HUSBAND TESTIFIES IN KILLING : SYLMAR MAN, MISTRESS ACCUSED IN WIFE'S DEATH.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

A 61-year-old Sylmar man took the witness stand Tuesday to defend himself against charges that in 1991 he teamed with a prostitute to brutally beat his wife to death.

Dennis Dawley and his former mistress, Brandita Taliano, 41, are on trial in San Fernando Superior Court on charges that they solicited the murder of his wife and then bludgeoned her to death themselves when the plan failed.

Dawley's wife, Joan Dawley, 55, was found beaten to death in what resembled a bungled robbery in April 1991. The master bedroom was ransacked, jewelry was taken, and her empty purse was left on the kitchen table.

On Tuesday, Dawley described how he met his wife when he was 12, married her when he was 19 and was crushed to discover that she had cheated on him early in their marriage.

Their marriage survived the affair, and they continued to raise their two daughters together, but Dawley said they never shared the same sexual appetite.

``Did you and your wife ever have a healthy sex life?'' defense attorney Rayford Fountain asked Dawley.

``Not really,'' Dawley responded as his new wife, Carolyn Dawley, sat in the front row watching him.

``Did it ever get to the point where you sought out sexual needs from prostitutes on the street?'' Fountain asked.

``Yes, I did,'' Dawley said.

Tuesday's hearing was the first time in which Dawley has spoken publicly about the death of his wife. He is expected to continue his testimony today.

Prosecutor Robert B. Foltz Jr. said Dawley and Taliano had set up the murder scene. Foltz said Taliano held down Joan Dawley as Dawley beat her.

According to Foltz, the motives for the killing were that Dawley could retire from his job as a starter at the Encino-Balboa Municipal Golf Course and wouldn't have to share two pensions, two houses and $70,000 that his wife had inherited.

Initially, Dawley hired two felons he met through Taliano to kill his wife, Foltz contended. Under the promise of immunity from prosecution, those men told authorities that Dawley gave them a tour of the house, floor plans and then $9,000 in $50 bills as a down payment for murder.

The deal fell through when one of the men was arrested before it could be carried out.

Joan Dawley was killed nonetheless.

Two days after Dawley buried his wife, he took Taliano, a prostitute and heroin addict, to Las Vegas, which piqued the interest of investigators.

Foltz said phone records connect Dawley with Taliano and one of the prospective hit men. Scrappings from under Joan Dawley's fingernails contained DNA linked to Taliano, he said.

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PHOTO Dennis Dawley

Wife brutally killed