Professor Cites Survey, Doubts Haun and Dally Can Get Fair Local Trial

Lawyers anxious to have the murder trial of Michael Dally and Diana Haun moved out of Ventura County had a California State University professor analyze a survey of prospective jurors and he concluded that a fair trial would not be possible locally.

Edward Bronson, a professor of social science at Cal State Chico, said a defense survey of about 500 prospective local jurors found a high percentage had already formed the opinion that the pair are guilty. And a substantial number of those, according to the survey, believed the two should be put to death.

“I find that to be very, very powerful,” Bronson said during the first day of a hearing on the defense’s attempt to change the trial venue. The motion is being heard by Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones.

Dally and his girlfriend, Haun, both 36, are accused of planning and carrying out the slaying of Dally’s 35-year-old wife, Sherri, on May 6, 1996. She was abducted from a Target parking lot in Ventura, and her badly decomposed body was uncovered a month later in a ravine north of Ventura.

Their case is set for trial in June, but defense attorneys contend pretrial publicity and a “media circus” atmosphere surrounding the kidnap-slaying have tainted the prospective jury pool within the county.

But prosecutors have commissioned their own survey of prospective jurors that they say rebuts the defense’s claims. They said the survey, conducted by a UC San Diego professor, showed a change of venue was unnecessary, citing numerous high-profile cases both here and nationally in which juries were impaneled and verdicts reached despite a deluge of media attention.

But during Thursday’s testimony, Bronson said the strength of responses to the defense team’s survey showed a significant percentage of people already favored convicting the pair. He compared the strong response to similar responses in surveys involving more notorious cases, including a serial killer case and one of a man accused of keeping the body of a woman he allegedly killed in a freezer for three years.

Deputy Public Defender Neil Quinn, who represents Haun, said in his opening statements that the frequency of local newspaper articles, radio reports and television news stories made it difficult to find unbiased jurors.

The defense’s survey showed more than 90% of the prospective jurors polled had read or heard about the case. More importantly, Quinn stressed a large percentage of those polled believed the pair were “definitely or probably” guilty.

In a short cross-examination of Bronson, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris questioned Bronson on some of the conclusions drawn from the defense team’s survey.

Bronson said if he had conducted the survey he would have made some major changes on how the questions were phrased.

Kossoris is scheduled to continue his cross-examination of Bronson this morning.

Hadly is a Times staff writer and Metcalfe is a correspondent.