Westerfield's Fate In Hands Of Jury: VERDICT WATCH BEGINS in Van Dam Murder Case

CourtTV ^ | August 8, 2002 | CourtTV

[FresnoDA]

Jury's hands After two months of hearing evidence, jurors have begun deliberating the fate of David Westerfield, who is accused of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam

[UCANSEE2]

One more time. Put WWW.MCF.TV in your browser and HIT ENTER. THEN read the entire thing. You will be shocked.

[KnutCase]

I am familiar with color mixing (Paints). When you mix red and green you get BROWN. Green jacket, red blood=brown spot. But to get brown, you would have to have approximately equal amount of each color.

[the-gooroo]

They had blood available to them from the blood on the cuff of her pj's that were found Sat. morning on her bedroom floor. I believe the testimony was she had soiled her underwear and pj's. Feldman had proof that some of the detectives had been reprimanded in the past for falsifying evidence to get an arrest warrant. Mudd prevented him from putting that in front of the jury. Also the stains were not drops of blood but more like a swipe.

[CedarDave]

Not a dress jacket, that's for sure. So no doubt the blood was not BVD's from the bar. Without that DNA evidence, I'd vote to acquit in a minute! Any possibility someone other than LE could have planted evidence (like DVD)?

[UCANSEE2]

So, then if nothing in the car, then maybe he tied her up in the bedroom until he could bring back the motorhome. (Still thinking the DNA blood evidence on his clothes is most damning here -- not buying the cops planting evidence as alleged done here and charged done with OJ.)

Most of us started off with this proposition.

There was 1 hair of Danielle's in the MH.

There was 1 print of Danielle's in the MH

There were 2 spots (1 by the bathroom, 1 on his jacket) of something that had DNA matching Danielle.

Now Let's accept those as TRUE.

How do you reconcile all the other information. The dogs didn't 'HIT' on the MH or the SUV. The dogs didn't HIT on DW having gone into the VD household.

DW went where he said he went.

HE had invited people. He went places there were TONS of other people. There were SECURITY GUARDS, FOREST RANGERS. Any one could have stepped inside his MH at a moment's notice, as he was on PUBLIC PROPERTY and PRIVATE PROPERTY(not his own). Why would he carry around Danielle dead or alive?

Why, if he had her, didn't he dump her out in the desert?

Why DEHESA RD, where the darn MH would be noticed and to big to park of the road safely while he dumped the body?

There are TOO MANY things that DON"T FIT, and reasonable ways her DNA, Hair,prints could have gotten there. Reasonable ways the fibers were part of contamination by the LE's. By the NEIGHBORS, by the MEDIA, by DIANE HALFMAN, BY 100's of others.

[small_l_libertarian]

Are you sure about the swipe? Because all you would have to do to get a swipe of Danielle's blood is dip the sleeve of the PJs with her blood on them in distilled water, wipe the jacket, and wait for it to dry. Scary stuff.

[Green]

thanks. well...I think it odd that they didn't notice the stain given the location and color of the jacket but I guess he could have had it bunched up in a way that it wouldn't have been visible as he handed it over...still a bit strange

[UCANSEE2]

Green jacket. Front, on the lapel. One-plus inch bloodstain.

Are you sure? One of the stains was something like 1 3/16 the other was about 1/8 inch. I am not positive which was which.

[small_l_libertarian]

No one has ever said he was wearing the green jacket. Not the beach people, not the desert people, not Dad's people, nobody.

Don't have any idea where it was, but there has been talk that it was stored in the motorhome. Don't know if that's true or speculation.

[small_l_libertarian]

The little one was the one on the floor.

[Jaded]

I think they just want to get it over with.

[UCANSEE2]

More likely a very small medical sample of some body fluid of Danielle's was available to LE, and they planted it in two tiny spots, one on the jacket and the other on another surface in the MH.

Correct me if I am wrong, but most of the EVIDENCE in this case was not FOUND on the FIRST SEARCH. It was FOUND after DW was ARRESTED and after DANIELLE's BODY had been FOUND.

Isn't this TRUE?

[Green]

I have no idea...small_l_libertarian posted the sizes of the blood stains that were supposedly found

[sawsalimb]

I think it odd that they didn't notice the stain given the location and color of the jacket but I guess he could have had it bunched up in a way that it wouldn't have been visible as he handed it over

On reflection,I don't think I've ever taken anything to the cleaners that was folded or on a hanger. I just grab an armload and then dump it on the counter,and ask when I can come back for it.

[Lanza]

I think testimony was he was wearing a black leather jacket at Dad's that night. So, that may be a jacket he kept stored in the MH.

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

So, that may be a jacket he kept stored in the MH.

I believe I heard his former brother-in-law said it was a jacket that he kept hanging in the MH.

[small_l_libertarian]

UCANSEE2 was correct about the sizes (as I remember them). The smaller of the two stains is the one on the MH floor.

[the-gooroo]

I am going by my own recollection but if anyone knows for certain if the jacket stain was a drop or a swipe please let us know. What was the exact wording to describe the stain?

[JudyB1938]

Duhh! I get it now. TITilate ... Funny!

[Green]

On reflection,I don't think I've ever taken anything to the cleaners that was folded or on a hanger. I just grab an armload and then dump it on the counter,and ask when I can come back for it.

Same with me. Although I suppose at some time or another they sort through it and put the identifying tags on it before they mix it with all the other clothes. Seems that whoever did that at the cleaners would have seen the stain at that time. Who knows if they would remember something like that with the volume of clothes that goes through a cleaners every day. However, I did have a shirt returned to me from dry cleaners one time that had a note attached saying they were unable to remove a stain. Lo and behold, there was stain on the front that WAS NOT there when I dropped the shirt off. Naturally I claimed that they must have been the one to cause the stain since I didn't point it out to them when I dropped the article off. Guess what? They replaced my shirt.