In taped interrogation, Westerfield tells police 'my life is over'

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | January 7, 2003

[TomB]

In a videotaped interrogation with San Diego police detectives four days after Danielle van Dam was kidnapped, an exhausted David Westerfield says "my life is over," seemingly coming close to an admission that he murdered his 7-year-old neighbor.

"As far as I'm concerned my life is over, the life that I had, the life that I was living is over," Westerfield says in the interrogation conducted the evening of Feb. 5, 2002. Danielle was last seen the night of Feb. 1.

"But you can't blame anyone but yourself, Dave," answers one of the police detectives.

"And I have no problem with that," Westerfield replies.

In the tapes released Tuesday, Westerfield admits "unusual" sexual encounters with his wife, denies anything improper about his alleged use of binoculars to watch neighbors and says the child pornography found on his computer was simply something he downloaded along with a lot of other pornographic images and that he had no sexual interest in children.

Superior Court Judge William Mudd agreed Monday to unseal the videotape along with hundreds of pages of transcripts, documents and recordings in the Westerfield case, as well as transcripts of police interrogations and court hearings conducted in secret.

Some of the material – audiotape and videotape of Westerfield being interrogated during the early stages of the investigation – was released Tuesday afternoon.

The remainder of the material, which ranges from transcripts of closed-door court hearings to motions regarding potential evidence, will be released Monday, Mudd ruled.

The ruling Monday came three days after Mudd sentenced the former design engineer to death for kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, his neighbor in Sabre Springs.

Monday's court hearing came in response to a request by The San Diego Union-Tribune, which has been seeking access to the information for months. The San Diego-based 4th District Court of Appeal has ruled that Mudd must release the information.

The San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists made a donation to the legal costs.

Westerfield, who attended Monday's hearing, is scheduled to be moved within days to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco.

During earlier court appearances, Westerfield was always dressed in civilian attire, but he appeared in court Monday in a green jail jumpsuit. He sat in a holding area so he couldn't be filmed by a television camera.

[UCANSEE2]

You bring up some valid points. I haven't heard the points you listed in paragraph 3 and 4. I have heard some of the information seperately. Did you know Danielle's name before it was on TV that weekend?

So if you were asked, you would say I didn't know her name. (meaning didn't know until I heard it on TV). He had met her when she was selling cookies.

There have been kids that have been over to my house several times. If I saw them today, I wouldn't remember their name or who they 'belonged' to.

He never said he didn't have porn, or that some of it might be considered child porn. The cataloging for Congress is something he told a visitor to him, in jail, not to police.

He never said he considered it OK that the girls looked to be 13 or 14. You made that up.

I believe that the different stories about the child porn could be because of several reasons, one of them being that he could be lying to cover for it's link/his link to the murder of Danielle.

[cyncooper]

Rick Roberts stated on Friday that at the beginning of the program today he would play the last 15 minutes of the tape he's been playing. After that he'll be discussing some of the documents that have been released:

http://www.760kfmb.com/

[UCANSEE2]

Hi Kim. Just wanted to say something to you in the midst of all this controversy. THANK YOU. I haven't replied to you very much lately because I can't find much to object to.

You have your opinion of DW and his trial, different from mine.

You keep an open mind.

You attack the subject, not the speaker.

The points you make are valid.

I just wish others followed your example more.

Is it gonna snow this week?

[cyncooper]

DW asks the police if this (the interrogation) was going to go on and the female office says it is up to him, so off he goes, prattling away again.

[UCANSEE2]

This is such an obvious lie he came up with to explain away any possible evidence that the laundering and drycleaning didn't take care of. And you can bet that Dylan disputed this and even Feldman couldn't go with this lie.

Using Your imagination again. You have absolutely no proof of this. Feldman likely didn't use it because, (1) It was Brenda's word against DW's word, and he had already told DW not to testify. Dylan never testified and wasn't being allowed to testify.

Once again you can't back up your own statements, trying to spew them as facts doesn't work.

And in that same conversation he states the kids did NOT go upstairs during that visit.

DW did say "the kids were all over the house". If he said on tape that the kids did not go upstairs, that is NEW INFORMATION. When did he say they went upstairs ? Or was that Internet rumor?

[cyncooper]

DW tells the females (two) that he's working real hard to make sure the timeline works after they said they believed him when he said he went to the various points he said he had during the weekend.

DW just offered to take the polygraph again. DW offers to meet with police the next day--said he'd be glad to do it.

[cyncooper]

Roberts just went to break, noting that Kramer has told DW he is free to leave, but DW is not going--keeps wanting to talk.

DW said with his own mouth on the tape played last Friday that the kids DID NOT go upstairs. I am not one to traffic in rumors or leaping to conclusions.

[EllaMinnow]

He said they didn't go upstairs, with his own mouth, on one of the tapes.
He also says that he gave the RV a good cleaning, so it would be ready for next time. I recall all the SaveDavers scoffing at the thought that he had cleaned the RV.
Are you sure you listened to the tapes?

[cyncooper]

He also says that he gave the RV a good cleaning, so it would be ready for next time. I recall all the SaveDavers scoffing at the thought that he had cleaned the RV.

Flushed out the waste system twice, if I'm not mistaken, and not seen by anybody either time says he.

[cyncooper]

Tape back.

DW asks the females if they've ever seen someone who failed the test before? They answer yes. He asks if it was proven later that person was innocent. They answer no. DW says "that's not good for me then".

[Rheo]

And his cleaning left hairs from several other people, prints from at least 5 others people, towels on the floor?, fibers all over, left the sponge on the sink (no trace).....yet he cleaned really good.

[EllaMinnow]

More Westerfield Transcripts Released
Feldman Refers To Police Statements As 'Confessions'

POSTED: 11:57 a.m. PST January 13, 2003

SAN DIEGO -- Reporters Monday picked through some 2,000 pages of documents recently released from the David Westerfield trial.



WESTERFIELD TRIAL
Judge William Mudd Issues Death Penalty Sentence
Hear Jury's Death Penalty Recommendation
Watch The Jury's Verdict Being Read
Share Your Thoughts

DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002
Watch Danielle Video Montage
E-mail: daniellevandam
@yahoo.com
Send mail to:
P.O. Box 501515
San Diego, 92150


Thousands of pages of transcripts of hearings held before and during the trial have been released sporadically over the past week. The trial saw Westerfield convicted for the kidnapping and murder of his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam.

The transcripts released Monday are from hearings that were not open to the public. The documents became available at 10 a.m., at which point reporters joined efforts to pick through the pages for previously unseen bits of information.


Video


Everything But Sidebars Being Released




At one point in the documents, Westerfield's attorney, Steven Feldman, refers to Westerfield's statements to police as "confessions," 10News reported.

In arguing to have the "confessions" restricted from the jury, Feldman is corrected by his fellow attorney, and reminded that Westerfield had issued "statements, not confessions." At which point Feldman changes his terminology.

The statements of confessions that Feldman was talking about are believed to be those made during a Feb. 5, 2001, interview by police. In that interview, Westerfield told police that his life was "over," and asked one of the detectives to leave him alone with a gun.

Superior Court Judge William Mudd has said he will release all the material from the trial, with the exception of sidebar hearings.

"I have no idea how many of them there are, what was talked about, or anything else," Mudd said of the sidebar hearings. "I'm simply not going to do it ... It goes too far."


http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/news/1900769/detail.html

[UCANSEE2]

I stated I had been listening as time permits. I was just in a manager meeting for an hour. I am missing much of this. I rely on you posters that have time to listen to all of it.

I am listening to it now. DW seems to perceive that they don't believe him, but sounds honest and straightforward. He acts like he just wants to help the police, get this over with, and get home. What a naive sucker. They (police) probably kept going out of the room to keep from laughing. The more he talked (or anyone for that matter) the more they had to try and trip him up.

Whether you believe it or not, I can get you and two 'interviewers' in a room, and can end up having you in tears and totally broken. The key is usually that the accused thinks that if they keep talking, they will give police that one answer that will satisfy them, and allow them to go home. The police are using little tricks right now (as I am listening) to keep DW talking, without really telling him he can't go. The big trick is the "well, Dave, you are lying and if you can't prove otherwise, we got ya". "Now, you can go home, we won't arrest you".

[EllaMinnow]

He's the one who says he cleaned.

[cyncooper]

The female officers sound like they want him to go! He wants to keep talking.

DW is not boohooing over his rights. He will not shutup!

Female officer says "I've told you you can leave anytime", DW says "I don't believe you, do you have anymore questions?"

He finally goes!

Roberts reminds us that officers follow DW home and they are already executing a search warrant. When RR returns form break he'll pick up the story from there.

[UCANSEE2]

Trouble is, IMHO, that DW thought that telling the police the truth would get him off the hook.

He trusted them. He was more naive than people that believe that the police don't arrest you if you are innocent.

[UCANSEE2]

DW said with his own mouth on the tape played last Friday that the kids DID NOT go upstairs.

I accept that. My question is who said they did? And what does that prove?

[cyncooper]

My opinion is you can vacuum 10 times over and will still have some hair and fiber behind. He says he cleaned--nobody here is claiming he did the most thorough job ever and didn't miss any spots. It can hardly be disputed, when he says it over and over, that he did clean. He's not the first murderer to overlook evidence and as to hairs, any of us with carpet, upholstery, blankets and comforters can attest that after laundering, vacuuming, etc. not all hairs and such will be eliminated--they get worked into the fabric so some will always be missed.

[EllaMinnow]

He told them numerous versions of the same story - which one is the truth?

And thank you so much for wishing a police interrogation on me.

[Rheo]

We knew he said he cleaned the MH months ago....just not the kind of deep cleaning that one would expect after a murder took place in there....didn't even vacuum apparently as the bags had none of her trace but yet many other peoples trace was there....and no detectives mentioned bleach...like the rumors and "facts" were taking as gospel months ago.