Posted on 08/16/2002 6:39:20 AM PDT by FresnoDA
August 15, 2002
Arguing that media coverage was creating a "lynch mob mentality" that could pressure jurors to return a guilty verdict, the defense attorney for David Westerfield today asked the judge yet again to sequester the jury.
While the jury completed its first week of deliberations without a verdict, Superior Court Judge William Mudd denied the request and a related motion to "pull the plug" on television and radio coverage of the courtroom proceedings, but agreed to set aside a private room for jurors to take breaks. Defense attorney Steven Feldman had argued that reports suggested jurors felt like they were under siege, unable to leave their deliberating room, go to lunch or walk home without being watched or followed.
"We have no assurance that they are not be intimidated ... by the presence of the media," Feldman told Mudd during a morning hearing. "We can think of only one fair resolution to that: Get the jury out of harm's way."
Westerfield, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping 7-year-old Danielle van Dam from her family's Sabre Springs home on Feb. 2 and killing her. Jurors are in their sixth day of deliberations.
Lead prosecutor Jeff Dusek disagreed with Feldman's interpretations of the jury's complaints.
"Whether or not any guilty verdict in this case would be based on a siege mentality or the meida I think is pure speculation and utterly false in this case," Dusek said.
What the jurors had complained about was being watched all the time, he said.
"That hardly equates to being under siege," he said.
Media coverage has diminished since the jurors began deliberating, the judge said.
"The synopsis programs on the two local TV networks are not in place," he said. "The talking heads are doing nothing but speculating about what the jury may or may not be thinking."
Mudd said there were no signs that jurors were being harassed by the public, especially since their names and faces haven't been publicized.
"We've all sat here and picked this jury, know their makeup and know their dedication to this cause," Mudd said. "I would prefer to think that any verdict they make in this case would be based upon the evidence."
Sequestering the jury also wouldn't protect them from any public reaction to the verdict, Mudd said.
Mudd took aim at two radio program hosts from Los Angeles who he previously described as "idiots."
"I suppose it's entertainment out of LA. I hope it stays in LA," he said. "The shows those two gentlemen put on made the court incredulous as to what they were attempting to do."
Mudd also announced:
On July 9, Shen's testimony interrupted presentation of defense witnesses. Shen, a San Diego police criminalist, testified about re-examining a group of fibers she had collected from Westerfield's 4Runner in February.
The orange acrylic fibers, found in various places inside the SUV, were the same color and fabric as a fiber tangled in a plastic necklace that Danielle was wearing when authorities found her body in a hollow off Dehesa Road, Shen testified at the time.
All the fibers looked identical under a microscope and appeared to have the same chemical makeup when tested using infrared technology, she said.
Shen said the fibers seem "most likely to have come from something that was very loosely knit," such as a sweater or blanket.
"You folks are going to deal with my PR person. You're going to leave my bailiff and my clerk alone," Mudd told reporters in the courtroom. "One statement leads to 60 questions that they're not going to answer and neither am I."
Mudd decided to turn the daily updates over to the court's public information officer after deciding that an informal system set up to have a bailiff or court clerk provide updates had failed.
"There was a simple note that they started at 9, they left at 4 left you chomping on bit to get copies," He said. "You're welcome to them, they'll be available as soon as we gett the minute order."
Reporters and members of the public will not be informed immediately about notes passed by the jury, Mudd said. The judge said he had procedure to follow, that includes notifying the attorneys involved in the case about the note and determining the appropriate response.
"This is a capital case and you go by steps," Mudd said.
HI guys...Ok, I appreciate that wonders cuz it really is harder to wade through then the rest of the testimony.
Capps, wrt:only the face and hands being mummified..even the ME examiner agreed that ALL the skin "that remained" was mummified..(see my earlier excerpts from ME's testimony. He said the body could have been there up to 3 1/2 weeks.. The anthropologist who studies mummification said 4-6 weeks: See that excerpt here..and that the exact date isn't an exact science.
The body was found on the 27th
MEDICAL EXAMINER
3 1/2 weeks = 21 + 3.5 days = 24.5 days
ANTHROPOLOGIST
4 - 6 weeks = 28 - 42 days
_____
The people who studied bodies have more to say than bugs..before you say that's a week argument...the testimony shows the following:
Goff, the professor from HA said that bugologists are unable to give exact dates.
The defense witness from missouri has never seen a body in the condition danielle's was in...so how can he tell.. (see transcripts)
I dont' remember how many times haskill said he has spent on mummified remains.
I think that why it's so hard to understand is the mummification factor---none of the expert witnesses with the exception of the anthropologist have spent that much time on mummifed bodies in that condition. Unless someone can show different.
Agreed. Most unpleasant. Which is why I've always thought it unlikely. Although I've read of cases where the perp did it. (Can't imagine it, but lots of things I can't imagine.)
The people who studied bodies have more to say than those who studied bugs..before you say that's a weak argument...
The body wasn't desiccated, Kimmy. They recovered some 180ml of fluid from the lung cavity IIRC. Unless they stuck her body in a drying oven and weighed her before and after, there is no telling how much moisture was still available.
Hands, foot, ears. Low fat/low water mass. those will mummify quickly.
The odd thing is no (or very few) insects in the braincase, It should have been infested with maggots but it wasn't.
And nobody has testified that the brain was mummified or dryed-out.
Honestly, as much as feldman tried to get us to believe that she was in the MH for innocent reasons..he simply couldn't do it. He insinuated it...by showing it was left unlocked..but that's not enough IMHO. Can't wait to hear what the jury has to say about it!
Actually, the ME said 6 weeks to ten days.
Goff, the professor from HA said that bugologists are unable to give exact dates
Not one of the forensic experts gave an exact date. All have overlapping estimates of PMI, however, except for the ding-dong "mummyologist." There is concordance among the four bug guys and the ME.
The mummy guy had Danielle selling cookies to DW as a, well, a mummy!
Yes he did...That's assuming she was thrown there within the first 24 hrs.. I know no one can have all the answers on either side..and that's what makes it so difficult.
I have kept in the back of my mind that people can be convicted without a body. That's why it's not so hard to believe in some of the evidence. I recall the testimony (sorry I've forgotten which witness) who was asked if she could have started to dehydrate in a bag in a storage compartment..I don't know if thejudge allowed the answer, but I remember the witness said "yes".
Based on the testimony of Faulkner and Haskell, what I think probably happened: The first wave of flies on day one laid eggs in the natural openings of the head (ears, nose, mouth) and even more so, in the urogenital region. As the ears and facial areas dried out on days two, three and four, the successive waves in the of flies primarily laid eggs in the urogenital area and in openings created by the coyotes. Therefore, at the autopsy, there was a "maggot mass" in the abdominal area, but not in the head. The maggots in the head area (too few in number to form a "mass") then migrated to the warmth of the maggot mass (which generates its own heat) in abdominal area when the body was placed in the morgue.
I like Haskell's explanation -- makes lots of sense:
A THE TESTIMONY OF ONE OF THE INVESTIGATORS SHOWED THAT THERE WERE SOME MAGGOTS IN THE HEAD AREA. BUT WHEN DAVID FAULKNER WENT TO MAKE THE COLLECTION AT THE AUTOPSY, HE FOUND THAT THERE WERE NO MAGGOTS IN THE HEAD AREA AND ONLY A CONSIDERABLE MAGGOT MASS IN THE ABDOMINAL AREA, PELVIC AREA OF THE REMAINS. MY CONCLUSION ON THAT WAS THE FACT THAT THERE WERE -- THE FLIES MOST LIKELY DID TRY TO LAY THEIR EGGS. MOTHER FLY TRIED TO LAY SOME EGGS IN THE HEAD AREA. AND A FEW OF THEM PROBABLY MADE IT. BUT WHEN THE BODY WENT INTO THE MORGUE AND COOLED DOWN, THE FEW MAGGOTS THAT WERE UP IN THE HEAD AREA DIDN'T HAVE THE MAGGOT MASS AGGREGATION TO GENERATE THIS HEAT THAT IS PRESENT. AND SO THEY PROBABLY WENT TO -- I THINK IT'S POSSIBLE THAT THEY TRIED TO SEEK WHERE THIS HEAT WAS PRESENT IN THIS PELVIC AREA WHERE THE MAGGOT MASS WAS PRESENT AND PROBABLY JOINED THEIR FELLOW MAGGOTS DOWN THERE.
Testilie: Definition; A curious but well known (although not acknowleged) condition where an otherwise honest LE officer will, while on the stand, repeatedly recall previous events much differantly than the way things actually happened.
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