DALLY WEEPS FOR HIS LIFE; `QUITE A PERFORMANCE,' PROSECUTOR SAYS AT DEATH-PENALTY TRIAL.

Byline: Don Holland Daily News Staff Writer

Facing a second day of withering cross-examination, convicted wife-killer Michael Dally broke down Tuesday in a tearful and angry outburst against the prosecutors who are trying to send him to Death Row.

Dally's eruption culminated a morning of rigorous questioning by Deputy District Attorney Lela Henke-Dobroth, who earlier this month won guilty verdicts against Dally for murder, kidnapping and conspiracy.

``Do you think that a man who has the mother of his children murdered deserves the death penalty?'' Henke-Dobroth pointedly asked Dally in her final query - a question that the judge ruled the defendant did not have to answer.

Defense attorneys promptly came back for rebuttal, asking Dally why he mistrusted police and prosecutors. He recounted that, when authorities were investigating the disappearance and slaying of his wife, Sherri, prosecutors took his two young sons out of school to question them.

``Those boys were forced to tell those people that their mother was dead just a few days before (her memorial service),'' Dally said.

``Ugggh!'' he grunted, seemingly agitated and aggravated. ``I hate these people for what they're doing to my children.''

Tears streamed down his face and his breathing grew heavy and labored. He snapped his head as if to shake off his emotions.

But prosecutors tried during additional questioning to cast doubt on the credibility of Dally's testimony.

``Well, that was quite a performance from a master manipulator, wasn't it?'' Deputy District Attorney Michael Frawley asked rhetorically. ``The man couldn't cry at his wife's funeral. . . . It's all theater so you could see the manufactured tears in his eyes.''

Dally, a 37-year-old former grocery store worker, was convicted of masterminding the May 1996 murder of his wife, a crime that a separate jury determined was carried out by his lover, Diana Haun.

The jury now must consider whether Dally should spend the rest of his life in prison, without the possibility of parole, or be put to death by lethal injection.

Dally testified Monday - the first time the jury had heard from him - that he deeply loved his wife and had nothing whatsoever to do with her slaying.

Spectators in the highly publicized case had mixed reactions to Dally's testimony.

``He was very emotional,'' noted Jhana Weekes of Simi Valley. ``I think he had a hard time getting his story straight.''

Another court watcher, Kristina Murr of Oxnard, said she thinks Dally's testimony has done little to help him stay off Death Row.

``I can't honestly say his testimony has helped him at all,'' said Murr. ``I guess on the other hand, you can look at it as what else does he have to lose.''

After Dally's testimony, prosecutors began summarizing their cases.

In the first round of closing statements, Frawley urged the jury to imagine what Sherri Dally was going through in her last minutes on Earth.

``You know, from the moment she realized she was being kidnapped until the butchering began, that, if she had any chance at all, . . . she pled for her life,'' said Frawley, the prosecutor.

``And she didn't do it just for herself, but for her boys. . . . This is much more than a tragedy. This is black-hearted murder,'' Frawley said.

Defense attorney Robert Schwartz argued that a sentence of life without parole will be a nearly unbearable punishment for Dally.

``The only joy in Mr. Dally's life . . . will probably be a few visits with his family and his boys. And he'll see them through a piece of glass with prison guards watching his every move,'' said Schwartz. ``Folks, if any of you can imagine a living hell, that's it.''