Witness Says She Saw Haun in Car After Abduction

A witness identified Diana Haun on Wednesday as being the same “panic-stricken” woman she saw sitting in a parked car on Canada Larga Road last year about 16 hours after the abduction of Sherri Dally.

Samantha Spencer told jurors at Haun’s murder trial that she saw the 36-year-old defendant about 1:30 a.m. on the morning of May 7, 1996, sitting alone in a blue-green sedan beneath a highway overpass north of Ventura.

The overpass is just two miles from where the remains of Dally’s stabbed and beaten body were found 26 days later.

During her testimony, Spencer said that she and a friend were on their way home when they noticed the parked car. They had exited California 33 at Canada Larga Road and were slowly driving westbound toward Ventura Avenue when the woman in the sedan looked out her window at them, Spencer said.

“She looked terrified, very panic-stricken,” Spencer testified.

Asked by prosecutor Lela Henke-Dobroth what drew her attention to the woman in the car, Spencer answered: “Her eyes.”

Spencer is the first witness to place Haun near where Dally’s body was found. Although she has admitted that she purchased items believed to have been used in the Dally kidnapping, Haun has pleaded not guilty to that charge as well as to counts of murder and conspiracy.

While on the witness stand, Spencer described the woman she saw that night as having shoulder-length brown hair and large eyes. Spencer said that she later picked Haun out of a photo lineup during an interview with police.

Spencer identified Haun in court Wednesday as the same woman she had seen beneath the overpass. “She is sitting to my far right,” Spencer said, gesturing to Haun across the courtroom.

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But on cross-examination, Deputy Public Defender Neil Quinn questioned how Spencer could have so distinctly recognized his client given the lighting, distance and speed of the car.

He also asked Spencer whether she had been drinking that night and whether she had seen Haun’s picture in the newspaper before picking her out of a police lineup. Spencer answered “No” to both questions.

She told Quinn that she was sitting in the passenger seat of her friend’s car, which was moving about 10 mph. She said the blue-green sedan was illuminated by an orange-colored light beneath the overpass.

And she insisted that she accurately remembered both the date and time of the sighting.

In fact, she added during cross-examination, it was the woman’s terrified facial expression that cemented the moment in her mind.

“I said, ‘Jennifer, do you think we should stop? She looks terrified. She could be in trouble,’ ” Spencer testified, recalling the conversation she had had with her friend. Spencer said that her friend did not want to stop.

In addition to Spencer, seven other witnesses testified Wednesday on a wide range of subjects.

Two witnesses laid the groundwork for future testimony about purchases Haun allegedly made with her credit card and checking account. A Vons employee talked about the work schedules of Haun and Michael Dally, Haun’s lover and the victim’s husband.

Another Vons employee, Margaret Mattheson, testified about Haun’s physical appearance and behavior on the day Sherri Dally disappeared.

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Haun showed up about 15 minutes late for work on the afternoon of May 6, 1996, and told Mattheson that she had been in a bicycle accident in Camarillo, Mattheson testified.

“She made a point to make sure I heard her and she said it twice,” Mattheson said.

Haun was acting anxious, almost nervous, Mattheson said. Haun had scratches on her face and the next day, Mattheson said, she also noticed coin-size bruises on Haun’s wrists.

Another Vons co-worker had testified Tuesday about observing similar injuries on Haun, bolstering the prosecution’s claim that the defendant might have been injured during the kidnap-slaying.

But on cross-examination, Mattheson told the jury that employees who worked in the deli, as she and Haun did, often received small bruises and burns from deep-frying chicken and frozen potatoes.

And she said it appeared Haun was acting anxious because she was late to work.

In other testimony Wednesday, Port Hueneme schoolteacher Jean McDermott testified that she saw a dirty blue-green car parked in the staff parking area of Parkview Elementary School about 7:45 a.m. May 7, 1996.

McDermott said she noticed the four-door vehicle because some of the windows were rolled down and because it did not look familiar. She also noted that the passenger-side mirror was bent down, she said.

Haun lived near the school on 7th Street in Port Hueneme.

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The last witness to testify was Michael Dally’s mother, Yaeko Dally. She is expected to return to the stand for cross-examination this morning.

For about an hour Wednesday, the Dally matriarch told jurors what she could remember about the day her daughter-in-law disappeared.

She said her son, Michael, called her about noon May 6, 1996, and asked her to come to his house to watch the children in Sherri Dally’s day-care business, because his wife had not come home.

Yaeko and Lawrence Dally live about six houses away from Michael and Sherri Dally’s house on Channel Drive in Ventura.

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Trial Testimony

Witness Samantha Spencer told jurors that she saw Diana Haun sitting alone in a blue-green sedan parked underneath the Canada Larga Road overpass on the morning of May 7, 1996. Sherri Dally’s body was found in a ravine about two miles away on June 1, 1996.