Heat City

Samuel Dieteman

Live from the courtroom: Samuel Dieteman, the alleged accomplice in the Serial Shooter case, called his plea agreement with county prosecutors “bogus” as recently as October — after the trial already had begun and his testimony was pending.

The description came in a long letter he sent from jail to one of his friends. It also apparently came in the middle of a disagreement with his attorney, Maria Schaffer. “There was a pretty big misunderstanding on my part between me and my attorney back then,” Dieteman testified this afternoon.

Dieteman later testified he has since had a change of heart about his plea agreement, in which pleaded guilty to two murders in exchange for his testimony.

Judge Roland Steinle speaks during the early days of the trial of Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner. Pool photo

Live from the courtroom: Before the jury returned from lunch today, Judge Roland Steinle took a number of people to task in the courtroom, including journalists and the defendant. Steinle, who has kept the trial on track with his strict enforcement of the rules, raised his voice and put his foot down on several issues.

The defense
Defense attorney Ken Everett was told to stop mispronouncing the name of star witness Samuel Dieteman. The correct pronunciation is Deet-man, but time and again, Everett added an extra syllable in the middle: Deet-a-min. “If you want to alienate the jury by mispronouncing his name when it suits your purposes, that’s fine,” Steinle told the attorney. But, Steinle added, he felt it was “clear” that Everett was “intentionally mispronouncing” the name.

Dale Hausner’s defense attorney, Ken Everett, questions a witness during the first weeks of his client’s eight-count murder trial. Pool photo

Live from the courtroom: Confessed killer Samuel Dieteman took the stand again this morning in the eight-count murder trial against his former roommate, Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner. This time, he’s facing Hausner’s aggressive, dogged defense attorney, Ken Everett, who is expected to attack Dieteman’s every assertion and turn up the heat on the star witness of the case.

Already, Everett has pressed Dieteman on the ins and outs of his agreement to testify against Hausner, even questioning the 33-year-old about the antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications he’s on. At one point, Everett even implied that Dieteman was planning to back out of his agreement, in which he also pleaded guilty to two murders, after he, as the attorney put it, “finked” on Hausner.

View Larger Map

I have begun to place each one of the crimes charged to Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner on an interactive Google map. It is something I have wanted to do ever since the trial began back in October 2008. It’s a large project, to say the least. Hausner is accused in 50 incidents, which authorities say amounts to 87 crimes between May 2005 and August 2006.

The map, as seen above, will hold a permanent spot on the section of the website devoted to the trial coverage. However, you can also click over to the main home of the map, over on Google, and see the crimes listed in order down the left-hand column.

Click image to enlarge

Dale Hausner says he was just misunderstood. On Wednesday, the Serial Shooter suspect was spotted by several people in the courtroom extending his middle finger skyward, a gesture that some thought was intended for a number of victims who were sitting nearby.

The upward middle finger caused such a ruckus that Prosecutor Vince Imbordino asked Judge Roland Steinle to order Hausner’s hands restrained for the rest of his trial.

Prosecutor Vince Imbordino presents opening arguments in October during the trial of Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner. Pool photo

Live from the courtroom: Prosecutor Vince Imbordino wrapped up his questioning of Samuel Dieteman just a few minutes ago, and the star witness will be handed over to the defense first thing Monday morning. Dale Hausner’s attorney, Ken Everett, is expected to aggressively go after Dieteman’s credibility. If Everett’s examination of another witness, John Kane, back in October is any indication, it’s sure to be a sight to see.

Prosecutors will get a chance to ask more questions of Dieteman after Everett is done. That means Dieteman will probably be on the stand through next week.

Dale Hausner

Live from the courtroom: The undercover officers who were following Samuel Dieteman and Dale Hausner in the days and hours before their arrests had good reason to fear something terrible might happen before their eyes. According to Dieteman’s testimony today during Hausner’s eight-count murder trial, the two of them were cruising the East Valley in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 2, “to find somebody to shoot on the way back to (Hausner’s) apartment.

As Dieteman tells it, he and Hausner even found a target: a pair of kids riding together on a single bicycle. “The defendant handed me the shotgun, and said, ‘There you go.'” Dieteman said. “And as I started pulling the shotgun up, I was like, no way. I can’t shoot two kids on a bike.”

Instead of telling Hausner the truth, he told him he thought a helicopter was circling above them, Dieteman testified. Hausner responded by telling him it was just paranoia.

It turns out, though, that investigators were watching the two men at that very moment. Last month, several undercover officers who were assigned to follow Hausner and Dieteman, by that time the prime suspects in the Serial Shooter case, testified they were terrified they were going to watch an innocent victim get shot as the men cruised the Valley.