Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner cringes as he testifies in his own defense earlier this week in Phoenix. Pool photo
During four days on the witness stand, Dale Hausner has worked to fulfill at least one of the major promises his legal team made as far back as early October: They would blame Samuel Dieteman for the Serial Shooter crimes.
Dieteman lived with Hausner for several weeks in the summer of 2006. And last month, Dieteman took the stand against his former roommate, telling the jury the two of them spent many nights that summer cruising the Phoenix valley in Hausner’s four-door sedan, shooting numerous people at random. The testimony was detailed and damning, but only if you believe Dieteman, who admitted to often being heavily doped up on methamphetamine and Jack Daniels around the time of the shootings.
Hausner’s only hope, it seems, is that jurors don’t buy Dieteman’s testimony and that they ignore much of the other circumstantial evidence that prosecutors say has linked him to the crimes. He has denied being involved in any of them.
Over the past four days, Hausner has worked hard to discredit Dieteman’s testimony, often calling him a liar or reminding jurors that the roommate is essentially a confessed killer. “Sam Dieteman killed poor Claudia Cruz by himself,” Hausner said today when being asked about one of the murders. “I was absolutely not there when Sam Dieteman shot David Perez,” he said about another shooting.
Hausner’s statements were perhaps less explicit than those made by his lead defense attorney, Ken Everett, during opening arguments back in October. At that point, Everett took to giving Dieteman nicknames like “killer Sam” and “the deal-maker Sam.” He said while Dieteman was living in west Phoenix, the shootings took place in that part of the Valley. When he moved east to live with Hausner in Mesa, the shootings shifted east.
Hausner, on the other hand, has told the jury that he is unaware of the details of any of the crimes because he was not there for them. He has called Dieteman a liar, but avoided the nicknames used by his attorney. “Sam Dieteman was less than truthful,” Hausner said today, mostly polite with only a hint of bitterness in his voice.
Only eight other people have testified in Hausner’s defense, and no one else is expected to take the stand for him after he leaves it. Mostly, the eight witnesses either vouched for his character or else hinted that somebody else was the shooter in certain crimes. None proved to be alibis for Hausner on the nights of the shootings.
With just a couple days left in his testimony, it seems that Hausner’s only defense against charges that he took part in eight murders, 17 other shootings, two arsons and several counts of animal cruelty is this: Trust me. I didn’t do it.