of Roberts’ story this morning. It was based on a hospital interview that took place the same day as the shooting. “When the arm came out of the vehicle, he saw a white arm holding onto the gun itself,” the detective said. “He said that he thought the headlights on the vehicle were turned off right before the shooting took place.”

Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • • • • • | Post a Comment »
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