[Mrs.Liberty]

true, but what I meant was..some people already think they are negligent/bad parents, what with the swinging, leaving the kids alone, etc. Admitting he is down the street visiting someone's wife or at the local paintball arcade or whatever is not going to make him look any worse if he is not the perp.

[FresnoDA]

4th Bug Expert Testifies About Danielle's Body

Closing Arguments Could Begin Tuesday

 

POSTED: 10:16 a.m. PDT August 1, 2002

UPDATED: 6:37 a.m. PDT August 2, 2002

 

SAN DIEGO -- Insects began laying eggs on the body of Danielle van Dam no earlier than Feb. 12, long after police began tight surveillance of David Westerfield, a new defense insect expert testified Thursday.

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Westerfield, 50, is accused of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam in February. Steven Feldman, Westerfield's lead defense lawyer, began questioning forensic entomologist Robert D. Hall (pictured, right) Thursday morning. Hall is the third bug expert to testify for the defense. Prosecutors called their own entomologist last week.

 

All of the insect specialists have testified about fly larvae and eggs recovered from Danielle's body during the autopsy. The experts testifying for the defense have differed slightly in their analyses, but all said that the insect development showed the body could not have been placed where it was found off Dehesa Road prior to Feb. 10. Prosecution experts have disputed that, saying that the body could have been dumped as early as Feb. 2.

  The date is important because Feldman has said that Westerfield could not have dumped the body after Feb. 5, when police began watching his movements 24 hours a day.

  Hall, interim vice provost for research at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said mummification of Danielle's body would have had "little, if any, effect on the flies." He said the body was infested by the blow flies "no later than Feb. 23, 2002, and no earlier than Feb. the 12, 2002."

  Hall was called by the defense to rebut the testimony of two forensic experts produced by the prosecution. Dr. William Rodriguez, a forensic anthropologist with the Department of Defense, testified last week that van Dam was dead for four to six weeks. Hall said Rodriguez's conclusion was "inconsistent with the evidence I examined."

  Hall said calculations by Chaminade University entomologist M. Lee Goff introduced Tuesday were simply incorrect.

  Hall said that he would expect flies to begin laying eggs on the body at the first possible opportunity. He said it would be very unlikely that the body could lay in the open for five to seven days without any fly activity.

  Prosecutors will continue their cross-examination of Hall after the lunch break.

  Feldman told Superior Court Judge William Mudd on Tuesday that he may also call a witness on Monday. If he finishes examining witnesses then, closing arguments could begin Tuesday in the trial, which has lasted nearly two months.

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