Posted on 02/06/2003 3:57:00 PM PST by Jaded
SAN DIEGO – The District Attorney's Office spent nearly $270,000 prosecuting David Westerfield, including thousands for DNA analysis and expert witnesses, it was announced today.
Westerfield was sentenced to die for the February 2002 killing of 7-year- old Danielle van Dam.
The former Sabre Springs resident and neighbor of the victim is now on death row at San Quentin.
According to figures the District Attorney's Office released, more than $35,000 was spent on experts for Westerfield's trial, and more than $146,000 on DNA analysis.
More than $62,000 was spent on a telephone survey and a jury questionnaire review.
Gee, reading it THIS way it looks as if the DA was doing the offering of a plea NOT DW and Feldman. The spin goes on...
BTW, I notice that Cyncooper has not answered the three questions posed to her (the one's that I intitially posted to myself by accident).
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
June 19,2002
On the ninth day of Westerfield's murder trial, a forensic specialist, (Dorie Savage) testified that a strand of dark black hair was found on the second-grader's body during an autopsy on Feb. 28.
Danielle had blond hair. Westerfield's is black.
The forensic specialist, Dorie Savage of the San Diego Police Department's crime lab, also said a strand of hair was found in the girl's hand during the autopsy.
Hair was also found on the top of a gate by a side yard of the van Dams' house, near a garage door that had been found open on the night the girl vanished from her Sabre Springs house, Savage testified yesterday.
(end excerpt)
Note: I believe the following to be testimony but I didn't extract it from transcripts.
Melvyn Kong, Criminalist, SDPD
Collected hair from Layla, examined contents of 3 vacuum cleaners from the van Dam home. Did not go into the Westerfield RV or house.
Kong testified he used a microscope to study the hair found on the rail of the van Dam's side gate and determined that it was animal hair, probably from a dog or a cat.
Jennifer Shen, Criminalist, Trace evidence section, SDPD
She examined the fingernail clippings taken from Danielle.
Item # 100 - fingernail clipings from the Left hand.
Item # 101 - fingernail clipings from the Right hand.
She found pieces of blue paint on the nails.
Item #103 - Hair from Danielle's Right hand was Danielle's own hair. She states that finding the victim's hair on their own body is fairly common.
Note: Item # 106 - Hair found on Danielle's body was similar to the victim's hair,blond versus black is similar?.
She also found a long orange fiber entangled in Danielle's necklace. She testifed that this orange fiber could be consistent to the orange fibers in Westerfield's laundry.
Also found were blue-grey fibers of a characteristic shape.
Item #106.......black hair found on DvD's body(underarm) if I remember correctly. Yet,notice......Hair found on Danielle's body was similar to the victim's hair
Savage testified Danielle had blond hair. Westerfield's is black.
DW's hair looks to be no more than 2 cm. at the most.
Wonder who's hair that is.
I guess, since DW killed her, that hair doesn't matter.
The blue paint found under the fingernails was never identified or to my knowledge discussed by prosecution or defense.
Did Westerfield have blue paint in his MH, SUV, house,anywhere? Was blue paint found in the vD house, van, truck, backyard, garage, anywhere?
Seems whatever found under, on or around this childs fingers, or nails would have been checked & identified for sure. When being attacked you can believe any person would be clawing, scratching, fighting for their life. Often the nails leave clues. In this case, nothing as to the blue paint under the fingernails.
Absolutely not true.
What most on this thread don't want is to be treated wrong simply because they disagree.
When this first happened, and the police were called in on that Saturday morning, they brought in the homicide and burglary units.
Doesn't that seem a little odd to you?
I can understand burglary, as the testimony from Damon indicated that the alarm lights were on and 1 or 2 doors were ajar. Considering the VD's ran around the house looking for Danielle before calling police, they should have noticed if anything was 'burgled'.
Why homicide?
Well, this goes back to the earlier discussions last week.
What appears to be BLOOD in the VD house, on the stairwell. Out by the GARAGE, on the foundation, and I believe in the garage on the floor (?). DRAG MARKS in the yard leading to the GARAGE.
It seems the team members individually noticed this stuff, but didn't pass the info on to the other team. I believe this was because all INFO had to go to OTT and KEYSER and they decided who to tell what.
THAT is the evidence I am talking about. That and the secondhand information that certain members of those teams believed at the time that someone broke into the house, in an attempted burglary, found and killed Daneille in the house, and drug her out to the garage.
SO THE BIG QUESTION IS: If someone did this, they would have to know that
.....
The VD's had the locks installed in reverse on the door from the HOUSE to the GARAGE, and (if locked) one could not get into the garage via that route.
They would have to drag her out the sliding glass door, through the yard, and into the SIDE DOOR on the GARAGE.
NOW, WHO knew this to be the case?
And why drag her to the garage?
A strand of black hair? I remember later testimony stating that the hair in her hand was her own hair. That she supposedly pulled it out while being raped?/killed?/
I think that like many others, I thought that he was guilty, but that he would get away with it.
Whose blood was on the glove?
I think the most likely case is that the .22 shell is irrelevant. That it was there for a long time. Probably tracked in on the bottom of someone's shoe.
The QUESTION here is not about the shell, it is WHY WASN'T IT FOUND.
I believe that the 'searchers' were there to find specific things and specific things only.
In this case, IIRC, the testimony was that she was taking samples of the carpet fibers from Danielle's room, to be used to compare to fibers in Westerfield's house, to be able to prove he was in her room.
A PINK ELEPHANT with a picture of the real killer actually in the process of murder could have been in the room, and she wouldn't have found it. She was looking for certain carpet fibers, by gosh!
You posted an old article discussing Conklin's testimony.
I would believe you posted it because you suggest this is supportive proof DW did it? RIGHT?
Just remember, newspaper articles are not testimony. Testimony without the following cross-examination does not allow a fair judgement. Conklin admitted later that the engine of his truck was running, and loud, and he couldn't have heard himself speak, little lone someone inside the motor home.
This witness, like many of the others, didn't remember these things until it was all over TV first. Then they suddenly remembered these tiny little details, heard things they couldn't have, saw things they didn't, and wanted so much to help out the VD's and felt so sorry for that dead little girl, they would do just about anything to help.
I believe the shell casing is VERY relevent for a couple of reasons:
Police do not use .22 calibre guns...they use 9mm or .45 calibre.
The shell casing was not found during the first search.
Police are at crime scenes where the perps use .22 shells all the time. Weapon of choice for street thugs, mafia hits, etc.
WHO was in Danielle's room, from the minute she was noticed missing, until the casing was found?
COPS
INVESTIGATORS(LE and other?)
DAMON,BRENDA, THE BOYS, THE NEIGHBORS, hell who knows?
Either it wasn't there the first time, or the 'searcher' wasn't a very complete searcher.
I would consider the .22 shell casing irrelevant, due to the description of it.
It was all scratched up and flattened, as if it had been stuck on the bottom of a shoe. (I didn't see the shell, this is the description from person that found it.)
THERE IS ONE THING THAT BOTHERS ME.
Why did some unidentified LE person check the casing out of evidence, then later bring it back? What did they bring back? The same or a different casing? Why wouldn't the SDLE give the name used to sign it out? This person was apparently not a forensics expert wanting to examine the shell. WHO WAS IT?
Two strands of hair. One under her arm, one in her hand. The dark black hair was not DW's.
Whose blood was on the glove?
It is Marcia Clark's fairy tale, so I'll let her explain it. This is from her Closing Argument.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA; TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1995 9:04 A.M.
MS. CLARK: So what do we find on the Rockingham glove, the one he drops? We find everything. Everything. We find fibers consistent with Ron Goldman's shirt. We find the hair of Ron. We find the hair of Nicole. We find the blood of Ron Goldman. We find the blood of Nicole Brown. And we find the blood of the Defendant. And we find Bronco fiber from the Defendant's Bronco. We find blue black cotton fibers just like those found on the shirt of Ron Goldman and on the socks of the Defendant in his bedroom. And on this glove he is tied to every aspect of the murder; to Ron Goldman, to Nicole Brown, to the car, and of course that is why the Defense has to say that the glove is planted, because if they don't, everything about this glove convicts the Defendant, where it is found, what is found on it, what is found in it, even a black limb hair found inside the glove. Everything about it convicts him.
How does Marcia know the gloves are OJ's? Simple:
MS. CLARK:The point here is that the person who wore those gloves wore size extra large. If they shrunk before that night, he wouldn't have worn them. What do you do with gloves that don't fit? You throw them away, right? That is why he was able to wear them. He would have bought gloves that did fit. That is what he would have done.
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