No Decision From Westerfield Jury: Deliberations Continue Tuesday, August 13, 2002

KGTV ^ | August 13, 2002 | KGTV

[FresnoDA]

No Decision From Westerfield Jury

Jury Could Take At Least A Week, Experts Say

Posted: 5:30 p.m. PDT August 12, 2002
Updated: 5:47 p.m. PDT August 12, 2002

SAN DIEGO -- Jurors completed a third day of deliberations without reaching verdicts Monday in the trial of David Westerfield, a former Sabre Springs man accused of kidnapping and killing Danielle van Dam.

	WESTERFIELD TRIAL Share Your Thoughts About The Case Get The Verdict: Sign Up For Breaking News E-mails Westerfield Trial Jury Questionnaire VERDICT COVERAGE Verdict coverage of the David Westerfield trial will air live on Channel 10 NewsChannel 15 and will be live streamed on TheSanDiego Channel.com DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002 Watch Danielle Video Montage E-mail: daniellevandam @yahoo.com Send mail to: P.O. Box 501515 San Diego, 92150

The six-man, six-woman panel was handed the case Thursday after more than two months of testimony.

According to search warrant affidavits made public after six months under seal, Westerfield admitted to police that he dropped off bedding and other items at a Poway dry cleaners two days after Danielle disappeared.

The warrants and affidavits had been sealed since shortly after the girl's mother discovered her missing from her bed the morning of Feb. 2. Last week, the 4th District Court of Appeal ordered the documents unsealed.

Westerfield, 50, a self-employed design engineer, is charged with murder, kidnapping and possession of child pornography.

	Jury Has To Consider Question Carefully

He could face the death penalty if the jury finds true a special circumstance allegation that the murder of the 7-year-old happened during a kidnapping.

The trial, which started June 4, included 23 days of testimony, 98 witnesses and 199 court exhibits.

Trial observers say the deliberations could come down to DNA vs. bugs -- DNA evidence that the victim was in the suspect's motor home versus testimony from defense forensic experts who said bugs on the girl's body indicated it had been dumped while the suspect was under police surveillance.

The alleged swinging lifestyle of the victim's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, also could factor into the jury's verdict.

Defense attorney Steven Feldman told jurors forensic evidence involving bugs on the victim's body proved it was "impossible" for his client to have dumped the body beside an East County road, where it was discovered Feb. 27.

The defense claimed throughout the trial that Westerfield was under tight surveillance by police and the media beginning Feb. 5, three days after the Sabre Springs girl was discovered missing from her bed.

 

SURVEY
	What decision do you think the jury in the David Westerfield trial will reach?
	Guilty on all three counts Guilty of kidnapping, murder Guilty of possessing child pornography Not guilty on all three counts Hung jury
Results | Disclaimer

Westerfield was arrested Feb. 22.

Prosecutors contend the defense did not represent accurately the information provided by experts who study insect infestation of corpses.

Physical evidence -- including Danielle's blood on Westerfield's jacket and fingerprints, hair and fibers found in the defendant's motor home -- point to Westerfield's guilt, prosecutors said.

Feldman said the prosecution presented no evidence that Westerfield had ever been in Danielle's home. He noted that her parents testified to holding sex parties in the home, and said one of their house guests might have committed the crime.

Feldman also suggested that Westerfield could not have maneuvered his way through the darkened van Dam home the night of Feb. 1 without anyone hearing him seizing the 58-pound child.

[Green]

Thanks. I just read the transcript of the interview and when reading the transcript it appears to me that either the detective was stuttering and pausing figuring out how he wanted to phrase the question or either trip him up...and DW interrupted him with this answer. If this is what Dusek is using to say DW was evasive with his answer, the man (Dusek) is an idiot and this will be proven when the jury listens to the tape and reads the transcript.

[Rheo]

Except other neighbors testified that their homes had not been searched...by dogs or anyone.

[the-gooroo]

I'm a little concerned about the juror with tne nervous condition. I think she's on anti-depressants or anti-anxiety meds.

[spectre]

No fingerprints of hers in her own bedroom sent up huge Red Flags for me. The Amazing David Westerfield, took his jolly time and wiped the whole room down before he took her out of the house...NOT!

LE had to hydrate her mummified hands to match prints to the Motor Home? Another amazing fact...

Couldn't they have lifted prints of hers from the stair railing...or I guess she never used the handrail? Her prints weren't on her diary.. bike...hair-brush..something, anything that would have matched the print in the motor home?

It was as tho she never lived in her own home.

sw

[It's me]

To: belleoftheball414

You seem to have the mind of a 15 yearold.

---

Come on! 15? Try 5, and that's pushing it!

[the Deejay]

If they haven't regretted that house purchase
as yet, just wait, they will.

[Rheo]

Don't ya just love the part where Redden asks him if he saw her in the neighborhood that morning...DW is answering no, but I saw a woman...and Redden completely cuts him off.

[GoMonster]

Westerfield might get lucky and have a Democrat jury like OJ.

[VRWC_minion]

It is my impression that the neighbor hood is huge and wouldn't be practical to search every house there, just a certain number within a certain area. It was also my impression that the police selected a predetermined circle of houses to search and all but two were some how methodically searched during the weekend.

I could be wrong but that is my memory.

[KnutCase]

Judy...you are not old....the Parthenon is old, the Redwoods are old, the Pyramids are old.....we're just getting started!

[Rheo]

Paxil....for anxiety..juror #5

[JudyB1938]

Maybe that "nervous" juror will have a little sympathy for Westerfield, considering the tic that HE developed.

[the Deejay]

None of her own prints were found on her
own diary, either.

[UCANSEE2]

Now, having said that - I've read all the back-n-forth on this thread about the "I've never been invited" in answer the question "have you ever been there". To me, that is not answering the question. If someone asks me if I have ever been to or in someone's house, the answer is either yes or no. Just because I have never been invited doesn't necessarily mean I haven't been there. Did he ever specifically say "No"??

ANother context to consider his answer in is;

If ONE of your neighbors always has 'parties' in the backyard/hottub/barbecue grill area, and you have never been invited, but you know of other neighbors that have. And this is the only social contact they seem to have with anyone in the neighborhood, other than selling GS cookies,

AND someone asks you 'Hey, have you ever been to the VD's?', What is your most likely answer???

Probably, "I've never been invited" would be a reasonable response. doncha think ?

[the Deejay]

Juror #5 is also the Rush Limbaugh fan or she
just listens to him.

[demsux]

19 AND, IN FACT, THERE WILL BE WITNESSES TESTIFYING IN 20 THIS COURT, AT LEAST SEVERAL, WHO WILL SAY, YOU KNOW, BRENDA 21 KEPT ASKING ME TO COME HOME AND, YOU KNOW, I'M JUST NOT 22 COMFORTABLE WITH THAT BEHAVIOR AND I SAID NO. AND ANOTHER MAN 23 WILL TESTIFY, YOU KNOW, BRENDA, SHE WAS TRYING TO GET ME TO COME 24 HOME THAT NIGHT, I DON'T KNOW, TO BE WITH HER HUSBAND? I 25 COULDN'T DO THAT. I WAS TOO UNCOMFORTABLE.

That's one of the things that I was looking for!

Early on, there were rumors that DVD was looking for a "boy toy". Obviously, not evidenciary, however I have wondered who Ryan Tyrol was supposed to hook up with at the VD's. He would have been an "extra" male.

[Spunky]

I just read the transcript of the interview

I have been at the San Diego site and so far have not been able to find the transcripts of Redden interrogating Westerfield.

Please give me the site where you read them from or if from San Diego please give me the day and time where I can find them. Thanks.

[the Deejay]

And Feldman produced those 2 men in court as he
said he would. Basicly, they testified to what
he said they would.

[Bluebird Singing]

Do you think they were doing their own painting or do you think hired-hands did it? I'm considering who may have been lurking in the neighborhood. Suppose Damon wasn't really keeping tabs on Danielle as the girls drove off. If, as Brenda said, she and Danielle were outside when Babs and Denise drove up (boo!), maybe Danielle went outside to see them off, too, without anybody noticing her. Damon admitted to smoking marijuana and drinking beer at that same time. Maybe he was oblivious to Danielle's whereabouts. His childcare story about that evening is not convincing.