Westerfield closings set for Tuesday
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SAN DIEGO — After two months and 116 witnesses, jurors in the capital murder case of David Westerfield will hear closing arguments Tuesday.
"We'll be ready to rock and roll tomorrow morning," Judge William Mudd told lawyers Monday.
Defense attorneys for Westerfield, who is accused of kidnapping and killing his 7-year-old neighbor Danielle van Dam, had considered calling a forensic anthropologist as their final witness. After weekend discussions, however, they decided to rest their case, defense lawyer Steven Feldman told Mudd.
The judge imposed no time limits on the arguments Feldman and prosecutor Jeff Dusek will make, and closings in the trial, which included 199 exhibits and weeks of complex forensic testimony, could stretch into a second day.
At the hearing Monday, Feldman made yet another attempt to have the panel of six men and six women sequestered during deliberations. He cited front page articles about the case in the local paper as well as an article about swinging in San Diego magazine.
"The land mines keep growing, Judge," he told Mudd.
As he had before, the judge denied the request and said he trusted the jury to follow his instructions about avoiding media accounts of the case.
Westerfield, 50, faces the death penalty if convicted of Danielle's slaying. The second-grader was abducted from her bedroom last February. Searchers found her naked body on the side of a road three and a half weeks later. Prosecutors claim Westerfield sexually assaulted and suffocated her, but the defense says forensic evidence indicates she was dumped after the defendant was under police surveillance.
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