Heat City

Live from the courtroom: Dale Hausner, the Serial Shooter suspect, could be heard dropping an expletive moments ago during the testimony of his ex-lover.

Linda Tarrence, who had a daughter with Hausner in 2004, was asked by defense attorney Ken Everett whether Hausner loved the young girl. Tarrence paused for several seconds before saying, “It’s not that easy to answer.” (Family warning: Language uncensored after the jump.)

Hausner then turned to his other attorney, Timothy Agan, and said, “Shit.” (He may have said some other form of the word, such as “bullshit,” but the only part that was audible from the back of the gallery was the single syllable.)

Dale Hausner

Live from the courtroom: In the months before his arrest on suspicion of being the Serial Shooter, Dale Hausner became increasingly erratic and unreliable, his former lover testified this afternoon.

Linda Tarrence said the Mesa man, once devoted and attentive to their very young daughter, began to miss appointments and would often forget to pick the girl up from daycare during the summer of 2006. During that same period, Hausner missed numerous days of work, using the excuse that he had to take care of his ill daughter. Tarrence said many of those excuses were untrue; Hausner was not with the girl on those days.

Tarrence said she and Hausner lived together between December 2003 and December 2004, but they were separated some six months before the time authorities allege Hausner began the killings. However, the pair had a child together and so they kept in touch.

On several occasions, Hausner was supposed to pick their daughter up from daycare in the afternoon and care for her, but he would either miss the pickup without notice or else call Tarrence with excuses about why he could not make it. “One time he had to go to Vegas,” Tarrence testified. “Another time it was bar tending, just his usual bar tending or boxing photography.” Hausner also began to miss payments to the Mesa daycare center, she said.

Dale Hausner

Live from the courtroom: I am in the courtroom of the Dale Hausner trial again this afternoon, watching as prosecutors wind down their case against the Mesa man accused of leading the Serial Shooter killing spree. There have been no fireworks as the loose ends of the case continue to get tied up. The dramatic testimony is essentially over.

The numbers so far have been staggering. The trial began with jury selection about four and a half months ago. Today is the 57th day of testimony, with tomorrow, day No. 58, is expected to be the last one for prosecutors. Hundreds of people have sat in the witness chair. The case’s lead investigator, Phoenix police Detective Clark Schwartzkopf, himself has taken the stand nearly 30 times.

And there will be no time to breathe once prosecutors rest their case. Hausner’s attorneys have been given notice by Judge Roland Steinle that they should be ready to begin their defense almost immediately afterward. That defense will likely be vigorous, with attorneys Ken Everett and Timothy Agan showing the jury that Hausner had alibis on many of the occasions he’s said to have been shooting people. A parade of Hausner’s friends and family members are also on tap to vouch for the 35-year-old’s character.

This portion of the trial could itself take months.

These pay phones, at a gas station at the corner of Mesa Drive and McKellips Road in Mesa, fit the description of the one Samuel Dieteman said he used to try to turn himself in. Photo by Nick R. Martin

Confessed killer Samuel Dieteman called it “one of my few clear-headed nights.” On the witness stand last week, he said he walked to a pay phone in central Mesa one night in mid-July 2006 and called Silent Witness, the anonymous crime tip line, essentially to turn himself in.

“I wanted out,” Dieteman testified last week in the eight-count murder trial of his former roommate, Dale Hausner, the Mesa man accused of being the leader of the Serial Shooter killing spree. “I told the guy I knew who was responsible for the shootings.”