Replies

Slain girl's father testifies tearfully, fends off lifestyle attack

Damon van Dam, the father of 7-year-old Danielle, who was abducted and killed, testifies in court.

By Harriet Ryan
Court TV

SAN DIEGO — Raw grief mingled with common titillation at the Danielle van Dam murder trial Wednesday as the slain second-grader’s father took the stand against her accused killer.

Damon van Dam gave a wrenching account of the 7-year-old’s abduction from the safety of her suburban bedroom, but under a relentless cross-examination by a defense lawyer, he bitterly confirmed rumors that he and his wife engaged in swinging, or wife-swapping.

“I have opened my life up — every detail — to try to get my daughter back and now to get justice for her,” a red-faced van Dam said after admitting that he had sexual relations with other women while his wife watched.

Defendant David Westerfield

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against David Westerfield, a 50-year-old engineer who lived two doors from the van Dams. They allege he is a pedophile who snatched her from her canopy bed Feb. 2, raped and suffocated her and then dumped her body along a rural road.

Damon van Dam’s grilling Wednesday, the second day of the trial, appeared to be part of a defense strategy to shift the focus away from strong DNA and other physical evidence against Westerfield and toward Danielle’s parents and their lifestyle.

It was unclear how well that approach played with jurors. As defense lawyer Steven Feldman got van Dam to acknowledge intimate relationships with two female guests in his home the night Danielle disappeared and that a third man present was his marijuana dealer, few jurors took notes. And as van Dam stammered with the uncomfortable questions, jurors stared at the lawyer instead of the witness.

During a sidebar conference between Judge William Mudd and the lawyers, van Dam stared at supporters in the gallery, shook his head and then in full view of the jury, slammed his forehead down on the witness box.

The day of testimony that ended in frustration and shame, began in tears. The software engineer choked with emotion as he showed jurors photographs of Danielle’s room, a young girl’s pink and purple dream. Stopping frequently to regain his composure, he pointed out her toy box and shiny white dresser, the "little fluffy hearts" hanging from her ceiling and her snowy canopy bed and lilac sheets.

"She was in her bed right here with her dollies," van Dam told the panel, describing the last time he saw his daughter. An alternate juror clutched her notebook to her chest and wiped at her eyes.

Danielle's room

Van Dam said that on that Friday night, his wife, Brenda, and two friends, identified as Barbara Easton and Denise Kemal, had scheduled a “girl’s night out” at a local bar. During cross-examination, van Dam said he and Kemal had sex in his bed once, a year before, while Kemal’s husband and Brenda van Dam were present. He acknowledged that he and Easton, an airline stewardess, had intercourse once and sexual relations twice. On those two occasions, he said, Brenda van Dam watched.