Victim’s mom: ‘It’s justice as much as it can be’
Dale Hausner holds up six fingers while referencing the six counts of murder the jury convicted him of in the Serial Shooter case Thursday, March 26, 2009 in Phoenix. A man convicted of six murders in Phoenix's Serial Shooter attacks told jurors Thursday that they should sentence him to death to help the families of victims heal.
PHOENIX – A jury sentenced a former janitor to six death sentences Friday for a series of random nighttime murders in 2005 and 2006 that put metropolitan Phoenix on edge as investigators tried to put an end to the attacks.
Dale Shawn Hausner, a former janitor convicted two weeks ago of killing six people and attacking 19 others in random nighttime shootings, was expressionless as the decisions were announced. He kept his head down and flipped through papers in front of him. Before being led out of the courtroom, Hausner thanked the judge who presided over his trial.
“It’s justice as much as it can be,” said Rebecca Estrada, whose 20-year-old son, David Estrada, was shot to death in Tolleson in June 2005. “The death penalty is the limit, and that’s what he deserves.”
Hausner’s mother was whisked out through the courtroom’s back door by one of her son’s lawyers. Tim Agan, another Hausner lawyer, declined to comment on the death sentences.
Michael Anthony Scerbo, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment on the decisions.
The jury’s decision came a day after Hausner told jurors they should put him to death because it would help the victims’ families heal.
Prosecutors say Hausner preyed on pedestrians, bicyclists, dogs and horses during a 14-month conspiracy that occasionally included his brother and his former roommate, Sam Dieteman. Dale Hausner is scheduled to be sentenced Monday on 74 other convictions in the case.
Dieteman, who has pleaded guilty to two of the killings and is awaiting sentencing, testified against Hausner, saying he and his roommate cruised around late at night looking for strangers to shoot. Dieteman could also face the death penalty.
The Serial Shooter attacks and an unrelated serial killer case kept neighborhood watch groups on high alert in the summer of 2006. Families stayed inside as police searched for the killers, and authorities called meetings that drew hundreds of people who learned more about the attacks and were encouraged to provide tips.
Police said their big break in the Serial Shooter case came when one of Dieteman’s drinking buddies, Ron Horton, called police to say that Dieteman had bragged about shooting people. “They called it ‘RV’ing.’ Random Recreational Violence,” Horton told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview. Horton died last year.
Dieteman said Hausner professed a hatred for prostitutes and homeless people as they looked for victims in areas frequented by streetwalkers. Still, Dieteman said, Hausner never explained why he wanted to shoot people.
In describing one shooting, Dieteman said he and Hausner found humor at the sight of one of their seriously injured victims, who held his stomach and appeared angry.
Hausner’s lawyers told jurors that Dieteman gave authorities bad information in hopes of getting out of the death penalty.
Hausner denied any involvement in the attacks since his arrest in August 2006. But he took an odd turn during the penalty phase of his trial, telling jurors Thursday they should give him the death penalty because it would help the families of victims.
Hausner appeared resigned by that point. He declined the opportunity to call his own witnesses in a bid for leniency and instructed his attorneys not to plead for a life sentence.
“I’m not up here to point the finger at anybody else and say, ‘Have mercy on my poor and withered soul,’ ” Hausner told the jury on Thursday. “I’m willing to accept my punishment like a man without blaming anybody.”
Hausner had, in fact, suggested in the past that Dieteman may have carried out some of the attacks. The punishments handed down Friday by the jury were only for the six murder convictions against Hausner. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle is scheduled to sentence Hausner on Monday on his remaining convictions for attempted murder, aggravated assault, drive-by shooting, animal cruelty and other charges.
———
Dale Hausner’s victims
A list of the murders for which convicted Serial Shooter Dale Shawn Hausner was given six death sentences on Friday:
— David Estrada, 20, was fatally shot on June 29, 2005.
— Nathaniel Shoffner was killed on Nov. 11, 2005.
— Jose Ortis, 44, was fatally shot on Dec. 29, 2005.
— Marco Carillo, 28, was fatally shot on Dec. 29, 2005.
— Claudia Gutierrez-Cruz, 21, was fatally shot while walking on May 2, 2006.
— Robin Blasnek, 22, was fatally shot while walking on July 30, 2006.
Two weeks ago, when convicting Hausner of the murders, the jury also found him guilty of 74 other charges. He will be sentenced on the remaining convictions Monday.
His other convictions consist of:
— Eighteen counts of attempted first-degree murder
— Two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder
— Sixteen counts of aggravated assault charges
— Twenty-three counts of drive-by shooting
— Nine counts of animal cruelty charges
— Three counts of discharging a gun at a structure
— One count of unlawfully discharging a gun
— Two counts of arson of an occupied structure
Hausner was acquitted in the May 2005 killings of Tony Mendez and Reginald Remillard, the July 2005 shooting of a horse and a December 2005 attack on a woman that didn’t result in an injury.