Witness Says He Watched Dally Kidnapping

Dennis Dunlap was eating breakfast in his truck and reading the newspaper on the morning of May 6, 1996, when he noticed what appeared to be an arrest.

About 90 feet away in the parking lot of a Target store, two women were talking when one wearing a tan suit turned the other around, slapped handcuffs on the woman’s wrists and pushed her into the back seat of a car.

What Dunlap, who testified in court Tuesday, didn’t realize at the time was that he was witnessing the abduction of Ventura day-care center operator Sherri Dally, who after that day was never seen alive again.

For about two hours Tuesday, Dunlap described for a jury what he observed that morning. He is the first eyewitness of the abduction to testify in the murder trial of Dally’s accused killer, Diana Haun.

Prosecutors have accused Haun, a 36-year-old Port Hueneme grocery clerk, of being the woman in the tan suit. They have charged her with kidnapping, murder and conspiracy in connection with Dally’s abduction and slaying.

In addition to Dunlap, three other witnesses testified Tuesday.

* Heather Murray, niece of co-defendant Michael Dally, told jurors that her uncle wanted to sell his wife’s clothes and personal belongings only a week after Sherri Dally disappeared.

* Murray’s mother, Sharon, testified about finding her sister-in-law’s van unlocked and abandoned in the Target parking lot.

* Carolyn Arias, a Vons co-worker, testified that Haun showed up to work on the afternoon of May 6 with a scratched and puffy face.

Dunlap was the first witness to take the stand Tuesday, recalling in short, quick sentences the faux arrest he said he watched from a distance. Much of his testimony focused on important details, such as the height and appearance of the two women.

“They were two blond ladies,” Dunlap testified on direct examination. “One had her back to me.”

The woman whose face he could not see was wearing a tan suit and had short blond hair, Dunlap said. The other woman, whom he identified from a photo in court Tuesday as Sherri Dally, was wearing shorts and a white top. Her hair was pulled away from her face.

Dunlap told the jury that from where he was parked, he could not hear their conversation. But he said that it lasted about a minute and appeared not to be confrontational.

“She seemed to be cooperative,” he said of Dally.

When the conversation ended, Dunlap said, the woman in the tan suit pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her right pocket and turned Dally around.

“She handcuffed her--just like an officer would,” Dunlap said. “I figured she was being arrested for shoplifting.”

The woman in the tan suit then pushed Dally into the back seat of a green-blue car, a Nissan, and drove away within a matter of seconds, he said.

*

Several days later, Dunlap said, he called the Ventura Police Department after seeing a newspaper article about the disappearance of Dally, a 35-year-old mother of two boys.

Deputy Public Defender Neil Quinn questioned whether Dunlap’s story to the police was influenced by the newspaper’s descriptions of Dally and the suspect who drove away with her.

Initially, Dunlap told authorities that the woman in the tan suit was “stocky” and he described Dally as being about 5 feet 6 in height.

The article described the suspect as 5 feet 3 and Dally as 5 feet 7 in height.

“Did you read the description given of the suspect in the article?” Quinn asked Dunlap. He said he had.

But when later asked by prosecutor Lela Henke-Dobroth if he made up an account based on information in the article, Dunlap said he did not.

The height of Dally’s abductor has emerged as a significant point in the trial. Haun’s attorneys have said she could not have been the kidnapper because she is the same height as Dally and therefore does not fit the description.

Dally went missing for 26 days after the May 6 incident. Her stabbed and bludgeoned remains were found June 1, 1996, by a search party in a remote canyon between Ventura and Ojai.

The three other witnesses who testified Tuesday told the jury about events that took place before and immediately after Sherri Dally’s disappearance.

*

Carolyn Arias worked the deli counter at a Vons store with Haun the afternoon of May 6, 1996. Arias said that Haun came to work with scratches on her face and claimed to have been in a bike accident.

“I remember her face was red and puffy,” Arias said. “I said, ‘God, Di! It looks like you’ve been in a fight.’ ”

Haun told her that she had been in a “little accident” while bicycling, Arias said: “She said something about getting hit by a truck.”

Arias told the jury that she did not observe any scratches on Haun’s legs or hands. She said her co-worker seemed nervous and “jittery.”

Sharon Murray testified about finding her sister-in-law’s white Dodge van in the Target parking lot late on the afternoon of Dally’s disappearance. The keys were inside on the floor and a bag of purchases was on the seat, she said.

Murray, who is Michael Dally’s sister, and her daughter, Heather, drove around Ventura looking for Sherri Dally and eventually went to Target, because Sherri often shopped there, Murray said.

The last witness to testify Tuesday was Heather Murray, who described for the jury the way her uncle, Michael Dally, often “put down” her aunt, calling her a “fat pig” and “worthless.”

The younger Murray said that Sherri Dally had confided shortly before her death that she was considering leaving Michael. But, Sherri had told her, he resisted such a move because a separation would drain his finances, Murray said.

A week after Sherri disappeared, Heather Murray said, Michael Dally told her that he wanted to sell all of his wife’s belongings and said it was important that the family move on. At that point, Murray said, Sherri was still missing.

Murray also said her uncle replaced a family photograph of his wife and children, which sat on the dresser in their bedroom, with a portrait of himself with his two boys with Diana Haun.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

People vs. Haun / The Legal Pad

Ventura attorney William C. Maxwell and Westlake attorney J. Grant Kennedy offer their take on the Diana Haun murder trial. They will rotate with other experts as the case moves forward. Today, Kennedy talks about the statements of a longtime friend of Sherri Dally, John Avila, who testified earlier in the trial. During cross-examination, Avila said that his memory was sometimes weak, and the jury heard a taped police interview in which Avila referred to Haun as a “chickie.” Maxwell discusses the testimony of Dennis Dunlap, who on Tuesday described seeing Sherri Dally being abducted from the Target parking lot.

William C. Maxwell, Ventura attorney

“Dennis Dunlap is a very, very important witness. . .The defense theory is pretty clearly that the abductor wasn’t Haun, and you don’t have any identification that it was her, which is a weakness in the prosecution’s case. But you do have circumstantial evidence. . .The prosecution got answers out of him that fit their theory of the case. If you can’t prove something, at least you can get the witness to agree it was possible. The defense painstakingly worked its way to say: “This newspaper article compared with what you saw, didn’t it?” They have him very early in the game agreeing with that.”

J. Grant Kennedy, Westlake attorney

“I think the interesting thing that we are beginning to see is the difference in people’s memories. It boils down to people’s perceptions. Each side wants to characterize these memory problems as biases to help their side. . .With Avila, he came across as very loving, very thoughtful, very sincere. So much so that when you heard him on the tape talking about the other “chickie” and you saw his difference in demeanor when cross-examined Monday, you saw his emotional ties to the case. I think he is emotionally committed to finding some sort of justice for Sherrie Dally, but the other side is keeping in balance the interest in justice for Diana Haun.”

Compiled by Tracy Wilson / Times court reporter