Dale Hausner
Live from the courtroom: Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner took a lot of time off work in his job as a janitor at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and most of those days either landed on the day of a crime in the killing spree or the day after. Phoenix police Detective Clark Schwartzkopf, the lead investigator in the case, is on the witness stand this morning, going over Hausner’s employment records compared to the shootings.
The comparison works. “The pattern was that these shootings either occurred on days that the defendant had the day off or he took them the day after the shooting,” Schwartzkopf said. Hausner called in sick, took vacation time or was scheduled for a regular day off on those occasions.
Take Nov. 11, 2005 for example. Hausner had that day off, as well as the two days before and after the date for a total of five days off, Schwartzkopf said. Nov. 11 was also the date that two dogs were shot and a homeless man named Nathaniel Schoffner was killed. The evidence is very circumstantial, but the prosecution is using it to show that Hausner had the opportunity to commit the nearly 90 crimes he’s charged with.
Update (12:19 p.m.): Defense attorney Tim Agan just grilled Schwartzkopf on the conclusions that were being drawn by this time off-shooting correlation.
“Did you notice the Cardinals are in the playoffs?” Agan asked.
Schwartzkopf did.
“Did you notice we have a new president?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe those two things are connected?”
“No.”
“The mere fact that something happens close together doesn’t necessarily mean those two things are connected. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”