Posted on 09/17/2002 11:45:39 AM PDT by Bonaparte
Parents of kidnapped girl thank jurors for convicting, recommending death for neighbor
Updated Sept. 17, 2002, 2:08 p.m. ET
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The parents of Danielle van Dam on Tuesday thanked the jury that found their neighbor guilty of kidnapping and killing the 7-year-old girl and said they hoped their "angel" would watch over the panel.
Speaking for the first time in months, Damon and Brenda van Dam said they were pleased with the outcome of the trial, which ended Monday with the jury's recommendation that David Westerfield be put to death.
"We feel that the justice system revealed the truth and that Danielle's murderer has been held accountable. ... That was our hope, that Danielle's death would not go unanswered," Brenda van Dam said, reading from a statement.
On the death sentence, she said, "What matters most is that this monster could never again hurt another child."
A gag order had barred the van Dams from speaking during the trial. The couple spoke to reporters at a seaside park that had been one of Danielle's favorite places.
The van Dams thanked jurors for taking on "an incredibly difficult job."
"We will ask our angel, Danielle, to watch over you and your families," Brenda van Dam said. "We know she will take special care of you."
Westerfield will be sentenced on Nov. 22, when Superior Court Judge William Mudd will either accept the jury's recommendation or impose a sentence of life in prison without chance for parole.
Under California law, all death penalty cases are automatically appealed.
The penalty verdict came after an unusual series of notes from jurors, who first told Mudd they were deadlocked, then asked for more time to deliberate, and finally, told him they had reached a conclusion.
"I think the verdict speaks for itself," the jury foreman, identified only as Tony, told reporters afterward. "There were people on both sides ... but then after discussing it further, we came to agreements.
Westerfield, 50, showed no emotion as the verdict was read. Westerfield's mother shook and cried as one of her son's attorneys tried to console her. The van Dams sat at the rear of the court with their arms linked, and Brenda van Dan cried as the verdict was read.
Danielle was last seen Feb. 1 when her father put her to bed in her second-story bedroom, decorated in her favorite colors, pink and purple. Just days before she had sold Girl Scout cookies to Westerfield, who lived two doors down from her house in the upscale San Diego suburb.
Her nude body was found nearly a month later along a road outside the city, too decomposed to determine the cause of death or whether she had been sexually assaulted.
In the hours before the body was found, defense lawyers were brokering a plea bargain in which Westerfield would have avoided the death penalty in exchange for leading investigators to the girl's remains, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday.
The paper quoted sources as saying that Westerfield would have pleaded guilty to murder and be sentenced to life in prison. One source said the deal was minutes away from completion when the lawyers learned Danielle's body had been located and they dropped negotiations.
The van Dams said they were not aware of any such deal. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers declined to comment.
The slaying of Danielle preceded other frightening abductions this year, including those of Elizabeth Smart in Utah, Samantha Runnion in Orange County and Cassandra Williamson in Missouri. Samantha and Cassandra were killed; Elizabeth remains missing.
Westerfield was convicted Aug. 21 of kidnapping, murder and possession of child pornography.
The jury foreman said blood and other physical evidence linking Westerfield to Danielle led him to believe Westerfield was guilty, adding he was not swayed by the character testimony from the defendant's son and daughter.
Both he and another juror, identified as Jeffrey, said Danielle's blood on the defendant's jacket was probably the most compelling evidence in the two-month trial.
"Blood on the jacket. Where did it come from? How did it get there?" Jeffrey asked.
Defense attorneys sought to portray Westerfield as a family man who contributed to society through his patented design work on devices used in medicine and other fields.
The self-employed engineer had no prior felony record and played an active role in the lives of his children and close friends.
"He's a good man but for one three-day weekend of terror," his lawyer Steven Feldman said in court.
Westerfield did not testify during the trial, something the jury foreman indicated disturbed him and others.
"We really wanted David Westerfield to speak to us and give us what his state of mind was," he said.
Did I read this correctly, or do my eyes deceive me? Before Danielle's body was even found, Westerfield's lawyers were ready to have their client disclose its location to avoid the death penalty?
Just want to be sure I read this right.
Oh, just a "3-day weekend of terror?" That's all? Maybe we should have just cited him for creating a public nuisance and let it go at that.
Some of the comments in that paper were opinions that life in prison would be much more painful and cruel than death, so why the maneuvering?
kj
"He's a good man but he likes to rape and murder seven year old girls."
What an outrageous statement for a defense lawyer (or anyone else) to make!
That's like saying a ten times repeat serial rapist/murder should get leniency because he was only bad for a couple of weeks out of his whole life. Un-frigging-believable.
...and drive drunk, and collect child pornography, and hit on married women, and solicit others for orgies, and bear false witness against his own son, and lie to the police, and put a whole family through hell.
Yep, aside from all that, he's a model citizen.
I quite agree. I mistakenly believed that Feldman was a lot more sophisticated than this.
Some of us took this to be an admission.
Others claim the defense lawyer has to butter up the jury, playing like he agrees with their verdict so they don't sentence his client to death.
Whoops!
I'm sorry, I just read this and feel really ill all of a sudden. HOW does this attorney sleep at night? Has he no conscience?
By J. Harry Jones
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 17, 2002
Minutes before Danielle van Dam's remains were found Feb. 27, David Westerfield's lawyers were brokering a deal with prosecutors:
He would tell police where he dumped the 7-year-old girl's body; they would not seek the death penalty.
Law enforcement sources told The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday defense lawyers Steven Feldman and Robert Boyce were negotiating for a life sentence for the 50-year-old design engineer, a neighbor of the van Dams in Sabre Springs.
The deal they were discussing would have allowed Westerfield to plead guilty to murder and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, said the officials, who spoke on condition they not be identified.
Prosecutors were seriously considering the bargain when Danielle's body was discovered off Dehesa Road that afternoon, nearly four weeks after she disappeared from her bedroom.
"The deal was just minutes away," one of the sources said.
It was aborted, but details were confirmed yesterday soon after a San Diego Superior Court jury recommended the death penalty for Westerfield.
The officials outlined this chronology:
Feldman and Boyce were at the downtown San Diego jail discussing the final arrangements with Westerfield when volunteer searchers found Danielle's remains beneath trees along Dehesa Road east of El Cajon.
When the lawyers left to meet with prosecutors, they noticed members of the news media gathering in the street and asked what was happening.
After being told a body had been found, they went directly to the nearby Hall of Justice and met with prosecutors. The defense lawyers were handed a copy of a Thomas Guide map of the Dehesa area on which a circle had been drawn indicating the location of the body.
Feldman and Boyce took the map back to Westerfield and later telephoned to say they no longer "had anything to discuss regarding a plea bargain."
Neither Feldman nor Boyce could be reached for comment last night.
Danielle was reported missing from her home the morning of Feb. 2, and Westerfield, who lived two doors away, quickly became the primary suspect. He was watched closely by police for weeks as authorities and volunteers searched from the Sabre Springs neighborhood to the Imperial County desert.
After DNA results linked Westerfield to the crime, he was arrested Feb. 22 and charged with kidnapping and burglary.
Three days later, even though Danielle's body had not been found, District Attorney Paul Pfingst announced murder and kidnapping charges would be filed that could carry the death penalty.
Many law enforcement officials feared Danielle's body might never be found. Then, on Feb. 27, volunteer searchers combing the Dehesa area, far from where police had focused, found Danielle's badly decomposed remains.
At that point, the official sources said yesterday, any opportunity Westerfield and his lawyers had to win a plea bargain evaporated.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
As Westerfield's friends and family testified on his behalf, tearfully attesting to the purity of his character, Westerfield sat there knowing he was every bit the monster he was accused of being, knowing that every lawyer involved in his defense and prosecution knew this also.
Short answer is "no." He also has no shame.
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