An Affair Starts in Vons and Ends in Homicide
(“Sign Here,” Forensic Files)
This week’s recap takes a look at two awful people who killed one nice person.
“Sign Here” tells the story of Sherri Dally’s murder at the hands of her husband and the woman he was having an affair with.
Famous trial. In addition to sharing the standard forbidden-fruit attraction, Diana Haun and Michael Dally had a common interest in macabre things, like wounding people with knives.
Yikes.
Because gory details aren’t my favorite part of murder narratives, for this post I’ll concentrate on the courtroom drama. (One account from the time of the trials said that anyone who wasn’t following the story must live under a rock, but I don’t think it got much coverage beyond the West Coast.)
I also checked into the murderers’ whereabouts today.
But first here’s a recap of the Forensic Files episode along with additional information drawn from internet research:
Diana Haun, 36, was a former model who enjoyed using makeup, wigs, and costumes to change her appearance drastically.
Backgrounds in common. For whatever reason, she ended up as a deli clerk at Vons supermarket in Oxnard, California, near her hometown of Port Hueneme.
Michael, also 36, worked as a manager at the same store. Coincidentally, Diana and Michael both had mothers originally from Japan and fathers who were U.S. servicemen.
The two probably had a lot of stories to share and, somewhere amid dispensing quarter pounds of thick-sliced provolone and spreading cream cheese on everything bagels, they worked up a passion for each other.
They carried on a conspicuous affair despite that Michael was married with two small sons, Devon, 8, and Max, 6.
He and his wife, born Sherri Renee Guess, 35, had met in high school.
Sherri’s mother, Karlyne Guess, who appeared on both Forensic Files and a Fatal Vows episode about the case, described Sherri as a typical California girl active in 4-H, Brownies, and Pioneer Girls.
Mr. Popular. School friends remembered Michael — whose nickname was Hawaiian Mike although he didn’t come from Hawaii — as charming. He had thick black hair and a smooth, tan complexion.
Sherri was crazy about the guy.
He won over her family, too. The two married in 1982.
But by the 1990s, the bloom was off the rose for Michael. “The marriage was marked by her fidelity and Michael Dally’s infidelity,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
In addition to having affairs, Michael patronized prostitutes and used cocaine.
Thankless spouse. It’s painful to read about the kind, generous things Sherri did in hopes of saving her marriage to this loser — like the time she washed and waxed Michael’s car while he was at Diana Haun’s house.
Although news outlets often described Sherri as a homemaker, she also operated a day care business with her friend Debbie English.
Despite Sherri’s virtue and devotion, by 1996, Michael wanted out of the marriage.
Cruel blueprint. He and Diana came up with a plan. She would disguise herself as a law officer and fool Sherri into thinking she was under arrest so she’d allow Diana to handcuff her and put her in a rental vehicle.
It worked.
The kidnapping happened in a Target parking lot in Ventura on May 6, 1996.
After the abduction, Diana beat and stabbed Sherri to death, possibly even decapitating her. Then, Michael reported his wife missing and presented himself as a distraught husband to the media.
That worked, too, for a while.
But then he began doing things like trying to get rid of Sherri’s possessions while she was still missing.
Disguise-shopping. And while Michael was supposed to be anxiously awaiting word about Sherri, police found him holed up in Diana’s apartment. He was shirtless and she had lingerie on.
Investigators turned their attention toward the two, and evidence began streaming in.
Witnesses remembered that Diana bought a blond wig, fake police badge, and handcuffs prior to the murder, and she was seen near the ravine where searchers discovered Sherri’s remains on June 1, 1996.
Sherri’s blood was found in the teal vehicle Diana rented. A local dry cleaner told investigators about receiving an anonymous phone call around the time of the murder from someone asking how to remove blood from a car seat.
“It’s all him.” And colleagues from Vons had plenty of stories to dish up about the adulterer and his girlfriend.
Diana Haun’s trial took place first.
Lawyers for the skinny, startled-looking defendant, who faced capital punishment, said that Michael took advantage of her love and tricked her into killing Sherri.
Witness after witness. But the forensic evidence pretty much added up to a flashing arrow of guilt pointing at Diana.
About 30 Ventura law officers had worked on the investigation, and 125 witnesses testified.
In addition to the evidence in the car, the police found Diana in possession of a pen with green ink, the same color she used to sign the car rental contract.
The jury also learned that, while Diana was a genius of disguise, she was a dim bulb as a hitwoman.
She used a check to pay for her wig and other do-it-yourself murder items. And she wrote it in green ink.
On September 26, 1997, a jury found Diana Haun guilty of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder.
LA Times writer Mack Reed described the jubilation after the verdict:
“The detectives laughed and hugged and laughed some more. The victim’s mother cried, then smiled. [Diana Haun’s] family sat still in the courtroom, ashen-faced.”
Spectators watching a feed of the decision outside the courthouse broke into cheers, the LA Times reported.
Diana Haun got life without parole.
Ms. Moneybags. Tried separately, Michael faced the death penalty, even though no forensic evidence tied him directly to the crime scene. Prosecutors brought him up on special charges of lying in wait and committing the crime for financial gain.
Michael’s defense lawyer Robert Schwartz denied that Michael wanted to avoid a costly divorce and benefit from Sherri’s $50,000 life insurance policy. He already had a wealthy girlfriend, Schwartz contended.
Diana Haun had an annuity worth $1 million thanks to a settlement over an injury sustained in high school. A basketball backboard fell onto her head and put her in a coma for three months. She was receiving $1,077 a month and it was to continue until she turned 65.
“It was all her.” Schwartz blamed Haun for the killing. “This plan was designed, conceived, and carried out by this psycho, crazed whacked-out witch, Diana Haun,” he said.
(She definitely had an interest in witchcraft, but it’s worrisome to see it used as evidence of blood lust — witchcraft is part of the recognized religion of Wicca, which forbids harming others.)
The defense contended that Sherri and Michael Dally were in the process of reconciling and Haun went rogue to stop it.
But witnesses said Michael had spoken of wanting to get out of the marriage.
Father interferes. Debbie English testified that Michael inadvertently made a remark indicating he had prior knowledge of where the body was buried.
She also told the court that Michael’s father, Lawrence Dally, had tried to discourage her from talking to investigators about Michael.
Sallie Lowe, one of Michael’s ex-girlfriends, had even more damning information to share. She said Michael had choked her on two occasions and tried to coerce her into giving him money.
“He just wanted [Sherri] to disappear,” Lowe told the court. “There were times he talked about stabbing her with a knife, but not only stabbing her — twisting the knife to cause pain.”
Tainted jury? Lawrence Dally’s testimony that Michael was actually with him when prosecutors contended he was planning the crime with Diana Haun didn’t make much of a dent in the prosecution’s case.
Michael’s trial ended with a murder conviction in April 1998.
The defense pressed for a different jury to determine Michael’s sentence — his trial verdict elicited a lot of cheering from spectators, just as Diana’s had, and there was concern it tainted the jury.
But the same jury was used during the penalty phase two months later.
Sherri’s mother, Karlyne Guess, read a statement in court about how the graphic visions of the murder haunted her.
Throw away the key. There was talk in the defense camp of putting the Dallys’ older son on the stand to dissuade the judge from giving the death penalty. To their credit, they decided against it.
A judge gave Michael Dally life without parole and ordered him to pay the Guess family $15,000.
As far as post-sentencing activity, Diana made some effort early on.
Not loving prison. In October of 2000, she appealed on the grounds that the court had been allowed to hear prejudicial evidence, like that fact that she had a prior affair with another married man and practiced witchcraft.
That train went to Nowhereville, and Haun is still serving her time in Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.
Michael made news as recently as September 2018, when he requested clemency from the state of California. The governor reportedly assigned an investigator to look into the matter, according to the VC Star.
In the meantime, his status is LWOP at California State Prison in Lancaster.
Defense debts. As for Sherri Dally’s sons, Max and Devon, they lived with their paternal grandparents after the murder.
In March of 1998, Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Lane awarded the kids $6.4 million in a judgment against Diana Haun, although it’s unclear whether they saw any of the money. Diana already owed $202,000 to her defense attorneys, according to the LA Times.
As an adult, Devon Dally appeared briefly on the ID Network’s The Murder of Sherri Dally, and said that he believes his father is innocent. Devon also said that Sherri was a great mother and he remembers life with his parents as happy.
Max Dally hasn’t done any media that could be located online. He appears to have a career in the security industry.
You can watch an an episode of the New Detectives that includes a segment on the Sherri Dally case for free on YouTube, but it costs $1.99 to view Fatal Vows: A Lonely Place. (Neither show is as good as Forensic Files, but is anything?)
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube or Amazon Prime.
Thanks, RR: this ep was recently aired in the UK (though such need is irrelevant in the ‘interweb’ age, I know…) What struck me in the ep was Dally’s ghastly arrogance (narcissism) – his apparent assumption he was God’s gift to women! Why? He was a diminutive squirt – his own number 1 fan. Yet – incomprehensibly – a number of women seemed to find him attractive…
Sherri’s murder was appalling – of course. But one has to wonder why women such as Sherri were attracted to such SEEMINGLY (is that the rub…?) obviously flawed men in the first place, then, knowing them, why they stayed… I’m absolutely NOT blaming the victims – they are victims, period – but is there some culpability of the order of naivety, stupidy or plain bad taste in staying with this transparently horrible man?
What a creep Dally is: he oozes it on FF. But I don’t understand why Sherri or the appalling Haun thought him worth a dime – physically, psychologically, spiritually – whatever… Dally seems to have had some sort of hold on women. What???
I hope he rots in prison for his total use of women for his own pleasure…
He probably had a certain Menudo teen-idol appeal to girls. But I agree that it’s hard to imagine why adult women would be drawn to this low-life.
RR: I think you’re being a bit ‘PC’ here:
“She definitely had an interest in witchcraft, but it’s worrisome to see it used as evidence of blood lust — witchcraft is part of the recognized religion of Wicca, which forbids harming others.”
It’s not worrisome. Witchcraft MAY be (part of) the ‘religion’ (its recognition as a religion or otherwise is debatable) of Wicca, but certainly need not be Wicca and so not a ‘religion.’ And the fact – if it is – that Wicca forbids harm is neither here nor there as this particular follower may have had a ‘perverse’ understanding of Wicca/witchcraft as justifying her actions.
My point: her understanding of witchcraft (rather than your interpolation that it was Wicca – why must it be?) may have induced-blood-lust. We can’t say. As we can’t say, better not to defend/condemn witchcraft at all. It’s entirely irrelevant to her crime (even if not to her motivation).
I guess she could have been practicing witchcraft outside of Wicca or twisting one or the other into evil-doing.
But Wicca is definitely an official religion in the U.S. The families of armed services veterans get to pick from dozens of religious symbols for vets’ government-provided tombstones, and Wicca is on the list.
The guy, Michael Dally’s real problem was he was extremely egotistical. He thought he was so good looking that he could get any thing or any woman he wanted. He was alright looking, however, we had a guy named Mike Rezzoffi at our high school that made him look ugly. Egotism can make people think they can do do anything they want. It’s totally a facade. Don’t get me wrong, being good looking can get help you in life but you can’t kill your wife and get away with it. The son of a bith had two handsome boys who I understand think he is innocent. I hate to bring them the cold hard truth. He is not innocent. He is a sorry piece of shit and I hope his pretty little ass has gotten raped in prison.
Thanks, RR. Paganism, under which term Wicca et al sits, is sometimes referred to as a religion, sometimes as a New Religious Movement. Regardless, my point was just that we can’t say what form of witchcraft she adhered to (black, white, whatever) so there’s nothing to defend on your part. I appreciate that you were trying to be fair (in a liberal sort of a way)!
The excision of ‘Asian’ in my post can be let go: it wasn’t relevant to my point, though is of course a fact (more or less): Asian men are small! Facts cannot be un-PC.
We agree on the important thing: Dally was a total creep and Haun possibly worse!
I get what you’re saying — maybe I’m a little defensive because we had a family member go pagan for a while (not sure whether or not she stayed with it).
You should visit NYC more — we have short and tall men of all races here.
Great phrase: genius of disguise, she was a dim bulb as a hitwoman.
Thanks — you or I could have done a much better job, to be sure!
The two of them were/are so incredibly stupid, their attempts at disguising what they did, i.e., the green ink, signing for the rental car, his blatant and arrogant demeanor, being together right after this poor woman went missing, etc. etc., would be laughable were it not so tragic.
They both are beyond despicable and redeemable and should have received the death penalty.
I wonder why the boys lived with their paternal grandparents. Perhaps Devon would think differently if he had lived with his maternal grandparents.
I really enjoy your site. Please keep writing. I think I’ve watched each FF episode at least 4 times.
Thanks for the kind words, Lynda — so glad you like the blog!
I completely agree with you re: the two sons. Why or how did they ever end up being raised by the lunatic murderer NPD so called “father”? I would think that Sherri’s mother and father would be the likely most preferred people to raise these poor boys!! I’m shocked and saddened that they think Daddy is innocent! Of course look who raised them! Tragedy all around l!
Rebecca: Can’t resist sending this re height of different nationalities’ people. Michael Dally looks relatively short to me, and this shows that Asian men are, on average, amongst the shortest. You having demurred at that comment earlier, and with the best defence, if I may say so, to PC censorship being fact, here goes! Of course, empirical facts in themselves cannot be ‘offensive’, so there is no need for censorship. They may be irrelevant – but the removal of them merely draws attention to them and raises the question of why anything irrelevant in any post remains (ie, is the editing merely arbitrary). The UK hasn’t quite caught up with North-American correctness sensibilities – but we ain’t far behind.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/the-tallest-and-shortest-countries-in-the-world/
“You should visit NYC more — we have short and tall men of all races here.” Maybe NYC men are unrepresentative of the fact (I’d use a ‘wink’ emoji here if I could….)
Oh, I know certain ethnicities average shorter heights — I just don’t like to generalize.
Thanks for sending map. I was surprised Sweden and Finland didn’t make the top 10.
How can I add a byline to the beginning of my blog posts?
I think it requires a plug-in.
I thought I had it bad 25 years ago when one day my wife packed up everything I owned and took my car and left for good but after binge watching FF for the last month or so and hearing about all these spouses murdering each other, I’m thankful she left me alive! Now all I have to do is avoid being “in the wrong place at the wrong time” which make up the other 1/3rd of these cases since I’m too old for a pedo-abduction!
Be assured that, statistically, being in the wrong location/time accounts for many fewer than one-third of cases of murder (where the perp is identified). You are (i) highly likely to know (ii) him (and vice-versa) in most cases as an intimate or family and (iii) be in a dynamic of love/hate/conferring financial advantage. There’s around a 75% chance they’ll shoot you, with fire (arson-you present) and poison following-up. If white you are six times less likely to be murdered than if black (perps are eight times more likely to be black). Around 10% of murdered men were killed by women.
PS What was most unusual in this case was that the woman took the lead in the murder, with a man in cahoots. Women kill far fewer other women than men – and this was deeply, viciously unusual: stabbing and beating – “crazed witch” sounds about right.
“…somewhere amid dispensing quarter pounds of thick-sliced provolone and spreading cream cheese on everything bagels, they worked up a passion for each other.” Hopefully they now only dream about cream cheese bagels when served with sweaty baloney on cheap white bread and margarine. As to any passions being worked up, best not to think…
Such a tragedy – and the saddest besides losing her daughter is Karlyne Guess not having a relationship with her grandsons Max & Devon. Why???
J: Indeed; I think none of us can comprehend how a parent kills his/her spouse when they have young (particularly) children: an act of the grossest selfishness in depriving them of a parent and placing their immediate desires first. The victim’s loss will be terribly felt by his or her parents, of course; but one’s sympathy is greatest for the children who lose a parent at the other’s hand. May all such children be blessed by God, with those who take them in to try to provide them with that parent’s missing love and care (both, when the perp is incarcerated).
Jules who??
Michael Dally should be killed outright as should his slut whore. Get real.
As with others here I’m incredulous that some idiot judge (who should’ve been removed from the bench instantly and locked up with Haun with an axe then tossed on the floor…last one alive gets to walk etc) handed the children over to the parents of the father who killed their mother. Brilliant.
As to the weasel ‘Dully’, in his self-glorified hubris he probably thought it his due that the crazed strumpet Haun be dispatched to the task of killing Sherri as he laid back in his Hawai’i Mike persona like a diminutive pasha of some lame cult. May all his prison showers be long, bewigged and brutal.