Jury Selection Wraps Up in Dally Trial

SANTA BARBARA — Jury selection in the trial of accused murderer Michael Dally concluded Monday as prosecutors and defense attorneys picked 12 regular and six alternate jurors to serve on the high-profile Ventura County case.

The jury, which is dominated by men, will be bused to the Ventura courthouse starting next week for what is expected to be a lengthy trial. Opening statements are set for next Monday.

For the last month, prosecutors and defense attorneys have questioned about 220 prospective jurors about their views on the death penalty and ability to serve on a trial expected to last six to eight weeks.

On Monday, they quickly moved through a list of 80 remaining jury candidates and settled on a panel composed of nine men and three women. They also selected six alternates: four men and two women.

The predominantly male jury could be a benefit for the defense, legal experts say, as Dally’s attorneys take on the prosecution’s theory that he was a manipulative womanizer who convinced his girlfriend to kill his wife.

“It all goes on stereotypes, but it seems like it is the strategy of the defense that men are more likely to side with the defendant,” said Laurie Levenson, associate dean at Loyola Law School.

“The question is, who is the real bad guy--this guy or the co-defendant?” asked Levenson. “The defense is hoping [the jury] will look at him and say, ‘He’s not so bad.’ ”

Dally, 37, is charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy for allegedly plotting his wife’s slaying with his lover, Diana Haun. She was found guilty of murder last year and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

During her trial, prosecutors argued that Dally was an “immoral jerk” who wanted out of his marriage and conspired in an elaborate murder scheme to avoid a costly divorce.

Dally has denied any role in his wife’s killing. A grocery clerk with two young sons, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He faces a possible death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder and at least one of two special circumstances alleged in the case: that Sherri Dally was killed for financial gain and while her attacker was lying in wait.

As in Haun’s trial, a jury was picked from Santa Barbara County because of pretrial publicity in Ventura County surrounding Sherri Dally’s disappearance and the criminal court proceedings that followed.

Sherri Dally was abducted on May 6, 1996, from the parking lot of a Ventura shopping center, and her skeletal remains were found a month later in a ravine north of the city. She had been beaten and stabbed to death.

As for Michael Dally’s jury, Oxnard attorney David Shain said there are many schools of thought about how the composition of a jury can affect the outcome of a trial.

“I certainly don’t have any insight about what the defense is looking for, but certainly the sex of the jurors is one component that might be in the mix,” Shain said.

“One of the things I think we have to keep in mind is that there is little control that the prosecution and the defense have,” he added. “A good part of it is inevitable, is chance.

“I mean Clarence Darrow said, ‘I’ll take the first 12,’ ” Shain said. “No one else has been brave enough.”