Daniel Patrick Hauser

Case details

Daniel Patrick Hauser was from Dublin, California and was adopted.

He pleaded no-contest to First Degree Murder after confessing that he had randomly chosen his victim. He said he strangled the woman to satisfy a longtime urge to kill.

The offence

The victim was Melanie Rodrigues, 21. She worked at a convenience store and at Sammy's, a topless bar. She worked at Sammy’s on the Island in Fort Walton Beach and left work at 2 a.m. on January 1, 1995. She did not report for work later that day.

Her partially nude body was found two days later beneath a bed in Room 223 of the EconoLodge near Sammy’s, in a Fort Walton Beach area motel room less than a mile from Sammy’s. The victim had been strangled.

Investigation

Hauser confessed to the killing after he was arrested in Reno, Nevada, on Feb. 10, 1995, on a charge of stealing a pickup truck in North Carolina.

Motel records showed that Room 223 had last been rented to Hauser.

Rodrigues’ car keys, house key, and underpants were found in his truck.

Hauser’s fingerprint was found on a cigarette package next to her body.

After Hauser’s arrest, he told Stan Griggs, the lead Okaloosa County Sheriff’s detective in the case, that he believed in the death penalty.

He told investigators that he had been in Fort Walton Beach at the time of the murder, had visited several bars that night, but could not recall the latter part of the evening because he had been too drunk.

He also told Jim Tongue, his public defender in Fort Walton Beach, that he did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Tongue said:

"He admitted what he had done and said that he basically believes in the system and he should take his punishment," Tongue said. "He did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison."

Arrest

Hauser was arrested in Reno, Nevada, on Feb.

Trial

Hauser waived all appeals, claiming to be a "believer" in the death penalty.

At the plea hearing, Hauser admitted his guilt and the judge accepted his plea.

Before sentencing, Hauser submitted a written request to meet with Investigator Griggs. When Griggs went to the jail, Hauser handed him a handwritten note containing the following statement:

On Dec. 31st at around 4:00 p.m. I started going to the local bars looking for a girl I could get to come back to my room. I went to all the strip joints in the area, but spent most of my time at Sammy’s on the Island. When I first went to Sammy’s I noticed one girl who seemed new and a little uneasy. So I kept up with what she was doing. For a few hours I had her and a couple other girls dance for me and also sat at the stage. I left and started going to the other clubs and bars, but there wasn’t anything going on anywhere else so around 12:00-12:30 am I went back to Sammy’s. I knew Satin had to have cash, I had given her around $100-150 during the night. After watching her for a while I knew if there was going to be anyone who I could get back to my room this would be the one. She was small, easy to overpower and new yet still making money. For the next few hours I had her and a couple of other girls dance for me, then at around 2:00-2:30 I asked her if she wanted to make a couple hundred dollars to come back to my hotel room with me. . . . . . We went inside and she took off her clothes and started to dance, after dancing for awhile she came over to where I was sitting on the bed and grabbed at my pants, so I stood up and took off my clothes and we got onto the bed and had sex. We lay in bed for awhile then she got up and danced a little longer then had sex again. She lay next to me for around 30-45 minutes then said she had to get going home. So I stood up at the end of the bed and asked her to give me a hug. I was standing there in front of her thinking this is my last chance, if I want to kill her I am going to have to do it now! So just as we pulled apart I put my hands around her neck and threw her on the bed. I came down on top of her waist and pinned down her arms with my elbows. I put only enough pressure so she could not scream. I wanted to watch the fear in her eyes. I let up so she could take a breath and just stared at her while she started to lose consciousness, then let her breathe again and said well this is it. I put as much pressure as I could and held it until she gave this shake and her body tensed up then went limp. To make sure she was dead I didn’t let go for awhile. I put my ear to her chest to make certain I couldn’t hear a heart beat.

Sentencing

Hauser was condemned to death.

Appeals

Hauser, by his next friends Zainna Fawnn Crawford, and Gregory C. Smith, Capital Collateral Counsel, petitioned versus Michael Moore, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, and James Crosby, Warden, Florida State Prison.

The Florida Supreme Court dismissed a motion by a 4-3 vote for lack of standing, and this allowed the execution to proceed, while stating that Hauser could halt it at any time.

After the dismissal, the Capital Collateral Counsel office filed a petition asking for a rehearing of the issue.

A U.S. District Court issued a stay of execution based on the petition filed against Hauser’s wishes. Judge Stephan Mickle granted a stay to allow himself enough time for a "meaningful review".

This stay was lifted by a federal court and the execution was rescheduled for August 25.

Outcome

Hauser was executed by lethal injection in Florida on August 25, 2000.

He was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m.

Aftermath / related proceedings

Gov. Jeb Bush signed a death warrant ordering Hauser’s execution by lethal injection.

Hauser requested that he not be forced to have a lawyer for an appeal he opposed, and asked the Supreme Court to direct Gregory Smith “not to interfere, or try to force representation on me.”

Hauser wrote:

"Attempts to represent me against my will only serve to add to the suffering of the victim's family and my family"

Hauser wrote:

not to interfere, or try to force representation on me.

He also sent a handwritten rebuttal after an emergency petition was filed, calling it:

"last minute, hail-Mary approach to scare this court into backing anti-death-penalty crusaders' attempt to define justice as they see fit."

Tim Schardl said:

"The only question is whether the state of Florida is going to be the means by which Dan Hauser is going to commit suicide,"

Bruce Winick said:

"If he is competent, he can make the decision, because it is his life," Winick said. "But when a life is at stake, the state should examine him."

Schardl wrote:

"Mr. Hauser's death sentence is based entirely and exclusively on information that is provided by Mr. Hauser that is false," Schardl wrote.

Schardl also wrote:

"The basis for his death sentence is invalid, based on falsehoods deliberately perpetrated by Mr. Hauser, in an effort to subvert the course of justice . . . and in order to enlist the state in his grandiose attempt at suicide,"

In a phone interview, Schardl said:

"We know he made up evidence to make it a death penalty case."

Rodrigues’ mother said she remained filled with anguish over the loss of her only child.

Pamela Belford said:

"He's not going to put another family through this," she said. "He's not going to take a beautiful human being and take her life."

Hauser’s adoptive parents visited him on death row.

A Tallahassee lawyer Hauser fired, Robert Augustus Harper, said:

"Those who commit murder are a different kind of people," said Robert Augustus Harper, a Tallahassee lawyer Hauser fired. "To commit self-murder is in effect what is being allowed here, using the instrument of the state instead of a piece of a bedsheet."

Elizabeth Hirst said:

"There were no complications."

Timeline

• Feb. 10, 1995 — Hauser was arrested in Reno, Nevada, on a charge of stealing a pickup truck in North Carolina.
• Jan. 1, 1995 — Rodrigues left work at Sammy's on the Island at 2 a.m.; she did not report for work later that day.
• (Two days later) — Rodrigues’ partially nude body was found beneath a bed in Room 223 of the EconoLodge near Sammy’s.
• Dec. 31st (year referenced in Hauser’s note) — Hauser described starting at around 4:00 p.m. going to local bars looking for a girl to come back to his room, according to his handwritten note to Investigator Griggs.
• June 29, 2000 — Gov. Jeb Bush signed a death warrant ordering Hauser’s execution.
• Aug. 18, 2000 — The Florida Supreme Court dismissed the motion by a 4-3 vote for lack of standing.
• Aug. 22, 2000 — A stay of execution was issued by a U.S. District Court based on a petition filed against Hauser’s wishes.
• Aug. 24, 2000 — A federal court lifted the stay and execution was rescheduled for August 25.
• Aug. 25, 2000 — Hauser was executed by lethal injection; he was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m.

Other details

Hauser’s case was docketed in the Florida Supreme Court, including:

• Florida Supreme Court Briefs and Opinions Docket #87580: Dan Patrick Hauser, Appellant, vs. State of Florida, Appellee (701 So. 2d 329).
• Docket #SC00-1664 and SC00-1665: Dan Patrick Hauser, by his next friends Zainna Fawnn Crawford, and Gregory C. Smith, Capital Collateral Counsel, Petitioner, vs. Michael Moore, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, and James Crosby, Warden, Florida State Prison, Respondents (767 So. 2d 436).

Hauser was visited on death row by his adoptive parents, identified as a California college teacher and a copier salesman.

Hauser had been appointed an attorney to “stand by” in case he wanted legal advice.

Hauser was described as having a bipolar manic depressive condition by Gregory C. Smith, who contended that medication was needed and that this made Hauser legally incompetent to represent himself and waive appeals.

The Capital Collateral Counsel filings described a March 1999 psychological examination and argued Hauser was not competent to abandon his appeals.

Hauser said he understood everything that was going on in a conference call with Circuit Judge Thomas Remington, and Remington agreed with Hauser that he was competent to represent himself and drop all appeals.

Authorities believed Hauser arrived in Okaloosa County on Friday, Dec. 31, 1994, and rented a room at the Edgewater Apartments in Fort Walton Beach.

A confessional account described Hauser renting the Econo Lodge room and, after Rodrigues’ killing, stashing Rodrigues’ body under a bed and cleaning up the room, then beginning driving west; officers tracked him to an RV park in Reno, Nevada.

Hauser told Stan Griggs about liking the feeling of power over Rodrigues while he was killing her and thinking about killing other women before and afterward, but he said he did not because “things just didn’t work out,” as remembered by Griggs.

Hauser told Griggs:

"I've always been for the death penalty, and I'm not going to change my mind because I'm in hot water," Griggs remembered last week.

Since executions resumed in 1979, Hauser was described as the fifth Florida inmate executed by lethal injection in that year and the 49th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979.

The Orlando-style prison execution statistics stated that prisoners executed in Florida since 1976 spent an average of 11.3 years on death row; Hauser was described as having been on death row for 4 1/2 years.