PHOENIX — A man who was arrested as part of a serial-killing investigation was sentenced Friday to 7 1/2 years in prison for stabbing a homeless man.
Jeff Hausner, 40, has since been cleared as a suspect in the string of random attacks that led to murder charges against his brother, Dale Hausner, and former roommate, Samuel Dieteman. Prosecutors now say Jeff Hausner acted alone when he attacked a man outside a supermarket last year.
"I made a very bad spur-of-the-moment decision," Hausner said at a hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court. "I'm not some kind of monster."
Hausner pleaded guilty to an aggravated assault charge in March. In his plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop an attempted murder charge.
His arrest received intense media attention because Dieteman, 31, and Dale Hausner were charged in a 14-month shooting spree that wounded at least 17 people and left seven others dead, according to police. The random late-night street shootings caused fear across metropolitan Phoenix and led to the creation of a hundreds-strong police task force.
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Dieteman is charged with two of the killings and Dale Hausner, 34, is charged with seven killings in the Serial Shooter case. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against the pair.
During Friday's hearing, Hausner's parents, Eugene and Rosemarie Hausner, spoke publicly for the first time about the serial-shootings case. They asked Judge Andrew Klein to be lenient on Jeff.
Other family members echoed that Jeff Hausner was known for bringing vagrants and stray dogs into his home. One of those people was Dieteman, who lived with him for several months in 2005 and 2006.
According to police, Jeff Hausner was with Dieteman on April 14, 2006, when he attacked a homeless man. When the man asked Hausner for money, Jeff Hausner turned around and stabbed him in the stomach.
The man has since recovered from his injuries.
