Damon Van Dam Takes Witness Stand: Day 2 of Westerfield Trial

SAN DIEGO -- The tearful father of murder victim Danielle van Dam admitted under oath Wednesday that he initially lied to police about a few events at his home that led up to her disappearance.

Damon van Dam, 36, said police asked him what had happened in the garage of his home that night when two friends of his wife, Brenda, arrived before a "girls night out" at Dad's Cafe in Poway.

The father testified that he initially didn't tell authorities that he had taken "a puff or two" from a marijuana cigarette the women were smoking.

"I didn't think it mattered and I didn't want to get in trouble for that," van Dam told prosecutor Jeff Dusek.

But van Dam said that after the officers told him they were only interested in finding his daughter, he began to be truthful with them.

He said he also did not tell police about one of his wife's girlfriends, Barbara Easton, coming into his bedroom that night after returning from the outing.

"When they told me it was absolutely critical to know what happened that night, I told them everything that happened that night," van Dam said.

He said Barbara was on the bed with him, above the covers, for about five minutes as Brenda first went to the bathroom, then downstairs.

"I kissed (Barbara), snuggled her some," van Dam said. "I think I put my arm around her and rubbed her back."

Damon van Dam

In his opening statement Tuesday, defense attorney Steven Feldman said that initial lies from the van Dams threw the police investigation off track.

Much of the morning testimony in the David Westerfield trial Wednesday was designed to orient jurors to the layout of the van Dam house, by using a floor plan and photographs.

Van Dam described the upstairs hallway that led to bedrooms, and also told the jury of six men and six women what was in Danielle's room. One of the issues in the case is whether artwork posted on the doors of the bedrooms would help someone know which room would be hers.

He added that each of the children's rooms had night lights, but Danielle's was burned out, so he opened the drapes to allow light from the street into the room.

Shown a photograph of his daughter's door, van Dam began to cry as he described why a dog gate had been placed there.

"I asked that the room not be cleaned," he finally explained.

Earlier today, Dr. Norman "Skip" Sperber, a forensic dentist, testified that four of Danielle's teeth were missing when he examined her mouth.

One eventually was found "way in the back of the mouth, where the gum meets the cheek," he said.

Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek, Sperber said it is not unusual for teeth to fall out during decomposition.

The child's body was found near some dumped trash and under a tree off a road in Dehesa in East County.

However, no teeth were found at the scene, Sperber said. He explained that animals, who sometimes carry away human remains, normally do not bother with teeth.

In opening statements, the prosecution said the loss of teeth showed that Danielle could have been suffocated.

Westerfield trial opens

KIMBERLY EPLER
Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO ---- The trial of David Westerfield began Tuesday with prosecutors laying out evidence they say will show that the Sabre Springs man kidnapped and murdered his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam.

Westerfield's defense attorneys, meanwhile, attacked the integrity and honesty of the little girl's parents and told jurors that science will come to their client's rescue.

Pool Photo

Karsten Heinburger, one of the first searchers to find the body of Danielle van Dam, points to an area near where the body was found during questioning on the first day of trial for David Westerfield in San Diego court, Tuesday. Westerfield is accused of the kidnapping and murder of seven-year old Danielle van Dam from her Sabre Springs home, last February.

Westerfield, 50, has pleaded not guilty to the crimes. The self-employed engineer and twice-divorced father of two faces the death penalty if convicted. He lived two houses away from the van Dams.

The trial is expected to last up to three months. It comes just four months after Danielle vanished overnight from her second-story bedroom in early February.

During opening statements, each side centered on the same three time periods ---- the week before Danielle disappeared, the last night she was seen alive, and the four weeks until her body was found under a tree in the rural East County. But the attorneys painted very different portraits of the main individuals involved.

After sometimes emotional, often animated opening statements, jurors heard from five witnesses ---- the van Dams' neighbor, the two young men who found Danielle's body, a sheriff's deputy who responded to the scene, and a local casino worker.

Jurors also saw photographs of Danielle's nude and decomposed body.

Danielle's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, sat outside the courtroom. Judge William Mudd ruled last week that they would not be able to sit in on the trial until after they testified, a regular procedure in criminal and civil cases. Outside the presence of the jury, Mudd admonished audience members not to wear any pins or shirts bearing Danielle's image.

Prosecutor Jeff Dusek told jurors that Westerfield's description of his activities the weekend Danielle disappeared was full of inconsistencies. He also said samples of Danielle's blood, hair and fingerprints that were found in Westerfield's motor home link him to the crime.

More hair was found in laundry lint tossed in Westerfield's garbage, Dusek said, and fibers lifted from Westerfield's laundry room match fibers found in Danielle's body bag.

Dusek also told the jurors the prosecutor's theory that Danielle was suffocated by something being placed over her nose and mouth with such force that her front teeth were knocked out. Three of her teeth were missing. One was found inside her mouth. The medical examiner has not released a cause of death.

Westerfield's defense attorney, Steven Feldman, in turn questioned the integrity of Danielle's parents and the company they kept ---- saying that they lied to police about their drug use, their lifestyle, and other events the night Danielle was last seen alive.

"It took six (police) interviews to get to the bottom of the van Dams' story," Feldman said. "Why?"

In contrast, he said, his client cooperated with police, allowing them to search his home and motor home. He tried to help, Feldman said.

"Whatever they wanted, he gave to them," Feldman said. "He behaved just like all of his other neighbors did."

In an animated opening argument that included his playing the roles of Brenda and Damon van Dam, Feldman told jurors that there were doubts about the prosecution's case, including how Westerfield could have stolen into the house he had never been in and taken Danielle away.

He said there was absolutely no evidence linking Westerfield to the van Dam house. And, Feldman said, Westerfield's motor home was parked outside of his house so often that it was considered a "bane of the neighborhood."

Feldman also questioned the type of people Brenda van Dam invited over to the couple's home that night.

Feldman said evidence will show that it would have been impossible for Westerfield to have dumped Danielle's body along the rural road near the Sycuan Casino. He also talked about how Danielle, her mother and brother were in Westerfield's house a few days before Danielle disappeared.

The defense said that they were running around, jumping on laundry and furniture, and running upstairs. The prosecution said the children only went out for a moment to look at Westerfield's pool, then stayed by their mother's side.

Feldman countered the prosecutor's theory on Danielle's death, saying there was no way to know how she died. A forensic dentist will testify she had long teeth with a short root that made the tooth less stable.

"It is absolutely impossible, absolutely impossible to know how she died," Feldman said.

Prosecutors said Westerfield's motive in the crime can be found in graphic pornographic images authorities found on his home computer that showed a little girl, or someone dressed as a little girl, being attacked by adult males.

The prosecutor also hinted that Westerfield may have been watching Danielle through his bathroom window. The screen and frame had been pushed out to enable a person to see into the van Dams' back yard, Dusek said.

He said police found several pairs of binoculars during a search of Westerfield's home and a magazine advertisement showing a canopy bed with a mosquito netting that closely matches Danielle's room.

Feldman said most of the pornography found on Westerfield's computers were adults engaged in consensual activities.

Damon van Dam could take the stand today.

Contact staff writer Kimberly Epler at (760) 739-6644 or kepler@nctimes.com.

6/5/02

DAY TWO: DAMON VAN DAM TESTIMONY ENDS

( 06-05-2002 ) - In a San Diego court Wednesday, Damon van Dam calmly described meeting his daughter's accused killer.

Van Dam says he's never entered David Westerfield's home or had the man over to his home. He says he barely knew Westerfield, who lives two doors down the street.

Van Dam also admitted under oath that he initially lied to police about a few events at his home that led up to her disappearance.

Police asked him what had happened in the garage of his home that night when two friends of his wife, Brenda, arrived before a "girls night out" at Dad's Cafe.

The father testified that he initially didn't tell authorities that he had taken "a puff or two" from a marijuana cigarette the women were smoking.

"I didn't think it mattered," he said, "and I didn't want to get in trouble (for that)."

Much of the morning testimony in the David Westerfield trial today was designed to orient jurors to the layout of the van Dam house, by using a floor plan and photographs.

Police say Westerfield took 7-year-old Danielle from her bedroom sometime after she was put to bed February 1.

Volunteers found her remains along a rural road more than three weeks later.

Earlier Wednesday, Dr. Norman "Skip" Sperber, a forensic dentist, testified that four of Danielle's teeth were missing when he examined her mouth.

One eventually was found "way in the back of the mouth, where the gum meets the cheek," he said.

Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek, Sperber said it is not unusual for teeth to fall out during decomposition.

Photos of her disfigured and blackened corpse were shown to the court. A family friend bowed her head and another wiped away tears.

The trial started Tuesday and is expected to last until mid-July.

Westerfield has pleaded innocent to charges of kidnapping, murder and possession of child pornography.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Damon van Dam also admitted to having previously had sex with Barbara Easton and Denise Kemal -- two women who'd gone out with his wife, Brenda van Dam, that night -- in the presence of his wife. (Was that during the Joint session??)

YEP...Just good ole wholesome folk, from Sabre Swings....

Father admits lying to police

By Jeff Dillon
SIGNONSANDIEGO

June 5, 2002

SAN DIEGO – The father of Danielle van Dam testified Wednesday that he initially lied to police officers about what went on at the family's home the night his daughter disappeared – and that he had previously had sex with two of the women who were there.

Damon van Dam testified that he didn't tell investigators that he had smoked marijuana with house guests and later snuggled in bed with a friend of his wife late at night after they came back from an evening at a local bar.

"You lied to the police, isn't that true?" Damon van Dam was asked by Steven Feldman, the lead defense attorney for suspect David Westerfield.

"Up to the point they told me the gravity of the situation, yes," Damon van Dam said.

Strangers in the house

Feldman had suggested in his opening statement Tuesday that the van Dams opened their doors to strangers, one of whom could have taken Danielle.

Damon van Dam also admitted to having previously had sex with Barbara Easton and Denise Kemal -- two women who'd gone out with his wife, Brenda van Dam, that night -- in the presence of his wife.

"If by intimate relations you mean sex, yes," Damon van Dam said in response to a question from Feldman.

Feldman also grilled Damon van Dam about failing to tell police about Easton, Kemal and other people who would have been familiar with the layout of the family's house, who would have been familiar with the family's dog and who would have known the location of Danielle's bedroom.

Damon van Dam repeatedly said he hadn't considered those details relevant to his daughter's disappearance and that he initially omitted many other details while relating the "short version" of what had happened.

"When I was told it was important to tell the truth, I did," Damon van Dam said.

Dental details

In other developments, a forensic dentist testified that Danielle van Dam's missing teeth were not carried off by animals and probably weren't knocked loose by a sharp blow, bolstering the prosecution's claim that she had been forcefully suffocated.

Dr. Norman "Skip" Sperber said the 7-year-old's four missing teeth could have been knocked loose by an impact with a "soft" object, but testified there were no signs they were hit by a hard, steel-like object or were carried off by predators.

"Animals will usually go after more nutritious tissues such as the liver, the kidney, muscles and such," Sperber said. "Rarely do they attack the face because I think there's not a lot of fat there."

Sperber kicked off the second day of testimony in the trial of David Westerfield, 50, who's accused in the kidnap and murder of Danielle. The girl's father, Damon van Dam, took the stand immediately afterward and answered questions about the family's activities the evening before Danielle's Feb. 1 disappearance.

Though he was matter-of-fact during his initial testimony and even cracked a joke about the mess in his garage, Damon van Dam began to visibly choke up when he was shown photos of Danielle's bedroom and asked to describe it to the jury.

Second day of testimony

The trial began Tuesday with opening statements from lead prosecutor Jeff Dusek and Feldman and testimony from five witnesses. The trial is expected to last several weeks.

Dusek had suggested Tuesday that the dental evidence showed Danielle had been killed by being forcibly suffocated, holding a hand over his own nose and mouth to show how a killer's hand might break loose a victim's upper teeth.

Sperber is a forensic expert who was part of the team that helped New York City authorities identify victims of the Sept. 11 attack and who has helped identify about 4,000 bodies during his career.

Questioned by Dusek, he said he had been called in on the Danielle case after her partially decomposed body was found in a wooded area off Dehesa Road on Feb. 27.

Sperber said he examined the body's teeth, jaw and head on Feb. 28 and compared them with Danielle's dental records and was "very certain" that the body was that of Danielle.

"There could not be anybody in the world with the same set of teeth," he said.

Four of the girl's upper front teeth were missing and others were loose, Sperber said. Those are teeth with relatively weak roots that children often knock out while playing.

Sperber said the remaining teeth showed no signs of chipping or other sharp trauma. He said animals rarely carry off teeth and that there were no signs any predators had been gnawing at her mouth.

Westerfield defense attorney Robert Boyce questioned whether the body was too decomposed for Sperber to rule out predation.

"Based on the lack of animal activity on the tissue, I would say I could," Sperber replied. There were animal teeth marks elsewhere on her body.

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