Archive for the 'phoenix' Tag
December 15th, 2008, 2:49 pm by Nick R. Martin
 Throughout the lengthy interrogations on Aug. 4, 2006, Dale Hausner remained a cool customer as police investigators called him a serial killer dozens of times. They questioned his character, brought up his sick daughter and generally hit him with hard questions about his whereabouts during the shootings. He remained calm the entire time.
That is, until the investigators called him a pervert. Hausner became flustered for the first time several hours into the videotaped interrogations when his inquisitors began to ask whether he got sexually aroused after killing people. “Answer his question, Dale,” Phoenix police detective Darren Udd said at one point. “Did you get aroused?”
Hauser acted seriously insulted at the accusation. In fact, he clammed up, telling the detectives in the room he wanted a lawyer — which he didn’t get. The detectives apparently saw this as an opening and began attacking him on it, asking him about sexual perversions and pushing him on the subject. The once talkative Hausner decided, though, that he’d had enough. He said he wouldn’t answer any more questions.
“You’re being disrespectful,” Hausner told them. The detectives then left the room.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • phoenix • Serial Shooter • video | 2 Comments »
December 12th, 2008, 3:49 pm by Nick R. Martin
The trial is off for a couple days, and we’re headed into the weekend, so I wanted to leave you with a bonus post to tide you over. Here are the official police transcripts (PDF 1.5MB) of the secret wiretap conversations between Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman, which were recorded in the 24 hours before their arrest in Mesa.
[Please be warned: The language in the transcript, which can be downloaded at the link above, is filled with expletives and other crude references -- the kind that generally would not be printed in a general circulation newspaper. If this kind of language makes you squirm or is inappropriate for somebody reading along with you, do not download the transcripts.]
 The wiretaps were some of the most anticipated evidence in the trial against Hausner (pictured). The jury, as well as the public, got the chance to hear these recordings for the first time this week. Police planted small audio recorders in his apartment and captured him talking in detail about the killings and shootings with his roommate and supposed accomplice, Dieteman. The men talk about their strategy and even compare themselves to serial killers across the nation. Following his arrest, Hausner told police the comments were just sick jokes.
The transcripts may differ slightly from some of the news accounts of when the recordings were played Tuesday in court. Reporters, like the jury, only got to hear the recordings once, and the quality is very poor. In contrast, Phoenix police detective Jason Buscher, who created the transcripts, testified that he listened to the recordings countless times since they were made, and made revisions to the transcript as recently as two weeks ago.
In addition to the transcripts, the full audio of the wiretaps has been posted online by KTVK-TV (Channel 3). The link was originally posted Tuesday by a reader in the comments section, but it’s worth mention here. Again, the same warning that applies to the downloaded document should also apply to clinking on the audio link. Though the sound is fuzzy and tough to hear, the language is not for sensitive ears.
Programming note: The trial is scheduled to resume Monday morning.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • ktvk • Mesa • phoenix • police • Serial Shooter • wire • wiretap | Post a Comment »
December 12th, 2008, 3:18 pm by Nick R. Martin
Dale Hausner was fascinated with serial killers.
The Mesa man, now accused of being one himself, said as much in a videotaped police interrogation that took place just hours after his August 2006 arrest.
“I find it interesting,” Hausner said in the interrogation, talking about reading lots about American serial killers nicknamed things like the Son of Sam and BTK. “It’s very fascinating.”
“I would like to sit down with a real-life Jeffrey Dahmer, and say, ‘Why the hell would you eat all those people?’ ” Hausner said.
Jurors on Thursday in Hausner’s eightcount murder trial in Maricopa County Superior Court were shown several hours of his videotaped interrogation by Phoenix police detective Clark Schwartzkopf and other investigators.
The grainy black-and-white video showed Hausner vehemently denying that he had killed anyone and even saying that he sympathized with the families of the victims.
“I didn’t shoot anybody,” said Hausner, who has pleaded not guilty to the 87 charges against him. “But the person who did probably should be given the needle.”
Read full story…
Tribune file photo. Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner, center, answers media questions at a jail news conference following his August 2006 arrest.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Mesa • phoenix • Serial Shooter • video | Post a Comment »
December 11th, 2008, 1:21 pm by Nick R. Martin
 A videotape has been playing for hours of Dale Hausner’s lengthy interrogation by Phoenix police detective Clark Schwartzkopf, which took place shortly after he and his roommate were arrested in August 2006 on suspicion of the Serial Shooter killing spree.
Just before the lunch break today, Hausner turned to the gallery, where this reporter was sitting, grinned and gave a thumbs up.
This action came after some pretty bizarre footage of Hausner talking about his fascination with infamous American serial killers, as well offering up alternate theories about who was behind the killings. Hausner said nothing when he flashed the thumbs up, only nodded up and down. A short time later, a deputy led him calmly out of the courtroom into a holding cell.
It’s not clear why Hausner made this motion of approval. Prosecutors have accused him of being a narcissist. So it’s possible he just likes the attention.
Submitted photo. Dale Hausner, the Serial Shooter suspect, is shown here in this undated photo, wearing a tuxedo and flashing a thumbs up.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Life in trial • Prosecution • Clark Schwartzkopf • phoenix • Serial Shooter | Post a Comment »
December 11th, 2008, 11:25 am by Nick R. Martin
Soon after his arrest, Dale Hausner was placed in a police interview room for a lengthy interrogation with Phoenix police Det. Clark Schwartzkopf. Early in the interview — a videotape of which is being played today — Hausner says he has been following the Serial Shooter case extensively. “I’ve been following everything that’s in the newspapers,” Hausner told the detective. “I cut them out and save everything.”
 Then, he begins to offer some possible theories about the shootings. “The Baseline Rapist could also be doing the shootings,” he said, referring to man who was raping and killing women throughout the Valley in 2006 at the same time as Serial Shooters. “The guy’s sick…It could easily be him,” Hausner said. “Or it’s gang related.”
Throughout the grainy black and white video being shown in court, Hausner maintains that he has no personal knowledge of the shootings. When asked if his roommate, Samuel Dieteman, could be behind the shootings, he repeatedly replies, “I don’t know.”
The video of the interview is expected to play for hours today, so stay tuned for more updates.
Photo shows Mark Goudeau, the suspect in the Baseline Killer serial killings.
Posted in: Dale Hausner • Prosecution • Samuel Dieteman • Baseline Killer • Clark Schwartzkopf • Mark Goudeau • phoenix • Serial Shooter | 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, 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 »
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