PHOENIX — A jury spared a man convicted in a series of random nighttime shootings from the death penalty and sentenced him to life in prison on Wednesday.
Samuel Dieteman, who pleaded guilty to two of six murders in the metropolitan Phoenix Serial Shooter case of 2005 and 2006, appeared stoic as the jury's decision was announced.
"I'm truly sorry for the pain that I've caused to many, many people," Dieteman, 33, said after his sentence was read. He then thanked the court for treating him like a human being.
His lawyer and family members cried as the verdict was read.
Authorities say Dieteman and his former roommate, 36-year-old Samuel Hausner, preyed on pedestrians, bicyclists and animals in attacks that ended in August 2006 when both men were arrested at the apartment they shared in Mesa. Dieteman and Hausner met in April 2006 — about nine months after the Serial Shooter attacks began, and Dieteman's defense attorneys painted him as being Hausner's follower.
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Paul Patrick, a victim of the shooting spree who nearly died when he was shot while walking down a street in June 2006, was in the court for the verdict and said he agreed with it.
"It's not a cause to celebrate; a mother just lost a son, and children lost their father," he said of Dieteman's family. "No hatred for the family. Too much time has been wasted on that."
Dieteman, who had been charged with murdering two people and attacking 14 others, had admitted to fatally shooting 20-year-old Claudia Gutierrez-Cruz in Scottsdale in May 2006 and assisting in the deadly shooting of 22-year-old Robin Blasnek in July 2006 as she walked from her parents' home to her boyfriend's house in Mesa.
Prosecutors had urged the death penalty for Dieteman instead of the life sentence. They painted him as a drifter who was a willing participant, pulling the trigger and serving as Hausner's lookout.
Dieteman's lawyers asked jurors to consider his testimony as a key witness against Hausner, who received six death sentences earlier this year.
