Deliberations Resume Friday, 8-9-02 In Trial Of David Westerfield (VERDICT WATCH CONTINUES!)

CNN.com ^ | August 9, 2002 | CNN

[FresnoDA]

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) --A San Diego jury began deliberations Thursday in the trial of David Westerfield, accused of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.

The panel of six men and six women adjourned for the day without reaching a verdict. It is set to resume deliberations Friday.

[Jaded]

Hey Doc!!

[DoughtyOne]

I thought I had read there were something like 8,000 pictures. Was it only 100 or so that dealt with children? Oh my, that's a paultry sum.

[Dave_in_Upland]

Suppose the jury takes the DA at his word and examines all the evidence presented. They have had votes and found they have hard liners both pro and against guilty.

Each item of evidence. Each line of testimony.

Whose argument do you think will stand the scrutny? Dusek or Feldman?

Or will the jury discussion just degenerate to just another Freeper thread? LOL

[small_l_libertarian]

Less than 100 "questionable" images. One of the police computer guys testified at the prelim that he saw "no images of prepubescent children." Now, that indicates to me that there were approx. 100 or less photos of girls who could have been 15-16-17. Not girls who were definitely not, shall we say, "developed".

[Steve0113]

Don't waste your time. Damon could confess to Danielle's murder and Greg Weston would still say DW did it.

[MizSterious]

It was 80-something. I can't recall the exact amount, but I recall it was in the 80's, not even 100.

[sawsalimb]

Less than 100 "questionable" images.

I'm going to make an observation here-even assuming that Westerfield went out and bought a CD with porno images on it,to my way of thinking,that proves very little. CD's hold unreal amounts of data-I have one that contains the topographical maps of 5 states,on a pretty detailed scale(I want to say something like 1:20000). If he bought the CD in the first place-and I have no idea if he did or didn't-then the images could have very easily been put there by the people that made the CD,just as filler material.

[DoughtyOne]

You know Dave, it makes me much more comfortable to come to these threads and see some bonified questions and theories such as yours posted, than to simply see a bunch of angry comments tilted toward Westerfield frying like he was the guilty party for sure. None of us want to see the perp get away in this case. What we want is to see justice served.

I can identify with your comments. I am guarded about my actions around children. I don't put myself in positions where people could possible wonder if I had done something wrong either. Hey, that's the world we live in fella.

Thanks for the comments.

[DoughtyOne]

Sheesh. That's not very many is it.

[MizSterious]

SignonSanDiego.com has a notification feature we might want to take advantage of--Click here and scroll down to a little box that says "Breaking news alert" and enter your email address. They'll let you know when the verdict is in, so we can all rush to our televisions or computer feeds.

[DoughtyOne]

Am I the only guy who orders items once in a while, they arrive, then I never take a look at them? This doesn't happen very often, but this CD may be something that Westerfield viewed only once or never. Personally I would have destroyed the thing if it had anything unsavory on it. But hey, the guy was human. He may not have been aware how ripe the stuff was.

[Jaded]

You are correct sir. However the original numbers bandied about by well informed LE and the media was 68,000 porn/kiddie porn pics. I ran across this the other night cruising the archives looking for something.

[Kerensky]

None of this ever appeared with DW. I find that troubling. Under 100 images, most of which had been (apparently) immediately erased--this does not suggest a man who's really sexually interested in children. If the original figure we all saw had been valid--and it wasn't--68,000 child porn images--that would have been more in line with the computer of a pedophile.

The libido of the average 50 year old man is a fraction of what it was as a youth. Pornography is an extremely common means of stimulating the fading impulses. The combination of violence and sex, however, is a bit outside the norm, but violent images were not common in his collection.

What images were in Damon's collection?

[DoughtyOne]

I believe the most damaging evidence is the handprint over Westfield's bed in the trailer, and the traces of blood on his jacket. Did I miss the explanation for these things by the defense attorney? I had long thought that the relationship between Westerfield and Brenda was MUCH MORE detailed that we were led to believe. I had thought that Danielle might have scratched herself as kids do, when she was over with mom, and left the evidence then. But this wasn't fleshed out by the defense. That was damning to me.

Is anyone aware of something that relates to this that I missed?

[DoughtyOne]

Well then, this does all hinge on the handprint and the blood doesn't it.

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

FWIW.......When people behave as if framing or planting is so far from the realm of possibility, I cringe. While I believe that this is not at all a common occurrence, it can and has happened.

Imagine how large a department such as SDPD is and the many employees of the district attorney's office. Surely no one thinks that 100% of these folks are saintly. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find a handful or more that are involved in swinging and other shameful acts in their private lives.

If one important person was very worried about exposure, that's all it would take. Some people act like corruption stops at the police department or DA's door and any consideration of hanky panky is just wrong. Puhleeeeeeze !!!

The fact that the blood drop on the jacket was never properly photographed and that the forensic specialists were instructed to not use 35mm is about as suspicious an act as I can fathom.

[small_l_libertarian]

Yes, and if you believe that it's reasonable that she could have gotten (innocently) into his motorhome at sometime in the past, you have to acquit. I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of smoke and mirrors in this case. DW may indeed have killed DVD, but the state did not come anywhere close to proving that he did.

[fnord]

I have the FReeper notification window running. As long as someone uses the ping list to announce when it happens, I will be able to follow from work.

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/notify?detach=1

[DoughtyOne]

68,000 to 80. Some contrast hugh. And if they just appeared to be young girls 15+, then they could very easily have been young looking 18+ women. That leaves only the blood and palmprint to hang him by.

[MizSterious]

Well, therein lies my other problem with the prosecution's case. We don't know how the handprint and the blood spots got there, but we do know that the dogs did not catch her scent in the motorhome--and I do discount the bragging "secret" emails 180-Frank sent out to his friends; his dog never hit on anything, but he wanted to make it seem so. If the child had been in that motorhome that weekend, the dogs would have gone wild--not just Frazee's, but the others as well.

I can only conclude that the handprint and the blood spots were left there long before. One article on how scent dogs function said there should be a scent for up to two weeks. If she'd been there all weekend, dead or alive or dead some of the time and alive some of the time--any combination--the dogs would have "said" so, definitively, not ambiguously.