Posted on 07/03/2002 6:41:25 AM PDT by FresnoDA
Janet Roehr, who lives across the street from Westerfield in Sabre Springs, said Westerfield typically left the 35-foot motorhome at his house overnight before leaving for a trip.
Roehr said she only saw the 1997 Southwind for a few minutes the afternoon after the girl was discovered to be missing from the neighborhood. She didn't see it again.
Her husband, Mark, testified he did not see the motorhome the day before.
The testimony likely did not help the defense case, which began directly after the midday lunch break. Three witnesses took the stand in the morning before the prosecution rested.
Janet Roehr said she saw the youngest child of Brenda and Damon van Dam chase a ball across the street just two weeks ago.
"Did you see the parents anywhere?" defense attorney Robert Boyce asked.
"No, I didn't," Roehr answered. She said that she had to leave her house and help the boy back across the street.
The van Dams testified earlier in the trial that they kept their children under tight rein, able to play alone along the sidewalk near their house but never across the street.
The defense has portrayed Sabre Springs as a family neighborhood filled with children.
Under cross-examination by Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek, both Roehrs said they never saw young children in the defendant's motorhome.
Westerfield, a 50-year-old self-employed design engineer, could be sentenced to death if convicted of kidnapping and murdering the second-grader, who lived down the street from his home.
He also faces misdemeanor possession of child pornography charges.
Westerfield's next-door neighbor, Paul Hung, testified that he saw the defendant's motorhome parked near Westerfield's home about 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 2, the day Danielle turned up missing.
"I saw the motorhome parked on the side (of the house)," Hung said. "No, I didn't see David that morning."
Hung testified that a half-hour later, the motorhome was gone.
That night, Westerfield was not around as searchers combed the area around the van Dam home, Hung testified.
Detective Johnny Keene was recalled to the stand and told Dusek that Westerfield was questioned the morning of Feb. 4 and again that afternoon and night.
In between, the defendant was free to do what he wanted, Keene testified.
Defense attorneys have alleged that Westerfield -- even though he wasn't under arrest -- couldn't leave and hadn't eaten when he spoke to authorities.
The final prosecution witness, Dr. Joy Halverson, of Quest-Gen Forensics in Davis, testified that the mitochondrial DNA found in four of five hair samples could have come from Layla, the van Dam family's dog.
Halverson said she found a complete match in two samples. She also said she found nothing to exclude the canine as a source for the hair.
Two samples with the full match came from Westerfield's motorhome, according to a chart prepared by the prosecution. One was in the hallway carpet, the other on a bathmat.
The evidence gave the prosecution another link between Westerfield and the slain youngster, who was found dead east of El Cajon on Feb. 27.
Last week, another DNA expert, Holly Ernst of UC Davis, said she was unable to get results from the samples that she could reproduce.
Halverson, though, said Layla's DNA sequence was found in 23 of 267 dogs in her database, or one in nearly 12.
Those numbers, though, are where she ran into trouble in cross-examination by defense attorney Steven Feldman.
Halverson admitted a mathematical error when she narrowed the field in her database from 358 dogs to 267. She said she filed an amended report. The chart shown to jurors gave a third set of numbers.
"Is it good science to make a mathematical error three times in the same data set?" Feldman asked.
Halverson called it human error.
Earlier, a volunteer dog handler testified that he sent an e-mail saying he "was bursting with pride" on the day Westerfield was arrested in connection with Danielle's disappearance.
Jim Frazee, who volunteers with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, sent the e-mail to three friends on Feb. 22 -- 16 days after his dogs examined Westerfield's motorhome at an impound lot on Aero Drive.
Frazee testified last week that one of the dogs, Cielo, gave an alert signal at the door to an exterior storage compartment on the passenger side of the vehicle while searching for the child's remains.
Under cross-examination by Boyce today, Frazee said he did not mention the alert in a report he filed because police investigators asked for the results to remain confidential.
"On Feb. 6, you don't recall telling anyone what the dog found?" Boyce asked.
"I don't recall what I told them," Frazee said.
The defense concentrated on the fact that, with no other report filed, the only evidence of Cielo's alert came from the e-mail after the defendant's arrest.
Boyce quoted Frazee's e-mail, which he said stated: "I wasn't sure, but I thought Cielo was giving his cadaver alert. I thought he may have been doing this just to please me. Today, however, came word of the suspect's arrest and that they found blood in the motorhome."
Frazee said the arrest raised his confidence in Cielo's finding.
Frazee's supervisor, reserve sheriff's Lt. Rosemary Redditt, said she watched Cielo's search of the outside of the motorhome and had no trouble recognizing the dog's alert at the storage door.
The prosecution's case: A mountain of circumstance |
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With just four months to prepare for a capital murder trial involving multiple alleged crime scenes spread over hundreds of miles, the legal team prosecuting David Westerfield for the murder of his neighbor Danielle van Dam has opted to keep things simple. Prosecutors Jeff Dusek and George "Woody" Clarke, who are expected to wrap up their case this week, have put on 70 witnesses over 14 days in a chronological presentation as straightforward as Dusek's ramrod posture and as orderly as the charts Clarke uses as trial exhibits. Jurors heard first about the panicked Saturday last February when Danielle's parents discovered the 7-year-old missing from her suburban bedroom. They then heard about Westerfield's activities that weekend and finally about forensic evidence linking him to Danielle and child pornography indicating a possible motive.
The case against Westerfield is circumstantial. No one saw the 50-year-old engineer abduct Danielle, nor dump her naked body along a roadside 25 miles away. But with their circumstantial case, prosecutors built a substantial hurdle for Westerfield's defense to overcome. LONG, STRANGE TRIP Westerfield's own words may offer compelling evidence against him. Jurors heard a taped interview in which Westerfield admitted that his alibi for the weekend Danielle vanished — a meandering trip around southern California in his recreational vehicle — sounded "weird." The prosecution spent four days of its case on Westerfield's convoluted account of his whereabouts. In the taped interview, Westerfield recounted going from his home to the beach, then returning home, then driving to the desert, to two other remote spots, back to the beach and finally home. At one point in the tape, he used the first-person plural although he claimed he was alone on the trip. "This little place we were, we were at was just a small turn-off type place," Westerfield said. Dusek seized on that point and other inconsistencies in the account. Although Westerfield was a desert sports enthusiast, for example, he went to the barren outpost of Glamis that weekend without any of the dune buggies he normally took. A host of other witnesses confirmed some parts of his itinerary but also detailed strange behavior on his part, indicating he was trying to hide something. Beach campers testified that he never set up camp at his RV after driving into Silver Strand State Beach Park, but instead remained inside the vehicle with all the shades drawn despite the pleasant day. It was so unusual, camper Joyce Rodgers testified, that she and her son-in-law began discussing, "Why did the front window get closed? Maybe he had a girlfriend. Maybe he had just been traveling and needed to rest." Glamis campers testified that Westerfield drove his motor home so far from the established campsite that he got stuck in a dune and had to be pulled out. During this operation, one man said, he heard a voice and thought Westerfield was engaged in conversation with someone else. Finally, two employees of a drycleaning store who waited on Westerfield at the end of his trip, a stop he failed to mention to police, said he behaved strangely. The usually loquacious man was silent and looked drawn and weary, they testified. FROM THE LAB The strongest evidence against Westerfield came in the second portion of the prosecution's case — the forensic experts. Police officers did not find any evidence of Westerfield in the van Dam home, but fingerprint, DNA and trace evidence analysts testified that there were many indications of Danielle's presence in the defendant's home and RV. A police fingerprint examiner said a handprint found above the bed in Westerfield's motor home matched Danielle's. "The print has been identified as Danielle van Dam's which means she touched the cabinet," Jeffrey Graham told jurors. DNA analyst Annette Peer said blood fitting Danielle's DNA profile was found on a jacket Westerfield had taken to the drycleaners and on the carpet of his RV. The chance that the blood came from someone else was only one in 670 quadrillion and one in 130 quadrillion that the stain was not Danielle's, Peer told jurors to gasps from the courtroom gallery. Other lab analysts testified that hairs found in the RV and Westerfield's laundry likely came from Danielle or her maternal relatives, and another expert said one hair found in the RV's bathroom drain fit her DNA profile exactly. A fiber analyst said that a single strand of orange fiber found in the necklace Danielle was wearing at the time of her death matched 20 to 30 fibers found in Westerfield's washer, 50 to 100 found on top of the washer, another 50 to 100 in his laundry, and 10 to 20 found in the bedding in his master bedroom. "The fact that it is in so many places... it's certainly an additive effect," criminalist Jennifer Shen testified. Other lab analysts said animal hair in Westerfield's home and vehicle was consistent with the van Dam's dog and that carpet fibers on his property were similar to those from Danielle's bedroom. Prosecutors also used these witness to combat defense suggestions that trace evidence like fibers and hairs may have been accidentally spread by lab technicians and police officers going from scene to scene. The investigation, the witnesses said, was divided so that experts like Peer did not visit the van Dam home and the Westerfield home and RV, but rather stuck to a single area. DISTURBING PHOTOS, POSSIBLE MOTIVE The jury seemed most affected by the third portion of the prosecution's case — child pornography recovered from computers and disks in Westerfield's home. Computer forensics examiner Jim Watkins testified last week that there were 10,000 pornographic images and videos on the computers and 85 or about one percent involved children. Watkins showed jurors still photos of naked pubescent girls and several disturbing videos of young girls and teens being raped. In some of the videos, the girls struggled and screamed as men held them down. Several of the jurors started to cry as the pornography was displayed. The medical examiner was unable to say whether Danielle was raped and Westerfield is not charged with sexual assault, but prosecutors were clearly hoping the jury will conclude he was fixated on young girls and took her for sexual purposes. ROOM FOR THE DEFENSE? It is this strong, linear case the defense will begin challenging later this week. In their questions during cross-examination, Westerfield's lawyers, Steven Feldman and Robert Boyce, suggested a number of different fronts of attack.
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sw
It's on tonight 10pm Eastern..9pm Central. Enjoy!
sw
Got it...thanks!!
"I did not...have sex...with that woman....Mizz Van Dam.
Or was it Barbara? I don't recall.
(Rich, Hon, can I get one of your special smokes? I'm feelin' kind of peckish here.)
You know, Brenda makes the best cookies. (Hi, Brenda!)
Okay, so...uh... what did you ask me, again?"
How's the migraine today?...hope you are feeling fantabulous!
Henrietta, come on over to this thread...the waters fine..
sw
They were discussing witnesses and Feldman says I hear a couple of the witnesses have retained attorneys...yes says Dusek....Feldman asks if they have been granted immunity...Dusek says not at this time..Feldman requests to be informed if it happens.
329 posted on 7/2/02 11:14 PM Pacific by Rheo
Dusek was trying to hide this fact from Feldman. Could it be the reason Barbara Easton was not called by the prosecutor is because her attorney advised her to assert her 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination?
For those who claim that an innocent accused should run to the stand to testify, why would an innocent person who has not even been accused of a crime need to lawyer-up?
If Feldman can get this fact in front of the jury, DW is home free. It may be that these witnesses lawyered-up because of false statements they made to the police and are worried about perjury/false statements unrelated to the actual cause of Danielle's death (i.e. wanted to hide their sexual activities). The prosecutor may have to grant these witnesses immunity before thay will agree to testify further. Feldman would obviously oppose such a motion, but no matter how the judge would rule, it would be a huge boost for DW. If this is the case, Dusek should have been the one to bring it to the attention of the jury so as to minimize the impact by explaining why these individuals would want to hide such information. On the other hand, just maybe these witnesses do have something to hide regarding the death of Danielle.
Once a witness asserts his/her 5th Amendment right against self incrimination on one question, they will have been instructed by their attorney to do the same for every question that follows, much like what happened with Furman in the O.J. case. (I think the whole racial slur thing in the OJ case was taken grossly out of context and ITO should have prevented Cochran from questioning Furman abot his use of the 'N' word which was obviously only for a book of fiction)
Another question. Did the VDs have life insurance on Danielle; and if so, how much? It seems to me that the VDs spending habits and financial situation deserves some close scrutiny.
It looks to me like DW is about 90% of the way towards an aquittal.
SAN DIEGO ---- Defense attorneys for the man accused of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam began presenting their case Tuesday by calling a series of neighbors to refute previous testimony that the defendant, David Westerfield, was acting strangely the weekend the girl disappeared.
Other portions of the testimony backed up some of the statements Westerfield made in a taped police interview about the meandering trip he took in his motor home that weekend in February, driving first to Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado, then to the desert and back to Coronado.
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The prosecution rested its case earlier Tuesday, the 15th day of the emotionally charged trial that has attracted national attention. Jurors heard from an animal DNA expert who said dog hairs found in Westerfield's motor home could belong to the van Dam's family dog.
Jurors also heard more testimony about a search dog that checked out Westerfield's motor home after it was impounded by police.
Danielle was reported missing from her Sabre Springs home on Feb. 2. Her nude and decomposing body was found under a tree in the rural East County five days after Westerfield was arrested on Feb. 22.
Danielle's parents, Damon and Brenda van Dam, have testified they were only passing acquaintances with Westerfield and didn't even know his name until a week before their daughter disappeared.
Westerfield, 50, a design engineer and twice-divorced father of two, lived two houses down from the van Dams.
The trial made a marked shift after the defense started calling its witnesses in the afternoon, although the prosecution may call one more witness. The identity of that possible witness and the subject of the testimony were not discussed.
Much of the questioning by defense attorneys centered on Westerfield's motor home and the possibility that children might have gotten inside the 35-foot vehicle while it was parked in the northern San Diego neighborhood.
Experts have testified that Danielle's hair, blood and fingerprints were found in Westerfield's motor home, along with fibers similar to carpet from the van Dam's home.
Janet Roehr, a stay-at-home mom who lived directly across the street from Westerfield, said she had previously seen Westerfield take his motor home to the Silver Strand, come back home, then go back to the Silver Strand, all in the same day.
In the taped interview played for jurors two weeks ago, Westerfield repeatedly says his rambling trip the weekend Danielle disappeared may sound "strange," but it makes perfect sense to him.
Mark Roehr, her husband, testified that he saw Westerfield pull up in his motor home about 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 ---- the day Danielle was reported missing. He said Westerfield shrugged as if to ask "what's going on" when he saw all the activity in the neighborhood.
In the taped police interview, Westerfield said he talked to Mark Roehr when he returned home to look for his wallet before heading for the desert. By then, many people in the Sabre Springs neighborhood were gathered on the corner to watch the police activity surrounding Danielle's disappearance.
The Roehrs each described Westerfield as "friendly" and said he parked his motor home in the neighborhood for shorter periods of time in recent months. Several witnesses have previously testified that Westerfield would take several days to prepare for trips in the motor home.
On the day Danielle was reported missing, the motor home was only at his house for a few hours.
Westerfield's next-door neighbor, Paul Hung, said he didn't hear anything strange at the Westerfield house the night before Danielle was reported missing.
Hung also said it wasn't unusual for Westerfield to leave his backyard lights on, an observation made the night before Danielle's disappearance by another neighbor, who said she found it strange that those lights were on and his blinds were shut.
Each of the three neighbors said there are a lot of children in the neighborhood and they've seen children walk by Westerfield's motor home. None of them said they had seen any children go in the vehicle. Neither were they able to say if Westerfield regularly left the motor home unlocked.
When questioned by Westerfield's attorneys, the Roehrs and Hung also testified it wasn't completely out of character for Westerfield to leave his garden hose out. Earlier in the trial, a detective testified that she was suspicious after finding Westerfield's hose lying out on his front lawn because he had such nice landscaping. Detective Maura Parga testified it looked like someone had left in a hurry when she went by Westerfield's house the day before he returned from his trip.
"It was usually rolled up, but sometimes it was left out," Janet Roehr said.
Under cross examination, Hung said the hose was usually out when Westerfield was washing his car, then he would wind it back up.
Westerfield's defense attorneys also briefly called several detectives to the stand. One, Johnny Keene, talked about the time he spent with Westerfield two days after Danielle was reported missing. Another didn't answer any questions, except to say he interviewed one of the van Dams' friends.
Another police detective called by the defense, Detective James Tomsovic, testified he didn't see a search dog react in any way when it was taken around Westerfield's motor home within days of Danielle's disappearance.
Last week, Jim Frazee, a volunteer canine handler with the San Diego County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team, testified that his search dog, Cielo, "detected a cadaver scent" in a storage area under Westerfield's motor home.
But on Tuesday, Frazee was called back to the stand and asked under cross examination by Westerfield's attorney, Robert Boyce, to read an e-mail Frazee sent out to friends the day Westerfield was arrested.
In the e-mail, Frazee says that he hadn't been sure whether Cielo's reaction to the motor home was merely to please him or was a legitimate reaction to the presence of the scent of a cadaver. Frazee said he was pleased when he read that blood was found in Westerfield's motor home. Frazee also testified he didn't tell anyone about the reaction or write a report.
Frazee testified the e-mail states "he could get in trouble" for sending the message because the searches are supposed to be confidential.
Jurors also heard from veterinarian and animal DNA expert, Joy Halverson, that tests done on dog hairs found in Westerfield's motor home show it could belong to the van Dams' dog, but she could not say it was a direct match.
Contact staff writer Kimberly Epler at (760) 739-6644 or kepler@nctimes.com.
7/3/02
From: bponting@ibsys.com [mailto:bponting@ibsys.com]
I would like to be able to respond or fix any problems in the article, but I can't unless you tell me what in the article you believe to be slanted or incorrect. All you have said so far is that it is inaccurate.
Regards,
Bob Ponting
Managing Editor
NBCSandiego.com
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, July 03,2002 8:02 AM
To: Ponting, Robert
Subject: RE: Shoddy Reporting
How could you actually miss the statement? The story is inaccurate. The media slant to this trial is horrible. Believe it or not there are people who actually listen to the trial. The various media outlets are obviously not among the group that does listen. I suppose when ratings and money are the only things that count, credibility is a non-issue. Thanks.
-----Original Message-----
Thanks for writing. But what is your complaint?
Regards,
Bob Ponting
Managing Editor
NBCSandiego.com
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 7:27 AM
To: 'webstaff@NBCSandiego.com'
Subject: Shoddy Reporting
Westerfield Defense Begins Presenting Its Case
Defendants Neighbors Testify On RV And Children
When gathering information to "write" this story, what trial were you watching? Surely not the one presided over by Judge Mudd.
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They implied that the van Dam parents practice of swinging brought many unsavory people into the family home and any one of those people could have done harm to Danielle. The van Dams acknowledged their unorthodox sex life on the witness stand, but both Brenda and Damon van Dam said there was no group sex the night Danielle vanished and none of their house guests, three of whom testified, went near Danielle's bedroom.
entomologist to testify that Danielle died after Feb. 4, when police began keeping Westerfield under constant surveillance. Danielle went missing Feb. 1 and the medical examiner could not pinpoint an exact time of death, but only a range of 10 days to six weeks prior to Feb. 27, the day her body was found.