Dale Hausner
Live from the courtroom: Prosecutor Laura Reckart spent much of the afternoon turning up the heat on Dale Hausner, attacking his claims that he had alibis on the nights of the shootings by repeatedly calling them “ali-lies” in a sharp turn of phrase.
The attack by Reckart built on the earlier part of her closing in which she laid out many of the straight-forward facts of the case. Often, this afternoon, she went after Hausner’s credibility, pointing out his inconsistencies and admitted lies. She told the jury that Hausner has woven such a complicated web he is no longer able to keep his stories straight. “He can’t keep his web untangled,” Reckart said.
The closing argument lasted almost all day, clocking in at about 4 1/2 hours. It was the first of two chances Maricopa County prosecutors have to sum up their case for the jury. Prosecutor Vince Imbordino is expected to lay the final blocks on Thursday morning, just before the jury is asked to decide Hausner’s guilt or innocence.
During the presentation, Reckart made a habit of turning toward Hausner at pointed moments to focus the jury’s already rapt attention toward him. The serial killer suspect often had his head turned away from the action, refusing to meet the prosecutor’s gaze.
For his part, Hausner acted as he had during much of the last five months of his trial. He shook his head when he disagreed with what Reckart said or else turned to his attorneys and whispered to them. He was fidgety and never hid his disgust.
Hausner, 36, is accused of 87 crimes in what became known as the Serial Shooter killing spree of 2005 and 2006. Authorities say he killed eight people and wounded numerous others in a 14-month spree that spanned across the Phoenix valley. His trial began back in early September 2008 and has lasted nearly half a year. He has pleaded not guilty to all the crimes and even took the stand for five days earlier this month to maintain his innocence.
Marianne Lescher
Prosecutors have given the jury lots of evidence against Hausner, but among the most damaging was testimony from his former lover, Marianne Lescher, who refuted his claims that they were together on the many of the nights of the shootings. Lescher, a principal in the Kyrene School District, told jurors earlier this month that she remembered many of the nights well and Hausner was not there. The dates were often weeknights and she wouldn’t have allowed Hausner to stay with her because she had to work the next morning.
“He underestimated one thing,” Reckart reminded the jurors this afternoon, “the memory of Marianne Lescher.”
With Lescher’s testimony, the prosecutor said, “the defendant’s alibis turned into ali-lies.”
In a dramatic moment in the courtroom, the veteran prosecutor also said pay phone records disputed one of Hausner’s many stories about his whereabouts on the night of one of the crimes. Hausner claimed he was making a call from a pay phone in Mesa about the time one of the shootings was was taking place in the summer of 2006.
“There, in black and white, the records for the phone showed no such call was made,” Reckart said. She then turned toward Hausner and said, “gotcha,” as if she had caught him red handed.
To end the presentation, though, Reckart didn’t use testimony, DNA or even shell casings to try to convince the jury Hausner was the Serial Shooter. She used Hausner’s own words, captured by police with a secret microphone placed in his apartment just hours before his arrest in August 2006.
“Shootius in the backius,” Hausner was recorded saying at the time, using some sort of faux-Latin. “I love shooting people in back. It’s so much fun.”
Reckart repeated the phrase in her final line: “Dale Shawn Hausner, or should we call you ‘Shootius in the Backius,’ your fun is over.”