A man accused of killing eight people and attacking 20 others during a series of late-night random shootings that terrorized the Phoenix area is a narcissist who cut out newspaper stories about his alleged shootings, a prosecutor said Monday.
Prosecutor Vincent Imbordino told jurors at the opening of Dale Hausner's murder trial that people in metropolitan Phoenix were frightened by the shootings. Hausner, one of two men arrested in the "Serial Shooters" case, has pleaded not guilty in eight killings and 20 other attacks that occurred during 2005 and 2006.
Hausner's attorneys were expected to make their opening statements Monday afternoon.
During opening statements by prosecutors, jurors were shown a slide show of the victims, including Tony Mendez, who was fatally shot in 2005 when he was riding his bicycle along a downtown street.
"The bullet tore through his heart, and he bled to death right there in the street," Imbordino said.
Samuel Dieteman, Hausner's self-described accomplice who pleaded guilty earlier this year to two murders in the case, plans to testify against his former roommate.
Hausner and Dieteman were arrested Aug. 3, 2006, in their apartment, where investigators found numerous firearms, news clippings of the Serial Shooters investigation, and a map of the city marked with what police said are locations of some of the attacks.
The Serial Shooters case was one of two serial murder investigations that put the Phoenix area on edge for months during the summer of 2006. Police attributed another 23 attacks, including nine slayings, to an assailant dubbed the Baseline Killer.
A month after Hausner and Dieteman's arrests, police arrested Mark Goudeau and eventually accused him of being the Baseline Killer. Goudeau was convicted of two sexual assaults authorities link to the Baseline Killer. He was sentenced to 438 years in prison in that case and still faces trial on the murder counts.