Dittrick Feared `Secret' Could Hurt Her -- Slain Woman's Friend Tells Of Meeting

REDMOND / KINGSGATE

A month before she was killed last year, Stephanie Dittrick told a friend that she had a "secret" and that she was worried something would happen to her because of it.

The secret concerned the death of Arlene Jensen, John Johnson testified yesterday during the double-murder trial of Gary Ackley in King County Superior Court.

Ackley is accused of killing 53-year-old Jensen, his girlfriend's mother, on May 26 last year, then killing 29-year-old Dittrick, of Redmond, two months later.

In court yesterday, Johnson said Dittrick called him in June 1997, saying she needed to talk. The two met in a Redmond tavern, and Dittrick brought up Jensen's slaying, Johnson told the jury.

But when Dittrick said she was scared something also would happen to her, Johnson testified that he told her to stop.

"I told her I didn't want to know about it, talk about it, or hear about it. . . . I was afraid for her and me," Johnson said.

Johnson shook his head in what appeared to be frustration over his testimony. In pre-trial interviews he had told detectives that Dittrick also mentioned Ackley during their conversation, asking questions such as "Do you think Gary Ackley could do that?" or "Do you think Gary Ackley would hurt me?"

But with the jury out of the courtroom, Judge Norma Huggins ruled that Johnson could not testify about those parts of the conversation.

Huggins made a similar ruling last week when Dan Monise, another friend of Dittrick's, testified about a conversation with Dittrick in which, he said, she told him Ackley confessed.

Under cross-examination, Ackley's attorneys pointed out that Johnson and Dittrick both had been drinking when they spoke. They also noted that Johnson could be biased because he and Ackley have not gotten along for years.

The defense has argued that Ackley did not kill either woman and that he was elsewhere when each disappeared.

Also in court yesterday:

-- Johnson testified that after visiting the site near Skykomish where Dittrick's body had been found, he went to Ackley's house to confront him. Johnson said Ackley told him he didn't know where Skykomish was but did know where Mill River Road was. Earlier witnesses have testified that Dittrick's remains were found just off Mill River Road.

-- Julie Ackley, the defendant's sister, testified that she saw her brother May 23, 1997 - the day he has said he visited Jensen at her Kingsgate home to make amends for past arguments. Julie Ackley testified that her brother didn't mention the visit.

The trial continues today, and the prosecution expects to rest by Monday.