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.
Not questioning what you say here, but don't you think the note would not be relevant or admissible as evidence at this point anyway since Damon is not considered a suspect?
that addressed the issue that he left..rather than help search..
So, according to the PH testimony, you are incorrect.
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SIGNONSANDIEGO
June 11, 2002
David Westerfield appeared nervous when he was interviewed by police two days after the disappearance of Danielle van Dam, the lead investigator in the case testified Tuesday.
Westerfield was "sweating profusely" though he was standing in the shade with detectives on a 50 to 55-degree day and he was "overly cooperative" while they searched his house and motorhome, San Diego police Detective Johnny Keene said.
"As we were searching his residence, he was pointing out areas that we might walk past and miss and he felt we should look at," Keene said.
But during his cross-examination of Keene, Westerfield lead defense attorney Steven Feldman:
Keene was the first witness Tuesday – the fifth day of the Westerfield trial in which he is accused of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, reported missing on Feb. 2.
Another detective, Maura Parga, said bleach in Westerfield's garage.
P> Prosecutors have previously claimed Westerfield was quick to clean his belongings following the weekend desert outing he took the same weekend Danielle van Dam disappeared.
Parga testified that Westerfield took her and her partner into his garage near the end of a walk-through of his house.
"I noticed an odor of bleach in the work bench area on the east wall between the work bench and the Toyota 4Runner,'" Parga said.
Parga said the vehicle was so clean she even looked for water droplets when the back hatch was lifted. She said she saw no dust. The only item inside was a map book.
Westerfield reportedly learned about Danielle's disappearance that morning from talking to a neighbor, then went to check his property.
"He said he walked through the house, didn't note anything unusual and then walked into the backyard, checked the backyard and the pool area because he was concerned that maybe Danielle had gotten into the backyard and fallen in his pool and drowned," Keene said. "He did not find her there so he locked up his house and left."
Keene said Westerfield told him he didn't check in with police because he had left his business card with a neighbor and that police would get in touch with him if they needed to.
Keene also testified that he noticed a garden hose stretched from the front of Westerfield's home to the curb and thinking it odd because the landscaping and the interior of the house were kept in "immaculate" condition.
"It seemed odd that his garden hose was just tossed in the yard," Keene said.
"Whoever left that hose out was in a hurry ... That made me a little suspicious," said Detective Maura Parga, called to the witness stand later in the afternoon.
Lead prosecutor Jeff Dusek had said in his opening statement that the disorderly way Westerfield had prepared his motorhome for the weekend trip on Saturday morning – including filling up his water tanks and not rolling up the hose – showed he was in a rush to get away with Danielle's body.
Keene said Westerfield also told police about three encounters with Danielle's mother, Brenda van Dam: Two times at a local bar and a third time when Brenda brought Danielle and her youngest son, Dylen, 5, over to Westerfield's house to sell Girl Scout cookies only days before the girl's disappearance.
Though Brenda van Dam had testified last week that her children never went upstairs and didn't wander far inside Westerfield's house, Keene said Westerfield told him that the two children were "running all over the house."
Investigators reportedly found Danielle's hair in the lint from Westerfield's dry and found her hair and fingerprints in his motorhome.
Through his cross-examination of Keene, Feldman sought to infer several potential defenses for Westerfield and his behaviors.
Noting that Westerfield was surrounded by numerous officers when first contacted, he asked: "In your experience, don't people sweat when six or seven police officers want to talk to them?"
"Not necessarily," Keene replied.
Feldman asked Keene if he was aware of any "blood pressure issue" that Westerfield may have, causing him to sweat profusely.
Keene said he wasn't aware of any.
Feldman also noted that Keene testified for the first time he donned gloves during a brief consensual search of Westerfield's motor home upon his return from the desert.
When Feldman asked why he wore the gloves, Keene said it was to prevent him from inadvertently leaving fingerprints behind.
"It's not just fingerprints, it's an issue of transfer of trace evidence," Feldman said.
"That'd be fair to say," Keene said.
The officer admitted that in his experience, such transference was possible.
Besides donning gloves, officers also on occasion wear plastic shoe covers to prevent such transfers of trace evidence, Keene said, in response to further questioning from Feldman.
Asked if officers wore shoe covers in Westerfield's residence, which they visited prior to conducting the brief search of the motor home, Keene replied: "No."
In one telling exchange during his opportunity to again question Keene, Dusek noted that as helpful as Westerfield was during the time officers briefly searched his home for Danielle, he wasn't as helpful when it came to another location, a place authorities allege he tried to have evidence of the crime cleaned away.
"When you looked in the areas that he suggested, did you see anything," Dusek asked.
"Nothing that I took note of," Keene replied.
"Did he ever suggest you go to the dry cleaners at Pomerado Road and Twin Peaks?" the prosecutor asked, prompting an objection of Feldman
"No," Keene said.
It was at the dry cleaners that authorities recovered a comforter and clothing they say contained a blood stain identified through DNA testing as belonging to Danielle van Dam.
Brenda and Damon van Dam, Danielle's parents, were allowed to sit in the courtroom and observe testimony for the first time Tuesday.
Previously banned from the courtroom because they were witnesses and much of the initial testimony dealt with their own lifestyle and actions surrounding their daughter's Feb. 2 disappearance, the couple appealed to Superior Court Judge William Mudd this morning to let them observe the proceedings.
Mudd agreed to the request after Dusek said he had finished calling witnesses to talk about the van Dam's lifestyle, but said the couple might have to leave the courtroom again if future testimony touched on their actions.
Feldman said he has been receiving e-mails addressed to him in ``bright red ink." A similar message was sent to Westerfield.
The communications express ``a certain outrage'' toward both sides in the trial, Feldman said.
. Mudd promised to place the e-mails he receives in the court file, but added that he suspected all parties involved would probably be receiving more in the weeks to come.
Mudd earlier apologized to the jury for joking that county-issued pens ``have a 50-50 chance of having ink in them,'' and for griping about a county clock that didn't keep accurate time and an air-conditioning system that leaves the courtroom too hot or too cold.
Mudd was responding to a letter sent by a county employee, who took exception to his trying to lighten the courtroom mood in a case ``where a man's life is at stake.''
The judge said the letter wouldn't stop him from commenting on things like the Padres from time to time.
This is one of the numerous problems I have had with this case since the beginning.
Westerfield had to have more nerve than just about anyone I've ever heard about (excepting nuts that wanted to be caught).
Not only did he do the deed that was fraught with incredible risk of detection.........he also kept the body right there in the neighborhood with absolutely no idea when the VDs would find their child gone. That's insanity !!!
What if Danielle's absence had been discovered at 5:30 am when someone got up to the restroom or something? There is no way Dave Westerfield could count on getting out of there before the street was blocked off and LE was swarming everywhere. I can't buy it.
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| Defendant David Westerfield, center, stands between defense attorneys Robert Boyce, left, and Steven Feldman as they watch jurors enter the courtroom, Tuesday, June 11, 2002, for Westerfield's murder trial in San Diego. Westerfield is accused of the kidnapping and murder of 7-year old Danielle van Dam. (AP Photo/Dan Trevan, Pool) |
No trace of her in his SUV or it wouldn't have been released to him..MH wasn't there..maybe he used his 4 wheeler and didn't wake anyone up?
I don't know how long it will take to reclaim my mind from the gutter when this is over.....
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