Expect to hear more evidence about insects as the David Westerfield trial enters what could be the final week of testimony before jury deliberations. Posted on 07/28/2002 8:56:21 PM PDT by FresnoDA
By Alex Roth
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 28, 2002
Expect to hear more evidence about insects as the David Westerfield trial enters what could be the final week of testimony before jury deliberations.
On Tuesday, prosecutors are scheduled to call Dr. M. Lee Goff of the University of Hawaii as their final rebuttal witness in a trial that has lasted 23 court days. Goff is a forensic entomologist and the author of "A Fly for the Prosecution: How Insect Evidence Helps Solve Crimes."
Whether Goff will be the final insect expert in the case – jurors have already heard from three witnesses with expert opinions about the behavior of insects on human remains – is unclear. Westerfield's lawyers have said they will take at least a day to present evidence to rebut the prosecution's rebuttal.
The trial will not be in session tomorrow because the lawyers and judge are scheduled to hash out the legal instructions that will be read to the jury after the close of testimony. The instructions guide jurors on the law to be applied in the case.
Given the time estimates of the lawyers, it seems likely that closing statements won't come until Thursday, or the following Monday at the earliest. So far there haven't been any Friday sessions in which the jury was present to hear testimony. The judge said the jury will deliberate Mondays through Fridays.
As the case winds down, the battle of the insect experts has emerged as perhaps the final arena in the murder trial. Westerfield's lawyers say the insects found on 7-year-old Danielle van Dam's body prove that it couldn't have been dumped until after Westerfield was under 24-hour police surveillance.
Danielle was reported missing from her home Feb. 2, and her body was found by volunteer searchers Feb. 27 in a remote area off Dehesa Road near the Singing Hills Golf Course in El Cajon.
The defense called two entomologists who testified about blowflies on the girl's body. Westerfield's lawyers say the experts' testimony proves that the remains couldn't have been dumped until mid-February. Westerfield was under constant police surveillance beginning Feb. 5.
The prosecution countered with a forensic anthropologist who said the body's extreme mummification might help explain why blowflies weren't able to access the remains immediately.
Westerfield, a self-employed design engineer who lived two doors from the van Dams in Sabre Springs, is accused of kidnapping and killing Danielle. He is also accused of possession of child pornography, which the prosecution claims shows that he had a sexual interest in girls.
Prosecutors said the pornography – some of it depicting violent sexual attacks against young girls – was found on Westerfield's computers and on computer disks stored on his office bookshelf.
In a trial of numerous shifts in momentum, legal experts say prosecutors scored a significant blow last week by calling Westerfield's son as a witness. Neal Westerfield, now 19, testified that the computer child pornography in the house was his father's, not his.
Earlier in the trial, the defense presented a computer expert who testified that Neal Westerfield might have been the person who downloaded some of the pornography.
"This is a young man who clearly cares about his dad and has a good relationship with him, so he has no reason to say anything bad," said Peter Liss, a Vista criminal defense lawyer. "He was just truthful."
In this respect, the defense's strategy of trying to blame the son for the child pornography in the house appears to have backfired. Criminal defense lawyer Robert Grimes said the jury is likely to view Neal Westerfield as "basically a nice young college kid" who testified honestly.
Westerfield's lawyers chose not to cross-examine his son. They will indicate this week whether they will call any witnesses to try to refute his testimony.
The above quote is from the preliminary hearing...Feldman questioning BVD.
This gives a definite time frame for the VD's initial deception to LE regarding drugs/perverts in their home.
Their daughter is MISSING...yet they withhold potentially helpful information for over 17 hours.
At a bare minimum, this should be obstruction of justice/perjury(in the old fashioned sense of the word-pre Klintoon).
What if she was held alive for those 17 hours??? Maybe she would be alive today, if the VD's had been truthful from the onset of this tragedy.
Need to define "immediate vicinity" and the moves made by Van Dams in relation to the above mention locations of death.
Adam Walsh ... Damon is a native of Ft. Lauderdale area and lived there at the time of Adam's disappearance in 1981.
Tiffany Louise Sessions ... On Feb. 9, 1989 she disappeared from University of Florida campus in Gainesville. Vanished without a trace. Damon was a student there at the same time.
Michael Negrete ... disappeared on Dec. 10, 1999 from his college dorm. Vanished without a trace. Damon was a friend and co-worker of Michael's father.
If you think about it, he had recently broken up with his girlfriend. People get in the habit of saying "we" when dating/married, etc. Takes a while to get out of that groove.
I read the REDDEN interview and there was another time he said "WE" then changed it to "I", so apparently he often makes that mistake.
I can't believe the kind of value you put on a slip of the tongue with valid reasons behind it, and ignore the obvious. But, that is your call.
I also can't believe that in the face of the Arrests of 2 men (SD and Poway) for running an INTERNATIONAL CHILD PORN RING, and arrests of 2 SD area Law enforcement officers in the FBI/CANDYMAN sting operation that you don't give those possibilities any validity of connection to Danielle's disappearance.
It doesn't bother you that the VD's were smoking pot. It doesn't bother you that the PR team got the Police to IGNORE trace evidence of COCAINE in the VD house. It doesn't bother you that Damon's trips back/forth to EUROPE might be a MULE for the CHILD PORN RING and that poor Damon got 'stung' by his own network. I.E. One of the perps nabbed his daughter from grade school to use in the CHILD RAPE FILMS. Once Damon figured it out, if true, he might have thought to lead the police away from his own connections and lead them to Westerfield.
Maybe he knew DW had some PORN because DW's address was on some kind of CUSTOMER LIST that Damon's connections possibly had.
The new next door moving in neighbors saw Danielle sometime Fri. evening, Cookie sale. At least this was in an article at North County Times 2/10/02.
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20020210/53130
McNally neighbor.
What I have posted is all I heard about it. I had distractions here too and then with Nancy disGrace running her mouth over the courtroom proceedings, it's a wonder I heard that much. :-(
Now, what does that leave?
Danielle could have been left home alone while Brenda went to the mall with the boys?
Danielle was left alone at the mall (per Brenda) and got snatched then?
Michael Negrete ... disappeared on Dec. 10, 1999 from his college dorm. Vanished without a trace. Damon was a friend and co-worker of Michael's father.
Almost sounds like Damon is a SCOUT for a CHILD PORN/MURDER RING.
If I really wanted to get into the coincidences I could talk about the connection of video games and the victims.
PDvD testified he arrived home about 6:30pm from work that fateful Friday. BvD bringing Pizza home about the same time, I assume they ate pizza before cookie sale to McNally, but not neccessarily. My guess and only a guess based on what I see in this article, McNally was the last outsider to see Danielle alive.
Again assuming PDvD got home at 6:30pm as he testified.
I don't necessarily put any meaning into using "we". I believe he just ended a relationship a week or two before (which could indicate a heightened sexual desire) and if they did things together it would be common to use we to describe a weekends activities. I was divorced about 15 years ago and recall that I often used we when talking about stuff I had done by myself. It was just habit.
I came upon my theory that if Westerfield did it he did it all in the first few hours because of a few things. First, he would have acted irrationally from the alchohol and that would not have lasted too long. Second, if he transported her to the RV that morning when he said he was first there and also took RV back home the chances of getting caught are way too high for what appears to me a carefull man. Third, he is way too anal about being clean and neat. He wouldn't have traveled all over with the body or with the girl. Fourth, I tend to believe the dogs the longer she was there the greater the chance of a dog hit. Fifth, if she was alive in the RV for any length of time there would be more fingerprints. Sixth, it appears to me that these abductions seem to end in death within Aa few hours unless they are kidnaps for ransom.
In any case the most sensible scenario for whoever took the child is they would have been raped and killed within hours of abduction. The fact that the body just happens to be the distance that someone could drive from the Van Dams and return the general location by sunrise means to me that whoever took her wanted to be back in the area before sunrise and they worried about being missed if not. That also would rule in the Van Dams or their friends, btw. The physical evidence points to Westerfield, assuming the goldilocks theory is wrong. Westerefield also had Mr Toads wild ride avalaible to rid himself of clothing, blanket to move child, his underwear and other contaminated clothing and any other contacted stuff.
Just some of my thoughts.
What is your opinion about the "magically appearing" spent shell casing in Danielle's room.
I'm trying to figure out who had something to gain by "planting" it in her room...I say "planting", because I don't see any way that the LEO, who was on her knees, looking for evidence, could have missed it on day one.
Possibilities:
DVD - He may have thrown it in there after having to admit the drugs/sex stuff, so as to re-direct the focus of the investigation (ie., must have been an outsider who "might" need a gun, not like someone that can come and go as he pleases)>
BVD - Same as above.
LEO - Intentionally - because he/she knew higher ups were covering up and wanted to draw attention.
LEO - Accidently - On shoe tread/in pocket...highly unlikely, LEO don't use .22 calibre weapons, they use .45 or 9 mm.
VD Boy(s) - May know what happened, but are afraid to implicate mom or dad. Their best way of drawing additional attention to THAT bedroom.
Any other ideas??? Spent shell casings don't just appear out of thin air.
Let's see, Damon gets home about same time as Brenda. Where were the kids?
Well, they had been HOME ALONE. We assume Danielle would still be there until 830pm, due to the testimony of the lying fems/ Barb and Denise.
We assume Danielle was there until bedtime 1030pm, according to the testimony of the big liar Damon.
Those that say, The other two boys said she was there, I would ask this. What are their names? and when did they testify to this? And how old are they, (not old enough,huh!)
I am just trying pin down the time period she disappeared in.
My THANKS to you for helping.
Hello, UCANSEE2, nice to see you after the weekend.
Your whole post to me is filled with assumptions. I never said if I put any value on DW's use of the word "we". VRWC_minion asked for feedback on his theory and I pointed out where it looked like the prosecution was headed with theirs.
As to what I think or feel about pot-smoking, child-porn rings and whatever else you ascribed to me---think again.
I really don't take seriously these wild flights of imagination of what *could* have happened. I'm just watching the trial and puzzling over the evidence at hand. Note, I do not mock or put anyone down for their theories so please take a minute to reflect before you tell me what my thoughts and feelings are.
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