Samuel Dieteman
Live from the courtroom: Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner was present for the stabbing of another man, a crime he was never charged with, according to the man who says he helped Hausner commit murders and other violent crimes.
Samuel Dieteman, 33, took the witness stand this morning for the second time this year in Hausner’s eight-count murder trial in downtown Phoenix. Earlier this year he testified that the two of them cruised the Valley on numerous occasions in the summer of 2006, gunning people down from Hausner’s car. He also testified that the two of them were present when Hausner’s brother, Jeff, stabbed a man in May of that year. Dale Hausner was charged with attempted murder and assault for his suspected role in the stabbing.
Today, Dieteman testified that Dale Hausner was present for an entirely separate stabbing of another man in west Phoenix nearly a month earlier. That stabbing, too, was carried out by the brother, Jeff Hausner, who has already been convicted and is serving a prison term for the attack.
Dieteman said Jeff Hausner was upset because a man had bumped into him in a grocery store near 72nd Avenue and Thomas Road. “Jeff kept saying how he wanted to get the guy because he had shoulder-checked him or bumped into him on purpose,” Dieteman said. The three men followed the stranger a short distance in their car, then Jeff Hausner and Dieteman got out and walked over to him. Jeff Hausner pretended like he was going to give the man some money but “instead pulled out his knife and stabbed him,” Dieteman said.
All the while, Dale Hausner was sitting in his car about 50 feet away, he said.
Dale Hausner has been charged with 87 crimes overall, but that stabbing was not among them. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied involvement with any crimes.
Dieteman took the stand today to refute much of Hausner’s own testimony from the past couple weeks. On the witness stand, Hausner portrayed himself as a good guy who is being wrongly accused of these heinous crimes by Dieteman, who claimed was the lone Serial Shooter.
Much of Dieteman’s testimony ended up being a sort of his-word-versus-Hausner’s, with the two men disagreeing about many small details like who owned which duffel bag and who was at a certain place at a certain time.
Shoplifting scheme
Dieteman also described a lengthy shoplifting-for-profit scheme that he and Hausner supposedly created during the summer of his involvement in the killings. The two men would take orders for things like liquor, DVDs and video games from Hausner’s coworkers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Then they would go to local grocery and big box stores, shoplift the items and sell them to the coworkers at a discounted rate. “Just about every grocery store that you can think of, just about every Sam’s Club in town, Wal-Marts, Targets,” Dieteman said. After the items were sold, Hausner gave half the cash to Dieteman.
Earlier in the trial, the judge had blocked prosecutors from using the testimony because it had nothing to do with the crimes he was charged with. However, Judge Roland Steinle decided to let the testimony in after Hausner took the witness stand and independently claimed he was never involved in shoplifting.
Dieteman will take more questions this afternoon, but today will be the last day the jury hears from him before they give their verdict.