PHOENIX - Jurors began deliberating Thursday in the trial of a man accused of killing eight people and attacking 20 others in dozens of random nighttime shootings in metropolitan Phoenix.
The deliberations at the nearly six-month trial of "Serial Shooter" suspect Dale Hausner began shortly after a prosecutor wrapped up closing arguments.
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Hausner, 36, is accused of randomly attacking people and animals in 2005 and 2006 from his car in a conspiracy that occasionally included his brother, Jeff Hausner, and his roommate, Samuel Dieteman.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against Dale Hausner if he's convicted. Testifying in his own defense, Hausner denied any involvement in the attacks and suggested that Dieteman may have carried out some of them.
Prosecutor Vince Imbordino told jurors not to believe anything Hausner said on the stand. "They were all lies," Imbordino said.
Tim Agan, one of Hausner's attorneys, declined to comment on the prosecutor's closing arguments on Thursday. But another Hausner lawyer, who made closing arguments Wednesday, told jurors that Dieteman's testimony against his client isn't credible, because Dieteman, who pleaded guilty to two of the killings, was trying to save himself from the death penalty.
In January, Dieteman told jurors that he and Hausner had driven around metro Phoenix shooting people from a car. Dieteman also had said he didn't take part in all the attacks.
The six-man, six-woman jury was expected to continue deliberations Friday morning. Over the course of the trial, jurors heard from 150 witnesses and looked at more than 1,100 pieces of evidence.
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.
