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

KGTV 10 News-San Diego ^ | June 5, 2002 | KGTV

[FresnoDA]

Damon Van Dam Takes Witness Stand

Day 2 Of Westerfield Trial

Posted: 9:05 a.m. PDT June 5, 2002
Updated: 2:52 p.m. PDT June 5, 2002

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."

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.

[John Jamieson]

Didn't know there was a book, I'll try to get it. Thanks.

[185JHP]

Evidence that Danielle was in the MH doesn't establish that DW has a propensity for violence, or that he committed felony murder. She could have been there innocently, or the MH could have been "salted" with evidence to attempt to frame DW. And linking deviate personal conduct with violence is tenuous, for both the vds and DW. IMO the possibilty that the vds were "pimping" their daughter is as reasonable as that the parents were doing that in the Colorado murder - done by a "sociopath or sociopaths unknown."

[John Jamieson]

Wonder if anyone has checkout the Van Dam porno collection? Mostly video tape?

[185JHP]

If they haven't, they might now. "Lotsa people read FR."

[John Jamieson]

Don't suppose VD's ran one one of those money making swinger's web sites or anything similar? No, he wouldn't know how. NOT

They wouldn't use their right names. We need some of that new face ID software so we could search for VD faces.

[UCANSEE2]

Hmm. Westerfield could have turned off the interrogation at any time. He didn't. Why?

And exactly how do you do this ? Let's say you know you are innocent and do not have an attorney handy to call. And you feel like telling them you need to talk to an attorney would make you look more suspicious ?

I want to know how you would get them to stop questioning you.

[UCANSEE2]

Actually, Dusek said fibers "similar" to what was in the VD home.

You know. It is funny how many here on FR either missed that, or want to miss it. I guess it depends on whether you have an open mind, or you have already decided that DW is guilty. Those that have probably went "OHHHHH, there's the proof. Matching Carpet fibers. OHHHHH."

You, sir, (as usual, I have noticed), caught that the prosecutor was trying to slip it by the jury.

[UCANSEE2]

Was there evidence the nightlight was not burned out? If the bulb was out his testimony rings true (personal experience). JMO.

We could find out during the trial. If not, Damon said it because he knows no one verified this, so he is safe on the story.

[UCANSEE2]

Barb said she took a 'wrong turn' going to the bathroom and ended up in Damon's br. Is that correct?

Maybe Keith or Rich took a 'wrong turn' and ended up in Danielle's room. If they had a Viagra/alcohol/ who knows what mix, what could/would they have done??????

[UCANSEE2]

I live in a 6 unit townhouse development. I am "familiar" with my neighbor's floor plan because we all have the same floorplan (much like Westerfield/Van Dam) and my new neighbors have told me all about their cat's pecadillos and what they like to eat even though I have never seen their cat. Is it clear now?

So, tell us, would you break into your neighbor's townhouse, after a night of drinking, knowing that at least 1 adult is home, and knowing there are 2 other children there, and they have alarms, and for all you know they have guns ready to shoot anyone that breaks in ? Now, be truthful.

[Yeti]

My scenarios for how Danielle departed from her home are: 1. She sleepwalked out, and DW or whoever abducted her in the streets. This could his explain his lack of evidence in their house, and the dog not making a sound. 2. One of the previous guests returned after the van Dams went to sleep, and took her. Their DNA was already in the house, and the dog is already familiar with their scent.

Anyone else like to share their theories?? She had to leave the house somehow. I'd really like to know how she left.

In order likelihood:

1) Damon had more to drink than he has let on, was angry with her(missing page in Danielle's journal about him being angry found in the drawer) and accidentally killed her in a fit of rage. Panicked, took the body somewhere and came back and never even told Brenda.

2) One of their swinger friends from that night.

3) Freak stranger abduction, ala the kid a few weeks later in the same county that got away from her abductor when he lost his wallet.

4) Danielle either snuck out or sleepwalked out, was hit by a random drunk driver who freaked out and took the body and ran to avoid charges.

5) What do we know about Westerfield's son? There were four computers taken from DW's house, where was the porn? Where was his son that night? What if some of the odd evidence like binoculars, etc... are really about DW's son. The kind of high-adrenaline abduction described by the prosecution is somehting you would expect from a younger man than DW.

At first I was kind of skeptical, but now that I have seen the way the police and prosecution have behaved so incompetently and sometimes very deceptively, I just flat do not believe DW did it. I think in this trial, we are going to find out that "similar" means squat, and that everyone in the courtroom woulld have "similar" fibers in their dryer; we will find out that "matched" just means blonde and less than 8 inches; we will find that the cops were not just behaving inappropriately in their interrogation, but that they were using conditioning techniques that they know will make a person say what they want even though it it is not true; we will find that the speck of blood was not discovered until after samples had been taken from BVD, and that the quantity is such that only mtDNA tests were possible, so the blood could have been Brenda's(planted by cops). Once my initial suspicions were reinforced by seeing the VDs and the police behaving deceptively, evidence I would normally accept will be very unconvincing. Now, after all of the lies and the apparent willful mishandling of the case early on by the police, if you showed me a picture of him doing it, I would now be inclined to believe it was a fake.

I know, anyone could be a pedophile, yada yada ... But a 50-something affluent design engineer, pedophile or not, is just not going to do this the way it must have been done if it was him. I don't see Westerfield as anything remotely like that high-risk personality, pedophile or not.

But I do indeed think that Damon could do something really stupid, then lie about it, then stick to his story with some minor adjustments as necessary. Notice that the only lies DVD has admitted to were ones which the police told him they already knew about.

Not that this is a funny situation, but the theory I am developing about DVD is similar to a Woody Allen movie, where the closet transvestite gets caught dressing in women's clothes -- anyone remember the scene?

I think Damon is back and forth inside himself with sometimes grief welling up(Oh my God, I killed Danielle!) and lots of jangled nerves as he keeps adjusting his story under scrutiny.

[mommya]

Hello all - notice the time on this post - the birds are now chirping and the sun will soon rise - and I have just finished watching what testimony I taped off Court TV - and have read all the posts here on FR.

I just want to throw some of what I learned out there :

It seemed to me that the prosecutuion was alluding to the fact that maybe DW had been in the VD's home before the VD's actually owned it - did anyone else get that feeling?

We learned that Danielle's door did have markings on the outside indicating a girl's room - and more importantly we saw those pics of her room with the fuzzy hearts thing hanging down from the light fixture (ceiling fan I believe) in her room that would probably have been visible from the street though open blinds - indicating to someone on the outside which room might be hers.

We definitely learned that Rich Brady was the VD's regular source for pot - and that Rich Brady also lived just a few streets away from the VD's and had complained oficially about DW's motorhome being parked in the neighborhood.

We learned from Damon himself that DW's motorhome was indeed parked in the neighborhood often.

We learned that at the time of Danielle's dissappearance - the garage was too full of stuff to park any vehicles in it - and even now you can only get one car into the three car garage.

I also heard one conflicting statement given by Damon. When he was asked if he knew Keith - and how Keith and Rich were related - he said that he thought that Keith was Rich's cousin - and that he had only seen him over at Rich's house a few times - but then later - when Feldman had him rattled - he said "Everyone in the house that night had been in the house on prior occasions, including into the kids rooms."

Of course I have so much more to say - -but I think I'll turn in now - and come back to post tomorrow (today) before the trial starts up again. See ya.

[Yeti]

When he was asked if he knew Keith - and how Keith and Rich were related - he said that he thought that Keith was Rich's cousin - and that he had only seen him over at Rich's house a few times - but then later - when Feldman had him rattled - he said "Everyone in the house that night had been in the house on prior occasions, including into the kids rooms."

I'ts important to notice how hard it is to juggle lies under severe stress.

BTW, I am posting because I just got up, you sound like me a few years ago after I dicovered IRC. I would be chatting away in the evening, then look up and notice the sun coming through my window. Yikes!

[UCANSEE2]

Another question that follows your mention of her wandering out. Brenda went partying the week before this too. Did Danielle wander out that time? Was Damon home or out boffing a neighbor, that time?

Several have mentioned the visitors to the VD home were quickly dismissed. This was only the KNOWN visitors (the pizza/hooch/orgy party visitors). What about the strangers that were invited from Dad's?

Maybe one of them showed up, AFTER DAMON and BRENDA supposedly went to bed (which according to them was 2:30pm. Of course, they also said she got home at 2:30PM. )

I believe I read the DW said when he came by the VD residence on his way to his house, he saw cars and activity in the VD driveway.

[UCANSEE2]

However, more children are removed from poor families than from "upscale" families.

The reason for this (compare to Rosie O'Donald, etc) is that upscale families have the money to hire lawyers to fight these type of things. The lower income folks are easy targets, so CPS goes mostly after them. Only when it is a HIGH PROFILE case does CPS go after those with the means to protect themselves.

[bvw]

We definitely learned that Rich Brady was the VD's regular source for pot - and that Rich Brady also lived just a few streets away from the VD's and had complained oficially about DW's motorhome being parked in the neighborhood.

Rich Brady, Little League Coach.

[spectre]

The transcript says that Damon said the night light was an Incondescent one. Now, that changes things abit, IMHO.

sw

[Poohbah]

And exactly how do you do this ? Let's say you know you are innocent and do not have an attorney handy to call. And you feel like telling them you need to talk to an attorney would make you look more suspicious ?

You state that you are not going to answer any questions and that any further conversation will take place after an attorney is present.

I want to know how you would get them to stop questioning you.

Tell them "I am not answering any further questions."

[bvw]

bvw: "Even a murder hasn't been proven -- and beyond a reasonable doubt, probably can not be proven."

Valpal1: "This speculation is my pet peeve because it is based on UNreasonable doubt."

Let's consider:

1. Body too far gone to detetmine cause of death.
   +1 for Reasonable doubt
   
2. Absense of witnesses to murder.
   +1 for Reasonable doubt
   
3. Absense of circumstantial evidence of murder. Note -- this means evidence of murder, not just presence. Would include blood splatter, body parts, murder instrument with residue, and other evidence that strongly suggests violence or murder.
   +1 for Reasonable doubt
   
4. Reasonable possibilities that other party(ies) could have committed the crime -- the swinging friends, the van Dams themselves.
   +2 for Reasonable doubt (Extra point for the vD's "lifestyle")
   
5. No priors by DW known.
   +1 for Reasonable doubt
   
6. Little girl gang rape porn on DW's computer.
   -1 for Reasonable doubt
   
7. Binoculars and bent screen that would allow DW to observe Danielle.
   -1 for Reasonable doubt
   
8. A few of Danielle's hairs in dryer lint and sink drain.
   -1 for Reasonable doubt
   
9. (Balances out last) Danielle's cookie sale visits to DW's house, and likelyhood she may have played in his motorhome.
   +1 for Reasonable doubt
   
10. Carpet Fibers: net zero for same reasons as hair.
11. Drop of Danielle's blood on DW's jacket.
    -3 for Reasonable doubt (Blood counts as pretty good evidence.)
    
12. Possibility that Danielle's blood got on DW's jacket via some accidental contact.
    +0.25 for Reasonable doubt
    
13. DW's weird behaviour with the camper and while with police.
    -1 for Reasonable doubt
    
14. Van Dam's weird behaviours generally.
    +0.25 for Reasonable doubt -- They are begrieved parents, after all.
    

Reasonable doubt: 7.5
UNReasonable doubt: 7.0
Net: Reasonable doubt +0.5 -- DW walks.

[Poohbah]

How big a minus on reasonable doubt do you give for DW's statements hinting that he knew where the body was?