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PROSECUTORS TO SEEK DEATH PENALTY IN WESTERFIELD CASE
Union Tribune/KFMB ^ | April 25, 2002 | Harry Jones

Posted on 04/25/2002 9:15:24 AM PDT by FresnoDA

Westerfield hearing could be focused on death penalty

By J. Harry Jones
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

April 25, 2002

A San Diego Superior Court hearing has been scheduled for 9 a.m. today for David Westerfield, the Sabre Springs man accused of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.

The attorneys involved in the case are prohibited from discussing it because of a gag order, but it is possible that prosecutors will announce whether they will seek the death penalty against the self-employed engineer.

His attorneys have insisted on Westerfield's right to a speedy trial, which is scheduled to begin May 17. He is being held in County Jail without bail.

After Westerfield's arrest Feb. 22, prosecutors filed special allegations in the case, accusing him of committing murder during a kidnapping, which gives them the option of seeking his execution if convicted.

District Attorney Paul Pfingst has a protocol on reaching a decision that usually takes several months; the case is reviewed by a panel of senior prosecutors. Defense attorneys also have the option of meeting with Pfingst.

It has been just over two months since the charges against Westerfield were brought, and because of the gag order it has not been possible to determine whether the panel made a recommendation or if Westerfield's attorneys met with Pfingst.

The district attorney makes the final decision. If he chooses not to seek the death penalty, Westerfield would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

Danielle's family lived two doors from Westerfield. Her parents reported her missing Feb. 2, and police quickly focused on Westerfield as the prime suspect.

Prosecutors said DNA testing proved that blood found on some of Westerfield's clothing and in his motor home was Danielle's.

Volunteer searchers found the girl's body Feb. 27 east of El Cajon in a stand of oak trees just off Dehesa Road. The cause of death has not been determined because of decomposition of the body, officials said.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: vandam; westerfield
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To: Jaded; FresnoDA; FriarTom; spectre; southflanknorthpawsis; Mrs.Liberty
What struck me about the two women was the contrast. Go back to the days just after Danielle disappeared, and remember Brenda's demeanor in front of the cameras. Not a hair out of place, makeup perfect, nails freshly done, hiring P.R. people--now fast forward to present, and note the demeanor and appearance of Jahi's mother. She was a mess, she couldn't quit crying, she could care less how she looked or sounded: she wanted her little boy back! Now there, folks, is a grieving parent. We haven't seen one in the van Dam case.
361 posted on 04/30/2002 7:48:41 AM PDT by MizSterious
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To: FriarTom
So, what about the blood on the stair railings? The drag marks outside by the sidewalk? Would a man as hefty and apparently as strong as DW need to drag a 60# child? Drag marks at the Dehesa sight? Placing Danielle's body just so-so? According to the PH transcripts Danielle was nude when found.
362 posted on 04/30/2002 8:06:07 AM PDT by BARLF
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To: MizSterious
I can't stand to look at her and missed the Today show, but I read enough on her appearance to know her PR team is earning their paycheck. Keep her in the spotlight...yes, that tugs at the ole heart-strings.

BTW, how in the world could Brenda not remember if she danced with Westerfield or not?

Answer: Brenda doesn't really know if there are witnesses who can swear they saw her dancing with DW, so she says "I can't recall"...works like a charm everytime.

sw

363 posted on 04/30/2002 8:07:28 AM PDT by spectre
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To: FresnoDA, FriarTom
I will flog myself with an evening of reading 100 straight kimmie posts......

FLAMIN Fres, Your constant attempts to bait me and others into flame wars are so pathetic.....and we see right through your pseudo apologies. You act like a teenager..irrational and argumentative. If ya don't like me dude, stop reading my posts..

364 posted on 04/30/2002 8:07:51 AM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: MizSterious
On the Today show, she sort of just sat that and stared, she looked not there in a different way than Bren. Jahi's mom had trouble answering questions, she IMO is frightened by what she is in the middle of.
365 posted on 04/30/2002 8:09:49 AM PDT by Jaded
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To: FriarTom, HoHoeHeaux, fivecatsandadog, wonders, mommya, Hildy, vacrn, tutstar, ThinkingMan, RnMom
I thought you all might be interested in reading FriarTom's post located right here...sorry if you were double pinged.

Jaded: From Friar's post,

"Why did the accused, a highly intelligent man, a man who had no criminal record, other than a D.U.I., suddenly become a violent predator? " This is not unusual...for sexual predators.

"Police actually find the body days prior to making an arrest, but are unable to extract any valuable evidence from it. They are able to extract some DNA from the body, for future use. They leave the body where they found it, because they want to set this thing up correctly. First, they will arrest the neighbor, even though they have no body, in order to convince the people that he is so guilty they need no body, and to rivet the peoples’ attention to the case once again. "

That's pretty far fetched...but so is every other theory!

http://64.225.95.82/dcf/vanDam/66.html
WITH REGARD TO THE UNDERWEAR, if you want to use the following unofficial transcripts


366 posted on 04/30/2002 8:34:11 AM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: UCANSEE2
Where was it said that the underwear was IN the dresser?
367 posted on 04/30/2002 8:35:22 AM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: Jaded,MizSterious,FresnoDa,~Kim4VRWC's~,FriarTom,Spectre
While I was researching yesterday (I keep looking for the name of the person that found the body of Danielle) the name BILL LIBBY came up. It came up again today in an earlier reply (by FresnoDa, I believe) that he was the friend of Damon's that Damon was going on a father/son snowboarding event with.

I am going back to see why it came up in relation to search for Danielle's body. Seems he had something to do with the Danielle Recovery Center.

Also that woman friend (retired policewoman) of Brenda's was appointed to head the Danielle Recovery Center just prior to her body being found.

Just coincidences, I suppose.

368 posted on 04/30/2002 8:35:30 AM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: FriarTom, HoHoeHeaux, fivecatsandadog, wonders, mommya, Hildy, vacrn, tutstar, ThinkingMan, RnMom
I thought you all might be interested in reading FriarTom's post located right here...sorry if you were double pinged.

Jaded: From Friar's post,

http://64.225.95.82/dcf/vanDam/66.html
MORE EXCERPTS


369 posted on 04/30/2002 8:40:57 AM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
We used the Official Transcripts as provided to DW's x-bil after he BOUGHT them from SD Courts.
370 posted on 04/30/2002 8:42:23 AM PDT by Jaded
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To: UCANSEE2
Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for conspiracy theories..time will tell.
371 posted on 04/30/2002 8:42:28 AM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: FresnoDA
"We didn't go open an account and ask for money," said family friend Bill Libby, who handled donations for the van Dams. "I opened the account because people wanted to donate money."

But Libby said the family's expenses have been limited because of numerous donations, from fliers to cremation fees. So far, the van Dams have spent $4,200 of the donations to buy banners, posters and buttons. And they are writing a $5,000 check to the Laura Recovery Center, which coordinated the search for Danielle.

After Danielle's parents realized she wasn't in her bed the morning of Feb. 2, people began donating money to cover search expenses. Libby tried to open an account at Wells Fargo on behalf of the van Dams.

But the account had to be set up by a nonprofit organization, and a family friend who attends Community Bible Church in Scripps Ranch asked the pastor if the church would sponsor the account. Even though the van Dams aren't members of his congregation, the Rev. Barry Minkow agreed. Minkow, who was convicted of securities and bank fraud in the late 1980s and served a 71/2-year prison sentence, doesn't have access to the van Dam account, church treasurer Bruce Brown said.

Brown said he is the only person who can withdraw money from the account, taking requests for checks directly from Libby, who acts on the van Dams' behalf.

OH YEAH, here he is. And he apparently is an RV SALESMAN in CALIFORNIA ! Another coincidence of no importance.

372 posted on 04/30/2002 8:49:20 AM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
This is from the OFFICIAL Transcript, Mar 12 PM Day 2.

22 Q. Did you have occasion to obtain any underwear
23 from that bedroom?
24 A. Yes, I did.
25 Q. Can you describe the circumstances of that
26 collection?
27 A. Yes. I collected it and placed it in a bag and
28 labeled the bag.
p385
1 Q. Let's talk a little bit if you could. Where did
2 you collect it from?
3 A. They were in the bedroom, in the pink bedroom
4 over in the corner near the closet in the dresser.
5 Q. Why did you collect that underwear?
6 A. Well, because they were reportedly the last
7 clothes that the victim had worn.
8 Q. Can you describe the underwear for us?
9 A. They're predominantly white with some sort of a
10 pattern, Haines her way, size 8, children's underwear.
11 Q. Could you determine, for example, if they were a
12 boy's underwear or a girl's underwear?
13 A. They were a girl's underwear.

So, this means in addition to being drunk, out-of-shape, and STEALTH, DW knew which drawers were which in her dresser where he stashed the panties. All this after he undressed, raped, redressed, reundressed, dressed again and Stealthly sneaked back out? The pedophile/sexual predator line is a VERY HARD SELL.

373 posted on 04/30/2002 8:52:52 AM PDT by Jaded
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To: UCANSEE2
Who is an RV Salesman, Bill Libby?
374 posted on 04/30/2002 8:54:25 AM PDT by Jaded
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
Kim, although we're all impressed with your ability to ignore the facts when it suits you, please see my post #103, which quotes from the official court transcripts. That's official as in, direct from the court. At a fairly hefty expense. There are links posted on this thread somewhere to the entire transcript. I hope you'll use them.
375 posted on 04/30/2002 8:54:35 AM PDT by MizSterious
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
What you've quoted above is from the "running transcripts" which were valuable for those of us who missed the hearing, or parts of it. They were typed by trial watchers in chat, and some of them included personal comments as they went along. They are not as accurate as the official court transcripts, as you would see if you'd look at the oct's. These were helpful at the time, but for direct quotes, etc., we really needed the court's transcripts for accuracy. Plus, on the octs, no one could accuse anyone of making something up--something that occurs with greater frequency than I'd like.
376 posted on 04/30/2002 8:58:42 AM PDT by MizSterious
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To: Jaded, fresnoda, UCANSEE2, valpal1
THnx Jaded...I didn't have thos elinks until now. Who is or what is their X-Bill?

Transcripts
1 Q. Let's talk a little bit if you could. Where did

2 you collect it from?

3 A. They were in the bedroom, in the pink bedroom

4 over in the corner near the closet in the dresser.

26 A. There were stains in the crotch area.


Fres, you wrote "Can not believe you are feigning ignorance of the discharge"
I never feigned ignorance...that's ridiculous..I said
Posted by ~Kim4VRWC's~ to spectre On News/Activism Apr 29 12:27 PM #182 of 372 Just because you guys discussed the underwear at great length doesn't mean I did, (I didn't) or read it (I didn't). I was NOT being sarcastic. Life too busy to do that Spec.Gotta go for real now.

Maybe it wasn't clear enough for you, but what i meant was...I didn't read what YOU GUYS wrote about it...

Jaded, when spec and MizS wrote the following:

Posted by spectre and mizsterious wrote the following:
to ~Kim4VRWC's~ On News/Activism Apr 29 12:19 PM #180 of 372 Things like stained underwear being removed from a dresser drawer is serious business.

Posted by MizSterious to ~Kim4VRWC's~ On News/Activism Apr 29 12:30 PM #183 of 372

"where does it say there was a heavy discharge?"

With all due respect, Kim, READ THE BLEEPING TRANSCRIPT

That was the first time I have EVER read it was IN the drawer....amd the discharge was Heavy.

3 commonly be a collection point for biological material. In 4 particular, on this there was a yellowish stain that was

5 observed on the inside crotch area of the underwear. It

6 would be a natural area where drainage would occur from a

7 vaginal area.

Sounds like a urine stain to me...never thought otherwise before...

377 posted on 04/30/2002 8:59:44 AM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: MizSterious
361...sobering bump...
378 posted on 04/30/2002 9:00:21 AM PDT by FresnoDA
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To: MizSterious
I just went back and got the links to the official transcripts..I'll bookmark them for future reference..thank you.
379 posted on 04/30/2002 9:00:42 AM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
Where was it said it was in the dresser?

Copy of court transcripts. (I can give you the URL).

3 A. They were in the bedroom, in the pink bedroom 4 over in the corner near the closet in the dresser.

380 posted on 04/30/2002 9:01:16 AM PDT by UCANSEE2
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