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Testimony In Westerfield Trial May Last Through Week

Defense May Call Witnesses After Prosecution Finishes Rebuttal

POSTED: 10:08 a.m. PDT July 29, 2002

UPDATED: 2:50 p.m. PDT July 29, 2002

SAN DIEGO -- Rebuttal testimony in the trial of the man accused of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam could last into next week.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys for 50-year-old David Westerfield met Monday in court before Judge William Mudd. Prosecutors said they expect to wrap up their rebuttal testimony tomorrow. But Westerfield's lead attorney, Steven Feldman, said he might call a professional witness to dispute last week's testimony of a forensic specialist called by prosecutors.

Feldman also expressed concerns that jurors might have seen Larry King's interview with the mother of a slain five-year-old Orange County girl. The mother, Erin Runnion blamed a jury last year that acquitted the man now accused killing her daughter, Samantha.

Jurors will likely hear more evidence about insects when the trial resumes Tuesday. Prosecutors are expected to call Dr. M. Lee Goff, a professor of forensic sciences at the University of Hawaii, as their final rebuttal witness.

Goff is likely to dispute testimony by two defense bug experts who said that Danielle's body was dumped by a two-lane road in rural East County long after police had put Westerfield under 24-hour surveillance. Those experts analyzed insect larvae recovered from the body to come up with their timelines.

When Danielle was killed is hotly disputed. Prosecution witnesses, including Medical Examiner Brian Blackbourne, have said that it is impossible to say when she died because her body was so badly decomposed when it was found on Feb. 27. But lead defense attorney Steven Feldman has argued that the insect evidence, originally collected at the request of police investigators, indicates that the body was dumped more than a week after Danielle disappeared, long after police and news crews had begun tracking all of Westerfield's movements.

During their rebuttal case, prosecutors have tried to discredit the timeline proposed by defense bug experts. In testimony Thursday, Dr. William Rodriguez, a forensic anthropologist, told the jury that Danielle had been dead between four and six weeks when her body was discovered. The prosecution expert's estimate caused some consternation in the courtroom because the time period would go back before Feb. 2, the day the second-grader was discovered missing.

However, Rodriguez earlier said it was impossible to set a precise "post- mortem interval," or the time between when a person dies and when the body is found, because there are too many variables.

So far, the trial has lasted 23 court days. Once testimony has ended, the judge will give the jury instructions and attorneys for both sides will begin closing arguments.

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