Haun Jury Queries Judge on ‘Conspiracy’

For a third day, jurors in the murder trial of Diana Haun continued deliberations but failed to return a verdict Wednesday in the high-profile Ventura County case.

The panel posed two questions, however, one of which focused on the definition of “conspiracy� as spelled out in the complex instructions provided by the judge last week.

Judge Frederick A. Jones met privately with prosecutors and defense attorneys in chambers for several hours to draft written responses to the question.

They emerged briefly at about 2:30 p.m. with a partial answer to one of the questions--the one about the definition of “conspiracy.�

Trying to answer that question, Jones and the attorneys wrote that yes, the jury can use the legal language regarding the conspiracy charge and apply it to any crime--including first-degree murder.

Jones promised to return this morning with an answer to the jury’s second question. He did not disclose the substance of that query.

Haun is accused of killing her lover’s wife, Sherri Dally. The 36-year-old grocery clerk is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit those crimes with her longtime lover, Michael Dally. He is scheduled to stand trial next.

After six weeks of testimony and an additional week of closing arguments, jurors received the case last week and have been dissecting the evidence for the last three days.

As deliberations continue, local attorneys say there is no way of knowing how long this group may take to reach a verdict.

“Some juries can be very deliberate and slow and others can be quick,� said veteran prosecutor Peter Kossoris.

Juries in capital murder cases, such as Haun’s, tend to be more methodical, he added.

Kossoris recalled the case he prosecuted against Robert McLain, who raped and shot to death a young hitchhiker in Santa Paula in 1979. It took the jury 3 1/2 weeks to reach a verdict on McLain’s guilt, he said. Later the jury decided to send him to death row.