The arrest last year of a man suspected of committing nearly 10 sexual assaults across Arizona more than 20 years ago was welcomed news to victims and investigators alike. But as first reported in March, the prosecutions of John Joseph Daly III have proceeded at a snail’s pace for a variety of reasons.
Daly, a retired U.S. Border Patrol supervisor, remains in jail in Cochise County where is he charged with committing a sexual assault in Bisbee in 2001. He will transported from Bisbee to a Maricopa County courtroom on Oct. 18 for a pretrial conference in a case that includes charges from three unrelated sexual assaults which occurred in 1999 and 2000 across the East Valley.
But before that, Daly is required to attend a Sept. 19 pretrial conference in a Cochise County courtroom where a fight has been playing out since shortly after his May 2021 arrest by a taskforce headed by the Mesa Police Department.
Attorney Nathan Hogle, who is defending Daly in both counties, suggested earlier this year that Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre was not complying with standard court rules requiring the disclosure of potential evidence connected to the Oct. 2, 2001, sexual assault of a woman at the Gym Club Apartments in Bisbee.
In that incident, a woman awoke around 4 a.m. to find a man on top of her in bed. Investigators believe the man entered the unit through an open window before blindfolding the 25-year-old tenant before beating, choking, and sexually assaulting her until she was able to run from her apartment and get help from a neighbor until police arrived.
DNA evidence was gathered from the woman and the apartment, but Hogle alleges the original DNA profile went missing at some point, either from the Bisbee Police Department or the crime lab. Hogle has spent months demanding the remaining evidentiary swabs be tested and that McIntyre provide a lengthy list of potential evidence, including the DNA profiles of the crime lab personnel.
On July 26, Judge Timothy Dickerson ordered the disputed swabs to be tested but denied defense counsel’s demand for more information. It could take weeks for the results to be available.
No trial date has been set in the Cochise County case because the plan is for Daly to stand trial in Maricopa County as the alleged offenses there occurred before Bisbee. Whether that trial will happen yet this year in the Maricopa County case could be announced at next month’s pretrial conference.
The delay brought about by the DNA evidence dispute is bringing renewed attention to whether enough has been done to determine if Daly was connected with two other incidents around the same time in 2001 as the Gym Club Apartments assault.
Arizona Daily Independent has confirmed a 28-year-old Bisbee woman called police Sept. 18, 2001, to report receiving three sexually suggestive letters at her post office box. The letters, which were postmarked at the Copper Queen Post Office, were typed but the envelopes were handwritten.
There was a unique handwritten signature line, according to the responding officer’s report.
That officer, Keith Roberts, also mentions in his report that he found “dry fluid spatter” on the outside of the windows of the woman’s home located on Opera Drive. The material appeared to be ejaculate, the officer noted.
Roberts took the letters as evidence and advised the woman that Bisbee Det. Bennie Scott would call her. That is the last entry in the police report, according to a public records request submitted to the City of Bisbee.
In an interview shortly after Daly’s arrest last summer, the now retired detective recalled the Opera Drive case and the three letters, but did not believe a suspect was identified, either officially or unofficially.
Scott did recall the letters were taken into evidence and believes they would have been sent at the time to a crime lab for review. He also recalled trying to pull fingerprints from the windows, but was not sure if anyone collected scrapings of the dry white material from the windows.
The City of Bisbee provided nothing to explain what came of the 2001 letters or any other evidence from the Opera Drive case.
Another public record released by the city shows a second incident of interest was reported to police the week after the break-in and sexual assault at the Gym Club Apartments.
The police report shows officers responded to a different apartment complex around 3 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2001, after neighbors reported hearing a woman scream. The 29-year-old woman told officers she was awaken from sleep to find a man with a husky build, big shoulders, and stocky arms coming in her window.
A neighbor also witnessed a man with the same description running from the scene, then-Sgt. Robert Coronado wrote in his report.
The woman told officers she tried several times to call 911 but could not get a call to go through. She also reported the intruder was dressed all in black and wore a ski mask and gloves.
“I went outside and looked at the phone box located on the side of the apartment,” Coronado wrote. “I noticed that the phone cable connected to the apartment had been cut. I explained that this person obviously knew she was home with the T.V. on and her windows open.”
Fast forward two decades, and Sgt. Carlos Moreno is now the case detective for the Daly prosecution in Cochise County. He was asked last year about the possibility either of the other two reports from 2001 could have been connected to Daly, particularly the attempted break-in based on the physical description of the suspect.
Public records show Daly weighed about 350 pounds and stood 6 foot 2 inches when booked into the Cochise County jail in May 2021. An inquiry to USBP for a review of Daly’s personnel file or even Department of Motor Vehicle records would likely provide an indication of his weight in 2001.
Moreno replied there was no reason to believe the two earlier 2001 cases were connected to Daly. He then referred any additional questions to the Cochise County Attorney’s Office without commenting on whether he attempted to find the letters which presumably would provide handwriting and even DNA evidence.
A lawsuit the Bisbee victim filed against Daly shortly after his arrest last year is also impacted by the slow resolution of the criminal cases. Earlier this year a judge stayed, or put on hold, the lawsuit until Daly’s other cases are resolved.
