Game pieces: DW, Danielle, Brenda, Damon, the "swingers", LAPD, Dusek, Mudd, Feldman, Bug Experts, Unknown killer, John and Ken, etc.
Wild Cards: Bury body, Get more pizza, Hot muggy weather, Danielle makes a night trip to the playground, Mudd declares a mistrial, Take a wild ride in the Motor home, Swingers spend the night, etc.
Alternate outcomes: Danielle lives to play another day, Brenda is pulled over and arrested for drunk driving, Westefield wins the Nobel prize in Medicine, Unknown killer is arrested with Danielle's foot in his refridgerator.
August 15, 2002
The jury trying to decide the fate of accused child killer David Westerfield returns to court today for a sixth day of deliberations.
After the jury went home yesterday, a bailiff for Superior Court Judge William Mudd told reporters that there was no record in the file indicating the jury had passed any notes to the court on Wednesday.What happened during Day 5 of the deliberations?
A closed-door "sealed" motion brought by Westerfield's defense team is also scheduled to be heard this morning.
Westerfield, 50, is charged with murder, kidnapping and misdemeanor possession of child pornography in connection with the death of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, his Sabre Springs neighbor.
Since it got the case last Thursday, the jury has asked to review all of the pornographic evidence in the case and to look at photographs that Westerfield had taken of his ex-girlfriend's teen-age daughter, according to court documents.
Prosecutors told the jury that one photo of the daughter lying by the pool was sexually suggestive.
Jurors also re-listened to a taped interview the defendant gave to a police interrogation specialist on Feb. 4, two days after Danielle's mother discovered her missing from her bed.
In the interview, Westerfield makes a reference to "we" when describing his 550-mile trip through San Diego and Imperial counties on Feb. 2 and Feb. 3. The defendant had told authorities he took the drive by himself.
Letters from the public in the court file included theories of what could have happened in the case.
"Danielle van Dam killed herself," one letter said.
One man was very concerned about entomologists called by the defense in an attempt to show the defendant could not have left the child's body beside an East County road because he was under tight surveillance by police and the media.
"The O.J. Simpson case was a miscarriage of the State's justice mainly because Judge Ito was too lenient with the ACTORS defending OJ," the writer warned Mudd, referring back to the televised murder trial of the former football player and actor.
An e-mail copied to both District Attorney investigator Richard Cooksey and KFMB radio's Rick Roberts said the talk show host was stupid, unethical and possibly criminal for airing information gained from a source about a recent closed hearing involving a security matter.
The trial, which started June 4, included 23 days of testimony during which 98 witnesses were called and 199 court exhibits placed on display.