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.”
Programming note: The trial is taking a long weekend, and so is this blog. Live courtroom updates will resume Monday.
