PHOENIX — Serial-killing suspects Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman faced each other Friday for the first time in more than a year as attorneys sparred over their respective roles in a series of random, late-night attacks during the summer of 2006.
This time, however, Dieteman was working with prosecutors, telling a judge that he would take turns attacking people with his former roommate. He also described shootings he didn't witness that he said Hausner and Hausner's brother told him about.
"Just random, senseless destruction," Dieteman, 32, said of their relationship.
Dieteman already has pleaded guilty to two murders and told police he wants to die for his crimes. His plea deal will allow jurors to consider his testimony before deciding whether to give him the death penalty, however.
"It's not so much that I want to" die, Dieteman said in court. "But if that's what the people want, I'm not going to waste a bunch of time and fight it."
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Meanwhile, Hausner, 35, has denied any involvement in the shootings and stabbings that put the city on edge two years ago. He has pleaded not guilty to eight murder charges and other crimes connected to the Phoenix Police Department's Serial Shooter investigation.
His first trial, on seven of the eight murder counts and other related charges, is scheduled to begin Sept. 3.
Dieteman's testimony came as prosecutors tried to persuade a judge to let him tell all he knows of the crimes, including what he allegedly heard from Hausner, as they build their case.
Hausner's lawyer, Ken Everett, said that Dieteman is merely trying to sell out his old friend in hopes of avoiding the death penalty. The judge did not rule on what he would allow jurors to hear at trial.
"I don't believe anything when he opens his mouth," Everett said of Dieteman outside the courtroom. "He will do anything to save his own skin."
Dieteman told Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle III during the hearing about how he first met Hausner, and how they collaborated in a series of attacks that ended Aug. 3, 2006, when police pulled them from an apartment they shared in Mesa.
Almost immediately after they met, Dieteman said, they started shoplifting bottles of alcohol, music CDs and other small items that Hausner would then sell.
They turned to lighting garbage on fire, shooting out car windows with BB guns and puncturing tires. One time, Hausner had a BB gun with him as he pulled up next to a woman on the street.
"He said 'Are you working? Do you need a ride?' and she was like 'no.' And he pulled out the gun and shot her in the chest."
The killings started happening later, Dieteman said. Hausner's brother Jeff, who had introduced the two men earlier that year, also was involved in some of the attacks, Dieteman said. The Hausner brothers worried about including him, Dieteman said, and he felt he needed to beat up and attack more people to gain their confidence.
Jeff Hausner is in prison on an unrelated assault conviction and has been charged with attempted murder in one of the Serial Shooter cases. He has pleaded not guilty.
