Friend: Defendant seemed 'creepy' on night of girl's abduction |
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SAN DIEGO — A friend of Danielle van Dam's parents testified Monday that the man accused of killing the 7-year-old acted "weird" and "creepy" the night she vanished. Denise Kemal said she saw David Westerfield Feb. 1 at a bar where she, Danielle's mother Brenda, and another friend were celebrating a "girls' night out." While the women played pool with several male acquaintances, Westerfield, a neighbor of the van Dams, stood nearby staring at them.
"I thought to myself, 'Wow, that's creepy that he's just standing there watching,'" said Kemal, a 28-year-old flight attendant. Prosecutors allege that later that night, Westerfield, 50, crept into the family's darkened home and snatched Danielle from her bed. Searchers discovered her body three weeks later along a roadside. Kemal was one of five witnesses who testified for the prosecution Monday about events at Dad's Cafe, a local restaurant and bar, the night Danielle went missing. They described Westerfield, a twice-divorced engineer, as largely an outsider to the evening Brenda van Dam and her friends were enjoying — a raucous good time fueled by alcohol, marijuana, risque comments and flirtatious dancing. "Nothing," said Kemal when asked what Westerfield was doing while other patrons were dancing to a cover band. "He was just standing there. Alone." Kemal was an eagerly anticipated witness after Brenda and Damon van Dam testified last week that they both had sexual relations with her. Jurors leaned out from their box to see Kemal enter the court. The petite brunette spoke in a soft, gravelly voice and seemed almost giddy, smiling and giggling throughout her testimony. Her account may prove crucial in determining how Danielle's assailant entered the van Dam residence. Kemal said she smoked marijuana with the van Dams in their garage before leaving for the bar. She testified that she opened a door leading outside to get better cellphone reception, but said she was positive she closed it again before leaving for the bar. When the women returned home at 1:55 a.m., the door was open. Damon van Dam, Danielle's father, testified last week that he previously had reversed the lock on the door leading from the garage into the residence so that the couple's children would not walk in on them smoking pot. Someone walking from the entrance hall to the garage needed a key, but someone walking into the hall from the garage did not. Damon van Dam found a door from the kitchen to the backyard open when he woke after 3:00 a.m., suggesting that Danielle's abductor entered through the garage before the women arrived home and left through the kitchen door after the van Dams went to bed at 2:30 a.m. Much of Monday's testimony concerned events at Dad's Cafe. Kemal said she, Brenda van Dam and their friend, Barbara Easton, arrived at about 9 p.m. Brenda van Dam introduced her to Westerfield, who was already at the bar, as "my neighbor, Dave," Kemal said. Westerfield offered to buy them drinks. "He kind of flashed his money out, like, had a lot of money," said Kemal. The women ordered Absolut cranberry cocktails and Westerfield returned to his spot at the bar. "He was standing to the end of the bar. He wasn't talking to anyone. He was very weird," said Kemal. "He was creepy." Judge William Mudd ordered jurors to disregard Kemal's characterization. She said she noticed at 11:15 p.m. that Westerfield was no longer in the bar. A drinking buddy of Westerfield, a truck driver named Garry Harvey, testified that Westerfield was still at the bar when he left at 11:30, but had departed by the time he returned an hour later. Both witnesses acknowledged they were drinking steadily and not keeping a close eye on the clock. Kemal said that the next day, when Damon van Dam summoned her to the house to meet with detectives investigating the abduction, Westerfield was standing on the curb across from his house. She testified that Westerfield said he couldn't believe what had happened and then blurted out, "Well, I left at nine o'clock." Jurors also heard from two male acquaintances of Brenda van Dam who were at the bar that night. Richard Brady and Keith Stone recalled being introduced to Westerfield by Brenda van Dam, but said they didn't pay attention to his activities.
The men accompanied Brenda van Dam and her friends to the parking lot at one point and the women smoked more marijuana. Stone said he and Easton had been flirting all evening and began kissing in the parking lot.Ê He said there was sexual "banter" throughout the evening. He acknowledged that one suggestive comment from Brenda van Dam — hearsay rules prevented him from quoting it to the jury — prompted him to tell her, "You know what? You're a married woman. I'm not interested." Another patron, Yvette Wetli, said Easton was very intoxicated and kept rubbing her back and asking her to drink with her. "She was aggressive toward me," said Wetli, who knew Westerfield from tending bar at another establishment. "From a sexual sense?" asked defense lawyer Steven Feldman. "Yes, from a sexual sense," Wetli replied. Westerfield, who rarely shows emotion in court, smiled broadly at Wetli, who said she had known him for four years. His lawyers have suggested that the van Dams' unusual sex life and drug use brought them in contact with many unsavory people who could have done harm to Danielle. Feldman quizzed Kemal about whether she had sex parties at the van Dam family home."It was more of a swap. Me with Damon and Brenda with [Kemal's ex-husband] Andy," said Kemal.Feldman and his co-counsel Robert Boyce pointed out numerous contradictions in the witnesses' account of the same events and suggested they were either lying or had shaky memories because of using pot and alcohol. Brady and Kemal, for example, said the van Dam's dog was nowhere to be seen when they stopped by the residence after the bar. Stone, however, remembered the dog jumping on him and "making a nuisance of himself." Kemal told prosecutor Jeff Dusek on direct examination that Damon van Dam came downstairs when the women returned from the bar, but she admitted to Feldman that she previously had told a detective he never came downstairs. And while Brenda van Dam testified last week that she immediately went to the garage to close the open door after returning home, Kemal recalled them going upstairs to use the restroom, Stone said they went to the kitchen, and Brady said Brenda went upstairs alone. Testimony in the case resumes Tuesday morning. |
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