New physical evidence about Danielle van Dam's disappearance and salacious details about her parents' sex life came out during the first week of David Westerfield's capital murder trial. Posted on 06/10/2002 10:17:56 PM PDT by FresnoDA
By Kristen Green
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 9, 2002
New physical evidence about Danielle van Dam's disappearance and salacious details about her parents' sex life came out during the first week of David Westerfield's capital murder trial.
Legal experts say it's too early to determine the significance those facts will have on the outcome of the case.
The trial moved along fairly quickly, as both Brenda and Damon van Dam took the stand to testify about the events leading up to their 7-year-old daughter's disappearance. Attorneys have said the trial could last as long as 11 more weeks.
"I think there's an enormous amount to learn in this case, and we're not going to know it all until the end," said San Diego criminal defense attorney Knut Johnson, who is not involved in the trial.
The San Diego Superior Court testimony hinted at, but didn't fully explain, the prosecution's theory of how Westerfield, 50, might have entered the van Dam home and kidnapped Danielle.
Westerfield's lead attorney, meanwhile, told the jury that scientific evidence would prove his client's innocence.
In his opening statements, Steven Feldman suggested Danielle could have been kidnapped by any number of people her parents invited into their home to engage in "risque behavior." His strategy, experts say, is to raise questions in jurors' minds about whether someone other than Westerfield could have kidnapped the girl.
But Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek told the jury he has physical evidence that connects Westerfield to Danielle's death. He said the second-grader's blood, hair and fingerprints were found in Westerfield's motor home, which he occasionally parked in front of his Sabre Springs residence. When Danielle was taken from her bed, Westerfield lived two houses from the van Dams.
Dusek told the jury that Danielle's hair was also found in the trash in Westerfield's garage and that fibers similar to those in her bedroom were discovered in the motor home. The prosecutor said fibers found inside the bag in which authorities placed Danielle's body before the autopsy matched fibers in Westerfield's laundry room. Dusek didn't elaborate on what kind of fibers were found.
Danielle's nude body was discovered Feb. 27 under a tree on Dehesa Road, 25 days after her mother went to wake her for breakfast and realized she wasn't in her bed. Westerfield was arrested Feb. 22.
Throughout the first week of the trial, the attorneys showcased two completely different styles, which experts say were indicative of their personalities. Feldman is an animated performer, gesturing wildly during his opening statement and questioning of witnesses. Dusek, meanwhile, projects an image of somber dignity with his deep voice, subdued delivery and chiseled looks.
But it's hard to say whether the men's styles will have much impact on the jury deliberations.
"They're both very competent, very able in the courtroom, and they both know their case," said San Diego criminal defense lawyer Michael Pancer. "One might be more interesting to listen to than the other, but in the end, I don't think that's what matters."
Legal experts said the prosecution put Damon and Brenda van Dam on the witness stand early on to establish the sequence of events the night before Danielle disappeared.
"That's the most compelling emotional testimony in the case," Johnson said.
Damon van Dam testified that he stayed home Feb. 1 to baby-sit the couple's three children while Brenda went out to a Poway bar with two friends.
She testified that David Westerfield was at the bar when she and her friends got there, and that he bought them drinks. She said she doesn't know what time he left the bar.
Damon van Dam testified that he put the kids to bed at 10 p.m. and fell asleep before 11 p.m. He awoke at 1:45 a.m. because his dog, Layla, a Weimaraner, was whimpering. The dog doesn't bark because she grew up on a farm where the dogs had been rendered mute.
He said he let Layla into the back yard to relieve herself and then brought the dog back inside a few minutes later.
When Brenda van Dam returned about 2 a.m. with two girlfriends and two male friends who were also partying at the bar, she noticed a red light flashing on the home security system.
She searched for an open door or window and found a side garage door open. The door had been opened earlier in the evening when she and her friends were smoking marijuana in the garage.
When the couple's friends left about 2:30 p.m., after snacking on cookies and reheated pizza, Damon and Brenda van Dam went to bed.
About 3:15 or 3:30 a.m., Damon van Dam awoke and noticed a red light flashing on the security system. He went downstairs and found a sliding glass door leading to the back yard open 6 to 10 inches. He closed it and went to bed.
Experts said those details will be vital for the jury to understand how and when someone might have slipped in and out of the house.
After testifying about the sequence of events leading up to Danielle's kidnapping, the couple also answered Feldman's questions about their sex lives. Television viewers across the nation learned about Damon and Brenda van Dam's extramarital activities, as Court TV broadcast the trial live.
Brenda van Dam admitted to having sex with her two girlfriends and their partners, and Damon van Dam admitted he had sex with both of Brenda's girlfriends. He also said he didn't tell police that he smoked marijuana the night before Danielle disappeared because he didn't want to get into trouble.
Damon van Dam completed his testimony Wednesday; his wife completed hers Thursday.
It will be the jury's responsibility to decide whether any of the details of their personal life are relevant to the issue of who killed Danielle.
The couple's appearance on the witness stand drew dozens of curious San Diegans to the courthouse to vie for a seat in a courtroom filled with spectators each day.
The van Dams' testimony also was broadcast live by most local television stations, which pre-empted normal programming.
This week could be less interesting for onlookers, as experts believe the prosecution will begin presenting scientific evidence about DNA.
A gag order in the case prevents the attorneys from commenting on the case or releasing a list of the 75 witnesses they plan to call.
 |
| Denise Kemal points to an exhibit showing photos of Dad's Cafe while testifying during the murder trial of David Westerfield in a San Diego courthouse, June 10, 2002. Kemel, 28, testified that Brenda van Dam had introduced her to Westerfield, accused of the kidnapping and murder of seven-year old Danielle van Dam from her Sabre Springs home last February, at the start of a girls night out at the bar. REUTERS//Dan Trevan/POOL |
He does indeed put on quite a show. His questioning of Barbara should be very interesting to watch. I didn't watch today's (Monday) testimony, but I will definitely be tuning in tomorrow.
|
|||||||||||||||
| June 7 — Is the sexual lifestyle of Danielle van Dam’s parents relevant in the David Westerfield trial? That’s a question many here are asking—and debating—as this emotional and high-profile murder trial continues in San Diego Superior Court. |
| WESTERFIELD, 50, A TWICE-DIVORCED freelance engineer with two grown children who is the neighbor of the van Dams, is charged with kidnapping and killing the 7-year-old daughter of Damon and Brenda van Dam. Police say Danielle’s hair was found in Westerfield’s motor home and her blood was found both in his motor home and on his jacket. But during the opening days of the trial, it is the van Dams who have had to answer difficult questions, including describing and defending the most intimate details of their life together. | |
| Westerfield’s attorney, Steven Feldman, relentlessly questioned Damon van Dam on Wednesday and was equally aggressive with Brenda van Dam on Thursday. Feldman is trying to establish that Danielle van Dam could have been abducted by any number of people the couple brought into their home with what Feldman has called “risqué” behavior. Both parents admitted this week in court to having sex with third parties on more than one occasion. Damon van Dam—who cried as he described pictures of Danielle’s bedroom—admitted to initially concealing details about his sex life and marijuana use from police. He said he later disclosed all the facts about his personal life after police stressed the importance of revealing everything that happened the night his daughter disappeared. |
|
| “Since realizing the magnitude of the situation, I’ve opened my private life up and given every detail possible to try to get my daughter back and now to get justice for her,” van Dam said on the stand. He also admitted having past sexual relationships with at least two of his wife’s friends. He said he had sex with one of the women in October 2000 while his wife and the friend’s husband were present. Brenda van Dam’s two friends and two male acquaintances were at the van Dams’ house the night Danielle disappeared. Van Dam testified he and one of the women briefly kissed and “snuggled” in his bed that night while his wife was downstairs. Earlier that night, he and his wife smoked pot with the two women, he testified. When prosecutor Jeff Dusek asked Damon van Dam why he didn’t initially tell police about his activities with his wife’s friend that night, he said, “It didn’t seem relevant.” But is it? Close followers of the trial disagree on the answer. Rick Roberts, a radio host on San Diego’s KFMB 760 AM, has been focusing on the van Dams’ lifestyle on his show since he first mentioned it back on Feb. 8. “Ever since Danielle disappeared, the van Dams have been saying they are just like everyone else and how this could have happened to anyone, but they are not like everyone else,” says Roberts. “The fact is, the van Dams’ lifestyle increases the opportunity for bad things to happen. If you participate in indiscriminate behavior, then you are different than most people and, yes, that is relevant in this trial. This indiscriminate behavior might in fact create a reasonable doubt in a juror’s mind.” |
|
| Kerry Steigerwalt, a San Diego defense attorney who is lending his commentary to a San Diego television station that is running gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial, says it’s possible the parents’ lifestyle could in fact raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors. “First, it goes to the issue of credibility,” he says. “The van Dams weren’t truthful about it when police first interviewed them. At a time when it was very critical for them to tell the police everything, they did not. It raises the question, ‘if they were dishonest about their lifestyle and about smoking marijuana, what else are they being dishonest about now?’” Steigerwalt suggests that the defense is trying to make a case that whoever committed this crime had to be aware of the set-up of the home, particularly the upstairs where the bedrooms are. “Whoever did this evidently got in the house without disturbing the dog and without arousing any suspicion,” he told NEWSWEEK. “The defense has already insisted that Westerfield was never in that home. The defense will suggest that whoever the van Dams did bring into their home would know the layout of the house and would know which upstairs room was Danielle’s.” © 2002 Newsweek, Inc. |
Only so much as it relates to LYING ABOUT THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO DANIELLE'S DISAPPEARANCE AND EVENTUAL DEATH.
"A female blowfly, once fertilized, will lay eggs throughout the rest of its 3 week life.
The life-cycle begins with laying the egg, which hatches in 2-24 hours
if warm enough, the off-spring may be viviparous (a live larvae birth).
In either case the larvae will feed on the flesh for 3-5 days until mature.
At which point they will burrow underground an inch or so to pupate.
Pupation takes 2-3 days, and the pupal stage lasts a further 8-10 days.
Flies are not sexually mature until several days after emergence."
The body was found on the 27th (infested with maggots).
If defense can show that the larvae in the body were first generation (i.e. no pupae in the near-by soil),
this means that Feb 27th - 6 days => body was not exposed until the 20th.
But DW was under police observation from at least Feb 5th until the body was found.
Comments ?
As you and many others (and maybe now the jurors) have noticed, these people (lie, change stories, exaggerate) so much, why would anyone on earth believe anything they say.
Yeah, damn good detective/forensic info. Maybe you should be working for the SDPD. Assuming you are correct, maybe the Defence also has that info to use, as Feldman claims he can prove the same thing.
Brenda said Danielle never took off the cheap brown plastic necklace she wore for two years and was found still wearing. Who gave it to her and why did mean so much?
Barbara was the most sexually agressive of the bunch. Hand in the blouse greeting, "Hi, I'm Barbara". Why did Brenda not want her talking to Danielle?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
