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Dale Hausner

Dale Hausner tried to explain away everything today.

In more than five hours of testimony today, the Serial Shooter suspect denied time and again that he was involved in killing eight people and wounding numerous others in 2005 and 2006. But even more than that, the 35-year-old Mesa man tried to convince the jury of his innocent explanations for every piece of damning evidence Maricopa County prosecutors have presented during the past four months of his trial.

Lead defense attorney, Ken Everett, asked the questions throughout the day, but it was clear that Hausner was the man in the spotlight, following a tightly woven script with the whole world — or at least a few dozen people in a downtown Phoenix courtroom — watching his performance.

Caught on a secret audio recording talking about shooting and killing people, “It was part of my dark sense of humor,” Hausner said. “It was always just a joke.” When police watched him and his former roommate Samuel Dieteman cruising the East Valley, supposedly looking for their next victim, Hausner said they were just “wired up,” taking a sort of impromptu tour to help Dieteman look for work, and to drive by an old girlfriend’s house. The latex gloves authorities say he used to load his weapons? They were for his work. “As a photographer, you never touch somebody’s photos with your bare hands.” The .22 caliber rifle that he owned but was never found? It was broken, and he destroyed it “so that nobody could take it and shoot somebody and then leave it somewhere.”

Dale Hausner

Live from the courtroom: Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner admitted this afternoon that he told his former roommate, Samuel Dieteman, “I love shooting people in the back.” However, the comment, he said, was all just a sick joke. The comment was caught on tape when police secretly wiretapped Hausner’s apartment in the 24 hours before his arrest.

“I would say crazy stuff like that I love to shoot people in the back,” Hausner said. “It was part of my dark sense of humor, gallows humor.”

Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner testifies in his eight-count murder trial. Pool photo

Live from the courtroom: When Dale Hausner was arrested at about midnight on Aug. 4, 2006, he thought it was because he had just bought a large amount of methamphetamine, he testified in his eight-count murder trial this afternoon. “I just purchaced a big buy of methamphetamine from Ron Horton, and I thought I had gotten caught up in it,” Hausner testified.

“I had no idea it was about the Serial Shooter case,” he said.

Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner testifies in his own defense Monday in his eight-count murder trial in downtown Phoenix. Pool photo

Live from the courtroom: Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner testified this afternoon that he penned a note that has become one of the most bizarre pieces of evidence in the trial against him. The note read: “He who asks about the $5 bill is a homicidal maniac, arsonist, thief, destroyer of property, drug using god among mortals.” Authorities found the note in his Mesa apartment shortly after his August 2006 arrest.

“I wrote the note,” Hausner said on the witness stand as part of his eight-count murder trial in downtown Phoenix.

Dale Hausner

Live from the courtroom: Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner testified this morning that he sawed a .22 caliber rifle in half, and then dumped the halves in different cities in 2005. This is a key part of the case because authorities have never been able to find the .22 caliber gun that Hausner is accused of using to kill numerous people in 2005.

The way Hausner told the story, he purchased the gun at a pawn shop in May 2005. But after taking it shooting it in the desert, he found it jammed frequently. He tried to return it to the pawn shop, but the shop refused to take it, citing a no-refund policy.

When he couldn’t return the rifle, he decided to cut the gun in half to dispose of it. “I took it to my brother Jeff’s house and sawed it in half so that nobody could take it and shoot somebody and then leave it somewhere,” Hausner testified.

Hausner then drove the pieces elsewhere in the Valley. “I threw half away in Phoenix and half away in Mesa,” he said.

Dale Hausner

Live from the courtroom: In the early part of his testimony, Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner portrayed himself as a bit of a man about town. He talked up his work as a boxing photographer. “I have done photography for all the major boxing magazines,” he said. He talked about his appearances on television. “In 2005 and 2006, I had my own cable boxing show called ‘The Best of Boxing with Dale Hausner.'” And he mentioned a brief stint as a local comedian. “I did stand up comedy for about a year,” Hausner said. “I’m not as funny as I think I am.”

Amid the denials of murder and other shootings, Hausner has tried to turn up the charm for the jury. He touted his credentials as a sort of rising celebrity in the Phoenix area. He even used his work as a janitor at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to vouch for his credibility. He went through an extensive background check to even begin working there. “If you were a bad guy, you could do some bad stuff at the airport,” Hausner said. “So they’d try to weed out the undesirables, so to speak.”

Update (11:55 a.m.): Later in the morning testimony, Hausner said he was known in Las Vegas, too. “I’m a preferred member at the now defunct Stardust (Resort and Casino), so I got cheap room, free food,” Hausner said. “I’d probably been there easy 50, probably up to 100 times. I had so many friends I could stay with, met girls out there. i was out there a lot.”

Live from the courtroom: Defense attorney Ken Everett just asked his client whether he was present for any shootings of people or animals in 2005. “No, absolutely not,” Hausner said. “I was not.” He was asked the same thing for 2006. “No sir, I was not.” Asked if he ever shot an animal that belonged to somebody else: “Oh no, absolutely not.”

Then, Everett asked the big question: “Have you ever murdered anyone with a gun?”

“No, sir,” Hausner said. “Absolutely not.”

Live from the courtroom: Dale Hausner has taken the stand. More to come.