Prosecutor: Westerfield Guilty 'Beyond Possible Doubt'(Many Still Find Van Dam's Culpable)

Court TV ^ | August 7, 2002 | Harriet Ryan

[shezza]

The Van Dams, Brenda and her son and her daughter, were brought into his environment.

The sinister bleach, remember? "Anybody knows that if you use bleach it will knock out DNA!" Did you know that? News to me. So suddenly David's sinister because he was using bleach. This isn't sinister, it's doing laundry after coming back from a 3-day weekend.

We know fibers get picked up from the floor and plopped out to the floor (as per Susan), and they get into the laundry and they transfer and they transfer and they transfer. They could not make a common fiber source. They could not make a conclusion of David. NOt one fiber in the entire case did they say did NOT come from a common source, except for those from which DAW was explicitly excluded.

[FresnoDA]

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

DID THE POLICE BUNGLE THE CASE OF ADAM WALSH?

BY TAMMERLIN DRUMMOND

---

The story is already part of contemporary lore, a wrenching lore to break our hearts: the disappearance of a six-year old boy named Adam on July 27, 1981; the discovery of his severed head 16 days later in a Florida drainage ditch; the inability of the legal system to pin the crime on anyone. Two TV movies have been produced on the ordeal of Adam's parents, John Walsh and his wife Reve. But only recently did Walsh--the no-nonsense host of the Fox TV show America's Most Wanted--decide to write down his own story. From its searing prologue through its frank re-creation of the lives undone by Adam's murder, Tears of Rage (Pocket Books; 318 pages; $24) astonishes the reader by turning a familiar tale into one full of fresh detail, undiminished pain and troubling revelation.

The book began as a record of Walsh's transformation from victim to crusader for a constitutional amendment on victim's rights. But as his co-author, PEOPLE senior writer Susan Schindehette, explored the documents on Adam's death, details emerged of a potential bungle by the Hollywood, Florida, police. To the surprise of Walsh, a loud champion of police work generally, the revelations were found in a 10,000-page case file that a judge had released to the media in 1996 against the wishes of the family. Walsh had feared it would hurt the investigation by publicizing information known only to the killer. The media found little worth writing about. But Walsh did.

He insists that the preponderance of evidence points to a drifter named Ottis Elwood Toole as his son's murderer. In one confession, Toole said he decapitated Adam with a machete and placed the head on the floor of his white Cadillac, which he then drove to a secluded spot off the Florida turnpike. He threw the head off a small bridge. Walsh asserts he even took police investigators to the location. Toole, however, stopped cooperating when, Walsh writes, the police became verbally abusive; he recanted. It might have been possible to run DNA tests to determine whether the blood in Toole's Cadillac was Adam's. But the carpet samples have disappeared. Police also mistakenly sold the car to a junkyard. And, while Toole was the prime suspect, Walsh says the police stubbornly focused attention on James Campbell, a family friend who had been involved in an affair with Reve. In 1988, Toole sent Walsh a letter from prison demanding $5,000 to talk about the location of Adam's body. Walsh immediately gave the letter to police. He has since discovered, he writes in Tears, that it was never forwarded to the district attorney.

Hollywood police chief Rick Stone, who says he has skimmed Walsh's book, maintains that his department never had the carpet samples to begin with because the car was impounded by another law-enforcement agency. Stone says there is no evidence to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Toole murdered Adam. Both Toole and his close friend, convicted mass murderer Henry Lee Lucas, were notorious, he says, for confessing to crimes they didn't commit.

Walsh had held out hope that Toole, suffering from cirrhosis and facing five life sentences for other crimes, would make a deathbed confession. He may have. Walsh has since learned from an ex-prison official that Toole had spoken of Adam's murder to a nurse before he died in September 1996. But confidentiality rules prevent the nurse from confirming the allegation. Toole's niece told a detective her uncle confided that he had killed Adam, and felt bad about it. That is little consolation for John Walsh. Hearsay is not closure.

[nycgal]

Have you read the info on the MCF site?

I've been to the site and have read some of the info. I do plan to go back to complete the reading, but wish he didn't come across as being a bit flaky.

[demsux]

Duhhhhhhhhsek is sitting there writing up his new resume

[shezza]

Photo of interior of Mr. Westerfield's residence. Some pretty interesting clues in it. LE said they set things up to photograph it the way they wanted. Linens and things folded on dryer. Who folded that? There's no evidence DAW folded them.

Gas receipts entered into evidence...who do they belong to? Neal went and bought gas on 4th. Exhibits A, B, C, D, E--and here they are out (pointing to photos). Wait a minute, in K, here's "Damon and Brenda and a phone number"--who wrote that? Oh, Brenda.

Dusek said there was a dyed blonde hair in the motorhome. He said it belonged to Danielle L. Who else had dyed blonde hair? If Brenda had been in the motorhome, would she tell you?

We know kids bleed, anyone with a child knows kids bleed. You've got bandaids everywhere.

YOu claim you only met this man, dirty dancing. You claim he wanted to meet your girlfriend, but you leave YOUR number instead of the girlfriend. Would any of you do that?

[HoneyBoo]

The day he disappeared, Adam and his mother, Reve Walsh, went shopping at the mall. After dropping off Adam in a Sears toy department, Mrs. Walsh went looking for a lamp. When she returned, Adam was gone.

Why didn't Mrs. Walsh just put a sign on her son's back saying "take me." It's impossible not to feel sorry for the family but leaving a kid alone in a toy store is as stupid as it gets.

[the Deejay]

Well, Feldman said he could have gone to Mexico or FRANCE. And if he'd gone to France, he wouldn't have been home by Monday. He would have been gone a long length of time. Man hunt or no man hunt. He wouldn't have known he was a suspect in Danielle's disappearance.

[shezza]

You heard Dusek say yesterday that LE smelled bleach in the garage. FALSE!! Parga said she smelled bleach on the side of the house, Keene said he smelled nothing.

[shezza]

In the house, dogs had been tracked. (1) the provided tape of Mark Matthews (showed dogs); (2) showed Redden, discussion of how many times dogs were in house; (3) We know they DNA'd one of those dogs, but they didn't touch the other.

In taped interview, WEsterfield gave estimate of times. IN statement made by Redden, DAW used the term "we." Go back to Brenda's testimony and see how many times she misspoke.

[shezza]

Det. told them that Howard Lebore was both in Van Dam residence and in the Westerfield residence who said there was something unusual in there. Command center was right in the middle of the area, between the two houses. LE were going back and forth from WEsterfield house to VD house, although they said they were being careful to not cross-contaminate.

[shezza]

Here we were supposed to have some neatnik, but Det. Tomsovic said some rooms not very neat, stuff under furniture, oven not clean, can't tell condition of clothing in laundry. When you see photos of laundry, please remember that the officers do not accurately depict the condition of the clothing the way the officers found it...Parga said she picked it up and moved it for photographing.

[shezza]

Jennifer Shen said that all the special fibers of note (long brilliant green, blue, red) not found in DAW environment, although they were in the Danielle recovery environment.

Shen says most common fiber is cotton. Dulaney says the most common fiber is acrylic. The experts don't even agree. You're told by the judge to weigh the credibility of the experts. On something as fundamental in the area of your expertise, you don't know which fiber is the most common? Could have come from teh same source, could NOT have come from the same source. Isn't doing laundry an innocent activity?

[FresnoDA]

Calif. Girl Slay Case Nears the End

Wednesday, August 7, 2002
Last updated at 10:59:39 AM PT

By BEN FOX
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Defendant David Westerfield, the man accused of killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, listens in court as defense attorney Steven Feldman makes his closing argument, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2002, during Westerfield's murder trial in San Diego. Feldman, challenged the prosecution's theory, holding up a blank poster board to underscore that there is no physical evidence showing Westerfield was in the van Dam home. (AP Photo/Dan Trevan, Pool)

SAN DIEGO -- The trial of the man accused of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old neighbor Danielle van Dam neared its finish Wednesday with the defense saying there is no evidence the suspect was ever in the victim's home.

Prosecutors trying David Westerfield have relied on circumstantial evidence and made guesses in forming their theory of February's kidnapping, defense attorney Steven Feldman said in his closing argument.

"They have to stretch. There's too many holes. There's no smoking gun," he said.

Prosecutors, however, have said Danielle's fingerprints, hair and blood were found in Westerfield's motor home and on one of his jackets. The jury could begin deliberations later Wednesday.

Danielle was last seen when her father put her to bed on Feb. 1. After a massive volunteer search, her nude body was found Feb. 27 along a rural road east of San Diego.

Westerfield, a 50-year-old engineer, is charged with kidnapping, murder and possession of child pornography. He could face the death penalty if convicted of killing the girl who lived two houses away.

Feldman said no fingerprints or other traces of his 6-foot-2 client were found in the van Dam home. Westerfield had never been in the two-story home and had no one way of knowing how to move through it in the dark, he said.

The defense also suggested that the lifestyle of the girl's parents, which included drug use and spouse swapping, might have exposed her to strangers who could have harmed her.

Damon and Brenda van Dam testified that they had smoked marijuana the night of their daughter's disappearance and had, in the past, had sex with another couple.

"If you engage in sex and drug behavior ... who are you inviting into your home?" Feldman said during his statement Tuesday. "When you invite the world in you don't know what you bring."

Prosecutor Jeff Dusek told jurors that there was no doubt Westerfield killed the girl. He said Danielle's fingerprints, hair and blood were discovered in Westerfield's motor home and on a jacket he took to a dry cleaner two days after she disappeared.

"He's guilty to the core," Dusek said Tuesday.

For the first time, Dusek also outlined how authorities believe the crime was carried out. He said Westerfield crept into the van Dam home and may have lurked in the girl's darkened bedroom for an hour before abducting her.

Dusek said authorities believe Westerfield left a neighborhood bar where he had seen Danielle's mother and, acting out his sexual fantasies, sneaked into the van Dams' house through an unlocked door at the side of the garage.

Danielle, her father and two brothers were asleep but a short time later the mother and some friends arrived.

"He gets penned in and hides somewhere, probably in her room," Dusek told jurors. "The bottom line is, though, he did it."

Westerfield took the girl to his home and then on a trip in his motor home, the prosecutor said. Dusek speculated that Danielle was killed in the motor home, although authorities have not been able to determine how she died.

[bvw]

I have wondered about what exactly the computer forensics expert meant by being able to check viewing times by checking the windows registry, as media player leaves some tracks. I have some doubt that those tracks left really represent actual views, or that other usages of media player could cause them without actually viewing the files.

[shezza]

Parga was in VD residence on Sunday, said she changed her shoes because her boss made fun of them, then went into MH. Then went into Westerfield house. Said she put the garden hose in her notes. Then after shown notes she said she didn't tell jury about garden hose. Two inconsistent statements within minutes. Was she "caught"? Was it a mistake? Did she just forget? What about the memory of even a law enforcement witness who contradicts herself within five minutes.

Looked at laundry, then Parga went upstairs. I'm sorry, but she was tracking trace. She was all over the place.

[shezza]

DAW throws laundry onto floor, picks up Danielle's hair (from cookie visit), gets thrown into laundry.

[the Deejay]

Feldman is doing an EXCELLENT job. I'm enjoying his presentation. He's sure hitting on all bases. I'm so glad to hear him pointing out Dusek's lies from yesterday.

Feldman is one of the very "few" defense attorneys that's not sleaze. He just points out the truth, facts & evidence. DW sure has an excellent attorney.

I hope the transcripts for today, get placed online soon. I cannot wait to read them.

[shezza]

They cannot prove where the fibers came from, what is the source. Dusek said in his opening statement that he was going to show you the source of that orange fiber in Danielle's necklace. But under microphotospectrophotometry, the similar orange fibers were excluded. All the other fibers, didn't use microphotospectrophotometry, because as Jennifer Shen says, "I didn't have time."

They cannot show a source for those fibers.

[Yeti]

You rock, shezza!

[shezza]

If Dusek tells you Layla's hair was anywhere in DAW environment, that indicates Locarde principle of transfer. Between Wednesday and Thursday. Double standard--want to use transfer on some instances, but exclude the transfer theory when it suits prosecution.

Denise, Barbara, Brenda, could have transferred fibers while dancing.