Informant in serial case breaks silence on suspect

Seven people were killed and 17 were hurt in random attacks, police say.
PHOENIX (AP) -- As the city shuttered itself in fear of serial killers this summer, Ron Horton found himself having an odd conversation with an old drinking buddy.
"Let me ask you something," Horton remembers his friend, Samuel John Dieteman, sliding over to tell him between beers in June. "Do you know what it's like to kill a man?"
"How would I know?"
"Well," Horton recalls Dieteman saying, "neither did I until the last few months."
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Horton said Dieteman described how he and a friend poked shotguns out car windows and blasted at people.
"They called it 'RV'ing,"' Horton said. "Random Recreational Violence."
Horton led police to Dieteman, 31, and Dale Hausner, 33, who were charged this summer with slayings attributed to the so-called Serial Shooter. Police say seven people were killed and 17 wounded in the random attacks across the area dating to May 2005.
Horton's role as an informant was confirmed through a nonpolice source with access to documents from the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said help from the public was critical to solving the case. Dieteman, who is jailed, has not responded to repeated interview requests made through authorities.
Horton, 48, still shakes his head when thinking about his conversation with Dieteman at the Rib Shop, a west Phoenix bar.
He said he thought Dieteman was lying. Horton's suspicions grew in July, when he says Dieteman sent him a text message saying he was angry and that somebody was going to get hurt.
Went to police
He went to police later that month, after hearing from a friend about the Serial Shooter, blamed at that point for five slayings and the deaths of several dogs and horses. No one had been killed since Dieteman's conversation with Horton but several people had been wounded.
Finding Dieteman was a problem, Horton said. His living situation changed often -- he lived with Horton in fall 2005 -- and he had just changed his cell phone number.
Horton finally found Dieteman's new number through a friend and started text messaging him July 30.
Dieteman was slow to answer. When he did, he only left short, vague responses. Horton tried again.
That night, 22-year-old Robin Blasnek was shot to death while walking along a street in Mesa. The news crushed Horton, who called police and promised to be more aggressive.
Horton kept text messaging Dieteman, who finally agreed to meet at the Stardust bar in Glendale.
Undercover officers watched as Horton drove Dieteman to another bar, then to a casino on the Gila River Indian Reservation. It was getting late, and Horton asked Dieteman to get a ride home from Hausner, Dieteman's roommate at the time.
He left his old friend at the casino. Dieteman and Hausner were arrested two days later, Aug. 3.
Dieteman has been charged with two counts of murder -- and Hausner is charged with seven counts of murder. Both have pleaded innocent.
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