HAUN DEFENSE ASSAILS THEORY ON AX MURDER.Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer Prosecutors engaged in ``speculation of the worst sort'' in a desperate attempt to convict Diana Haun of the brutal murder of her lover's wife, defense attorneys argued Thursday. In a daylong closing argument, Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was Neil Quinn asked jurors to be critical of the circumstantial evidence circumstantial evidence In law, evidence that is drawn not from direct observation of a fact at issue but from events or circumstances that surround it. If a witness arrives at a crime scene seconds after hearing a gunshot to find someone standing over a corpse and holding a linking his client to the slaying of Ventura homemaker Sherri Dally, and skeptical of prosecutors' theories of the killing. Prosecutors contend that Haun employed a wig, heavy makeup and her acting skills to impersonate im·per·son·ate tr.v. im·per·son·at·ed, im·per·son·at·ing, im·per·son·ates 1. To assume the character or appearance of, especially fraudulently: impersonate a police officer. 2. a police officer and abduct abduct /ab·duct/ (ab-dukt´) to draw away from the median plane, or (the digits) from the axial line of a limb.abdu´cent ab·duct v. Dally from a Target parking lot on May 6, 1996. Dally's dismembered body was found 26 days later in a remote ravine north of Ventura. ``The people's case rests on this assertion that, somehow, Ms. Haun had an extraordinary ability to disguise herself,'' Quinn told a packed courtroom. ``What is the people's theory here? Because she had an aborted a·bort v. a·bort·ed, a·bort·ing, a·borts v.intr. 1. To give birth prematurely or before term; miscarry. 2. To cease growth before full development or maturation. 3. modeling career, somehow she's a master of disguise? That is so weak. ``To suggest that that is proof beyond a reasonable doubt is certainly implausible.'' Jurors are expected to begin deliberations today. Haun, a 36-year-old grocery clerk from Port Hueneme Port Hueneme (wī'nē`mē), city (1990 pop. 20,319), Ventura co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast; founded 1870, inc. 1948. It has an artificial deep-sea harbor and is the site of a huge naval construction-battalion (Seabee) center. , faces the death penalty if convicted of lying in wait to kidnap and murder Dally for financial gain. She is also charged with conspiring to commit these crimes with her lover - the victim's husband - Michael Dally. He is awaiting a separate trial on the same charges. Prosecutors say Haun carried out the brutal slaying so she could have Michael Dally to herself and help raise his two children. But the defense has argued throughout the trial that Haun was merely a pawn of Michael Dally - buying an ax and other items he needed in his sinister plot to get rid of his wife so he could avoid a costly divorce. ``The evidence in this case is completely consistent with my client being unaware of Mr. Dally's purpose,'' Quinn said. ``She was blinded by her love. She would not critically examine some scheme, some story he would tell her. She would just buy into it.'' Quinn also reiterated the defense's theory that a third suspect was involved, an argument based on testimony from two witnesses that on the day after Sherri Dally disappeared, they saw a Latino man using Haun's credit card to buy gas for the Nissan Altima
The Altima (pronounced ALL-timah) is a mid-size car (formerly compact) currently being manufactured by the Japanese automaker Nissan, and is arguably a continuation of the she had rented. |
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