Replies

Where do you find any evidence that there were any parked near to him in the desert?

By Kristen Green
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 14, 2002

Full coverage: More stories, video, witness information and court documents
Day 6: Defendant said 'we' in telling of trip to desert, tape reveals
WITH VIDEO

Day 7 video

Tow truck operator Dan Conklin testifies he heard voice while helping Westerfield free his stuck motorhome in Glamis

Cable-DSL / 56k
Angela Elkus, a woman who brought lunch to the van Dam home the Sunday after the girl disappeared, testifies the family dog was friendly.

Cable-DSL / 56k
Beverly Asky, El Cajon resident, describes seeing the blinds drawn on the front window of Westerfield's motorhome at Silver Strand State Beach.

Cable-DSL / 56k
Asky testifies about the arrival of a state park ranger at the the motorhome.

Cable-DSL / 56k
Teresa Hastings of El Cajon testifies she saw Westerfield close the motorhome's door quickly.

Cable-DSL / 56k
Judge Mudd tells jurors of the note he received from Padres brass concerning his comments from the bench.

Cable-DSL / 56k
Donald Raymond, Silver Strand campground host, testifies he saw Westerfield's wallet during a payment disagreement.

Cable-DSL / 56k

The FREE RealPlayer plug-in is necessary to play RealMedia.

Prosecutors in David Westerfield's murder trial provided more evidence yesterday that Danielle van Dam may have been alive more than 24 hours after she was reported missing.

An Imperial County tow-truck driver testified he thought he heard someone talking as he helped dig Westerfield's motor home out of the desert sand Feb. 3, the day after the girl was kidnapped from her bedroom.

"I just heard what I thought was a voice, you know, and it would have been him because we were the only two people there," Daniel Conklin told the San Diego jury during the seventh day of trial.

Conklin said he walked 10 to 12 feet around the motor home to the spot where Westerfield was digging on the other side and asked Westerfield if he had said something.

"He just shook his head, and I don't remember the exact words, but it was 'I wasn't talking to you' or 'I didn't say anything,' " Conklin testified.

Neither the prosecution nor defense asked follow-up questions about whether the voice sounded like a girl's or that of someone in distress.

A day earlier, prosecutors played a taped police interview with Westerfield in which he used the term "we" while describing his roundabout driving route the weekend Danielle disappeared.

Those are the first glimpses at a possible prosecution theory that 7-year-old Danielle was alive when Westerfield drove hundreds of miles between Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado and the desert, and back to Silver Strand.

Last week, the county medical examiner testified that he couldn't pinpoint when the girl died – or the cause of her death – because her body was badly decomposed when it was discovered Feb. 27 in a rural area east of El Cajon.

Westerfield is accused of kidnapping and killing the girl, who lived two doors from his Sabre Springs home. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Conklin was the last witness before the trial recessed for the weekend. Earlier in the day, several witnesses gave testimony that contradicted parts of Westerfield's taped statement to police.

The 50-year-old design engineer told detectives he planned to go to the Imperial County desert Feb. 2, the morning Danielle's parents reported her missing, but went to the Silver Strand State Beach campground instead because he had forgotten his wallet.

But a volunteer at the campground testified that Westerfield told him he had just used an automated teller machine to get cash, and opened his wallet to show the worker several $20 bills.

Westerfield told police that without his wallet, he didn't have the money to pay for gas to drive to the desert. He decided to leave Silver Strand a few hours after he arrived, he said in police interviews, because the weather was bad and he wanted to go somewhere sunny.

But witnesses testified that Feb. 2, a Saturday, was a beautiful day at the beach, albeit a bit chilly. Westerfield left the motor home only briefly that day – once to talk with a ranger in training who returned $30 he had overpaid and later to challenge the refund, according to yesterday's testimony.

A few hours after Westerfield arrived, Brian Neill, in his second week of training to be a park ranger, knocked on the door of Westerfield's motor home to tell him he had paid $54 rather than $24.

Witnesses said that as Neill walked away, Westerfield came out, quickly closed the motor home's door behind him and insisted he hadn't overpaid. But Neill said he and his trainer, ranger Olen Golden, had opened the envelope Westerfield used to pay the nightly $12 fee and found a $50 bill and four $1 bills inside.

Eventually, Westerfield took the change and stood there until Neill left, Neill testified.

Later, about 4 or 5 p.m., Westerfield went to the ranger station to try to return the refund, said Donald Raymond, who was working as a Silver Strand volunteer.

Raymond testified that Westerfield became "agitated" and insisted he couldn't have paid with a $50 bill because he had just visited an ATM before entering the park. ATMs, he explained, only dispense $20s.

"He pulled out his wallet and showed me three or four $20 bills," Raymond said.

In his taped interview, Westerfield told police that when he left the Silver Strand on Saturday afternoon, he headed home to look for his wallet. He said that when he arrived in his neighborhood, he saw a crush of media vehicles and police cars, and a neighbor told him that a little girl was missing.

He said he quickly searched his house for Danielle, and when he was unable to locate his wallet or the missing girl, he left.

He told police he drove back to the rural Poway residence where he had parked his sport-utility vehicle and discovered his wallet. Then he headed for the desert, where he got stuck in the sand late that night. He said he was trying to get away from loud campers he had parked next to in the Glamis area of Imperial County.

The next morning, someone alerted tow-truck driver Conklin that a motor home was stuck in the sand. By the time Conklin arrived in the late morning, Westerfield's motor home was buried to its sides in sand.

Conklin testified that Westerfield seemed to be in a hurry to leave the area because he asked Conklin several times whether he could dig out the motor home with his truck.

It was while he was using a shovel to remove sand around the motor home's wheels that Conklin said he heard the voice.

Conklin testified that after he freed Westerfield's vehicle, Westerfield paid him $80 of the $150 price they had agreed to and asked for Conklin's address so he could mail him the rest.

Conklin said Westerfield appeared in such a rush to leave that he drove off before Conklin could return Westerfield's wooden levers, used to align the motor home.

Later, under cross-examination by Westerfield's attorney Steven Feldman, Conklin said Westerfield seemed "more put out than nervous." Westerfield helped Conklin dig out the vehicle and offered to get him something cold to drink, the truck driver said.

Conklin testified that it was unusual for a desert enthusiast to get stuck in the deep sand in that area, but told the jury that even experienced drivers can get stuck in the desert darkness.

Earlier, other witnesses from the Silver Strand campground said that when Westerfield arrived, most of the curtains in his motor home were closed, which caught the attention of other campers.

Joyce Rodgers, an El Cajon woman camping a few spaces away, said she was curious about why all the curtains except those covering the front windshield were pulled shut.

"Everybody we know that drives a motor home leaves it open so you have a better view of changing lanes," she said.

Where do you find any evidence that there were any parked near to him in the desert?

From the ACTUAL WRITTEN TESTIMONY of the TRIAL.

Not from the frickin newspaper, that's for sure.

It would seem you get all your information from the newspaper, and I am telling you they were totally biased.

All those 'helpful' citizens said that they NOTICED his curtains were closed. SURE. At a campground, and you notice whose windows are closed, whose are not, and remember the exact shape,size, model of the camper and the person driving. RIGHT.

Funny thing, there were 100's of people who reported they saw DW's Motorhome the weekend Danielle disappeared. They were helpful citizens too. Problem was, the reports were in a 100 different places, all at the same time. Obviously they were 'seeing' or 'remembering' something that wasn't really there.

Now, when someone took a VIDEO of the MH, the curtains were open.

If you didn't show the witnesses a picture of the Motorhome (like they did in court) , the witnesses who say they saw the curtains closed, and asked them what model it was, what color, without help from DUSEK, or someone else, they wouldn't be able to tell you.

Is is possible Westerfield had his curtains closed. CERTAINLY. Most likely when parked. If you have to handle a motorhome by yourself, you don't always do things like OPEN ALL THE DAMN CURTAINS, especially if you are TIRED, UPSET, SWEATY, etc.

The whole line of testimony about the CURTAINS being not open, the 'VOICE' they tow truck driver thinks he maybe possibly, but doesn't remember for sure ,heard..were all part of the Prosecution's efforts to sway the jury with innuendo.

Again, you list newspaper articles, and only the ones biased against DW as proof or support for your belief in his guilt.

Unless you listen to, or read, all the testimony, how can you come up with a proper determination?