NOOSE TIGHTENS AROUND WESTERFIELD
Westerfield Affidavits To Remain Sealed Appeals Court Grants Westerfield Request
Updated: 4:24 p.m. PST March 4, 2002
David Alan Westerfield, accused of abducting and killing the 7-year-old, filed a petition with the appeals court after Superior Court Judge Cynthia Bashant ordered affidavits and returns in support of search warrants unsealed. The appeals court directed attorneys for the District Attorney's Office and the San Diego Union-Tribune -- which requested that the documents be made public -- to respond to the 50-year-old, self-employed engineer's petition by Friday.
"The Superior Court is directed to transfer under seal to this court all records pertaining to the search warrants executed in this case, i.e., search warrant affidavits, returns, inventories, papers filed in connection with the motion to seal and sealing orders," the appeals court wrote in a one-page order.
In conditionally granting the newspaper's request, Bashant ordered released all search warrant affidavits with the exception of two photo exhibits. Two attachments labeled "sexually explicit material" should also remain sealed, Bashant said.
She also granted a motion by Westerfield and the District Attorney's Office to redact, or edit out, material that would be inadmissible at trial.
"The court finds that Westerfield's right to a fair trial is an overriding interest that overcomes the right of public access to this portion of the record and there is substantial probability that he would be prejudiced by the unsealing," Bashant wrote.
The unredacted affidavits may be unsealed at the conclusion of Westerfield's trial, the judge said.
According to the search warrants released last week, police searched Westerfield's two-story home for "lifts" from footwear; binding materials, such as tape or rope; and videos, CDs, prints or other depictions showing nudity or sexual activities involving juveniles.
Officers also searched Westerfield's computer for sexual images, according to the search warrants. A separate warrant reflects that investigators also searched Westerfield's Toyota 4Runner, his motor home and a 1998 car carrier.
Additionally, officers were looking for children's pajamas, "Mickey Mouse" earrings and diaries or letters relating to juvenile abduction, according to one of the warrants.
When Westerfield was arrested Feb. 22, police Chief David Bejarano said detectives found traces of Danielle's blood on a piece of Westerfield's clothing.
It was also reported that Westerfield's DNA had been found in the child's bedroom, and that child pornography had been taken from his home.
Westerfield, 50, who lived two doors from the van Dams in Sabre Springs, pleaded innocent to charges of murder, kidnapping, possession of child pornography and a special circumstance allegation of murder during a kidnapping.
A high-ranking police official told the Union-Tribune that investigators believe Westerfield kidnapped the second-grader for sexual purposes.
The defendant also failed a lie-detector test, the newspaper reported.
If convicted, Westerfield could face the death penalty.
On Wednesday, not long after Bashant ordered the unsealing of the search warrants, Danielle's badly decomposed body was discovered under a tree along Dehesa Road, east of El Cajon.
The Union-Tribune reported Westerfield was harassed by other inmates when he was escorted into the downtown jail last week. Sheriff's officials told the paper that inmates "screamed obscenities and said they wanted to kill" him.
Killers of children rank as the "lowest of the low" on the jailhouse pecking order, the officials said.
Danielle's parents have asked that people remember the child at a place where she liked to play.
Parents Brenda and Damon van Dam asked that mourners not add to a memorial where the girl's body was found. Instead, they said they would prefer that mementos be left at a mini-park where the girl liked to play. They said that was a happier place to remember the slain child.
On Thursday, an impromptu memorial sprang up along Dehesa Road, where a volunteer searcher finally found the body of the blond, blue-eyed girl dumped amid some trash.
A public memorial service has been set for March 16 at La Jolla Shores Beach. It was not clear when the body would be released to the family, and funeral arrangements are pending.
From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. today, a candlelight vigil will be held at the Sabre Springs Recreational Center, where child identification kits and safety tip sheets on how to keep kids safe will be distributed.