Jury begins deliberations -Prosecutor says victim has pointed to her killer (keep it civil)

UNION-TRIBUNE signonsandiego.com ^ | August 9, 2002 | Alex Roth

[dread78645]

Jurors in the David Westerfield trial began deliberating yesterday after hearing a final statement from the lead prosecutor, who beamed a photo of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam onto the wall and urged the jury to focus on the physical evidence.

Finishing closing arguments in the two-month murder trial, prosecutor Jeff Dusek called a blood spot on Westerfield's jacket the "smoking gun." And Dusek imagined what Danielle might tell the jury if someone could bring her back to life "just for a moment" so she could answer the question, "Please tell us who did this to you."

"I've already told you," Dusek said the girl would tell the jury. "I've told you with my hair and where you found it. I've told you with the orange fiber that you found on my choker, and where you found it.

[The Other Harry]

For what little this is worth, I spent some time this afternoon reading over the recent Westerfield posts to the alt.true-crime newsgroup. DW isn't doing so well there. From what I could see, the folks who post to that group are pretty much of the opinion that he's both guilty and going to be found guilty based on the forensic evidence, the blood in particular.

And, fwiw, they generally seem like a fairly sophistocated group of posters.

So, we'll see...

[sawsalimb]

No,I got some hits for Van Dam,but they were all for published articles,and those weren't the Van Dam that's generating all this interest. There doesn't seem to be a membership directory on the site,and trying the regional sites(Region 6,Western U.S.,that is)didn't generate anything either.

[Yeti]

No luck using the IEEE site search engine.

I looked in the consultant finder and in the publications search engine. No Damon to be found, although Andries Van Dam seems to have quite an impressive carrer.

[Yeti]

Go, Yeti! You've been Feldmanized! Tee hee

Yikes!!!

I wasn't trying to vex anyone, I just wasn't sure which was the intended meaning.

[pinz-n-needlez]

I meant it as a compliment. You've been absorbed by his mind. hahahaha.

Wish we could have figured out more of this earlier and gotten it to Feldman.

I wouldn't mind having some of his thinking ability. :-)

[Yeti]

There doesn't seem to be a membership directory on the site

I noticed that, too. They probably charge for access to that info.

[Yeti]

I wouldn't mind having some of his thinking ability. :-)

I can use all the thinking ability I can get!

I thought Feldman did really well under the circumstances.

I don't want to second-guess him, BUT .....All I get is streaming video, so it wasn't until someone(prolly fres) posted a pic that I noticed how RED his eyes were during closing arguments. You don't think he might have been a little disorganized because of....er...nah. nevermind, he wouldn't do that, even true believers know it affects your memory short term.

Probably just didn't get much sleep.

[pinz-n-needlez]

Haha. I actually thought during his closing arguments that he probably could have USED some. It would have mellowed him out a bit. :-)

But then I thought of the trade-off and decided, well maybe not. Perhaps he didn't follow my advice. :-)

I just hope the jury looks at the evidence (or lack thereof) rather than killing off dw because his lawyer didn't do so well on the debate team.

I have to think he had sooooo much information flooding his brain that the judge wouldn't let him use. In my mind, all he had to do was present a plausible excuse for 1 hair, 2 spots of dna. Jamieson could have helped him write it.

And then he could have shown the silliness of Dusek's contention that dw kidnapped her. Oh well, I trust he has lots of info that we'll never see. :-/

[small_l_libertarian]

I hope they're wrong, but I have steeled myself for the worst. Hoping for a hung jury, though.

[juzcuz]

"walk-ins" only in the movies..

No- I just found the dates to be oddly similar. There is probably no connection, again the dates jumped out at me when I read about the abduction of Amanda on "unposted" I remembered Danielle's birthday to be the same September 22, 1994. I immediately thought it to be an odd coincidence.

[crystalk]

There are no coincidences. That is also the autumn equinox and was an important pagan day. It also approximates Rosh Hashanah, though I haven't looked up that year to see the exact date.

[bvw]

Just hunted and pecked over there at alt-true-crime. Sorry, but like many usenet groups a small set of know-it-alls dictate the party line and most fall in or get knocked into kill-file hell. One BIG reason I am against kill-files on FR.

Moderation -- which is more general -- but kill files are a no-no.

So don't put much stock in the consensus formed. Never put stock in the consensus. I mean look at the momentum stock funds which do exactly that -- they are barn-burners in a boom market but they crash and burn in dull and irrascible times.

Put your trust in Providene once you have made yourself come to that awesome fear of Providence great leaders have had and e'er will have, I pray.

Such awesome fear always brings the deepest respect for truth and the divine spark in eash individual so that none are discounted (at least completely as in kill-file hell), and pride should find no sticking place in one's heart.

[bvw]

The 22nd September 1994 date was that year in the middle of the weeklong Jewish Sukkot holiday which follows Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippor.

[Dave_in_Upland]

I thought those mechanical eng. folks couldn't spell.

You are korrekt. We mechanikal engeneering types spend too mych tyme in the lab insted of the libary. If it wurks we figure anyone can korrekt the spelling, but anyone thet spends their tyme lerning how to spell cann't necesarrily make it wurk. Peple pay to have something thet wurks.

[hoosiermama]

You spell like I usually do. DIdn't have a bit of throuble reading your post. I've really tried since joining FR. Keep the dictionary in my lap at all times.

[BARLF]

FWIW.. PDvD was out three days.16,17,18 Feb. Not sure his Fl. friend was with him each day. Anyone know when the friend returned to Fl?

[The Other Harry]

Here is a copy of a message I noticed while I was nosing around in the alt.true-crime group which I thought was interesting in the anti-DW camp:

I can't remember the trial - I thought it was Westerfield - where a Court TV psychiatrist talked about how a good percentage of sex crimes against children are not committed by pedophiles (people whose main sexual arousal comes from children) but people who are "polymorphously perverse." (Freud's phrse, IIRC).

Anyway, he said that such people are often aroused primarily by adult heterosexual fantasies, but when they can't accomplish that type of sex, they transfer their arousal to the nearest object (porn, child, animal, etc.)

The theory would be that Westerfield was actually aroused by - and perhaps seeking contact with - Mrs. Van Dam. Danielle was a second choice.

I'm rather surprised that Dusek didn't try to do something with expert testimony along these lines. DW gets jilted by his GF. Then BvD and Danielle come around with the cookies and get invited into the house. Shortly thereafter, he runs in BvD flirting around with other guys at a club; she shows no interest in him. He leaves, feeling frustrated, and knowing that Mrs. vD isn't home looking after the kids, etc.

That still wouldn't explain how he could have got to Danielle without leaving any evidence behind, but it could explain why he might think about going after her.

Not my theory -- just keeping the thread going. ;)

[juzcuz]

This evening I've been trying to search out Fr. Josh Acton,Vicor of St Timothy Episcopal Church in Rancho Pensaquitos, San Diego. The newspaper said Rev. Joseph Acton is the VD's family minister. Anyway, http://www.st-tims-church.org/timothy.html is the church website--

This is amazing-- Go to: Who is St. Tim? scroll down to see how St. Timothy died. It seems some books describe St. Timothy as being stoned or beaten to death by PAGANS, in a feast called Catagogin and/or Katagogian, who wanted to have an ORGY in honor of their goddess "Diana". Timothy stood against them, so they murdered him.

It's amazing that the VanDam's claimed that church, who's patron saint stood against orgy's, as their church considering the sex parties they were into convenient, huh...

[small_l_libertarian]

Interesting theory. I think that it might have been a more believable way for Dusek to go. Wonder why he didn't try this instead of trying to paint DW as a pedophile. Hmmm.

This is more believable to me than what Dusek put forward (IMO), but I still don't think this is what happened.

[The Other Harry]

I agree.