BREAKING NEWS!!!
"The evidence is overwhelming, that Danielle van Dam was kidnapped from her home, that she was killed during that kidnapping at any point from the time she was taken until she was killed, she was being kidnapped, and she turned up dead down at Dehesa," prosecutor Jeff Dusek said before Superior Court Judge William Mudd ruled.
The judge said such a motion "brings to the court the question of whether or not, in the best light possible given to the prosecution's evidence, is there sufficient evidence to go to the jury from the question of the guilt or innocence of Mr. Westerfield on charges he is facing?"
"The answer to that question is yes. The motion is denied."
Last week, Judge Mudd warned the jury that the prosecution was going to present more witnesses. Tuesday it called as its last witness a police trace evidence criminalist. Tanya DuLaney testified that blue fibers found in Westerfield's motorhome matched fibers found around the body of murder victim Danielle van Dam and on clothes in his washing machine.
The testimony came during a temporary resumption of the prosecution's case against Westerfield, who is accused of kidnapping and killing the 7-year-old girl five months ago. The defendant faces the death penalty if convicted.
DuLaney testified she found a total of 46 blue fibers while examining the 1997 Southwind motorhome Feb. 6, four days after the second-grader was discovered missing from her Sabre Springs home.
Eleven blue nylon fibers were found on the headboard of the bed at the back of the vehicle, DuLaney said, with 31 discovered on bench seats, one on a front passenger seat and the rest on a couch.
DuLaney said she tested the fibers for the last time two days ago.
She said she compared them to "known" samples "taken from the sheet wrapped around Danielle prior to her body being wrapped in a body bag" and from Westerfield's washing machine.
"Did you note any similarities?" Deputy District Attorney George "Woody" Clarke asked.
"Yes, I did," DuLaney said.
The fibers were the same in every way she could test for, she testified.
Clarke displayed for jurors a series of photographs of the fibers side-by- side, showing how they matched by color, diameter and spots in the fabric.
Police criminalist Jennifer Shen testified that orange fibers found on a towel taken from a bag in Westerfield's Toyota 4Runner were similar to orange fibers found in a necklace on the girl's body when it was discovered Feb. 27 off a road in Dehesa.
"They looked similar to me to the fibers that I had found -- the fiber on the necklace -- from the victim's neck," Shen said. "They looked similar to the orange fibers that I had seen in the defendant's laundry, from in the washing machine, on top of the dryer, in the dryer. They also looked similar to orange fibers that I had found on the pillow case from the bedding taken from the defendant's bedroom."
The prosecution rested as soon as Shen's testimony ended.
In earlier testimony, two witnesses said that David Westerfield frequently left his motor home unlocked and parked near his home where children had an opportunity to climb inside. Westerfield's attorneys presented the testimony as they try to explain how hair, bloodstains and fingerprints from Danielle van Dam got into the vehicle.
One of the witnesses, Christina Gonzales, was the daughter of one of Westerfield's former girlfriends. Westerfield is accused of kidnapping and murdering his 7-year-old neighbor, but before an objection from prosecutors cut off her story, Gonzales painted a more sympathetic portrait of the 50-year-old defendant.
She told jurors that two years ago, Westerfield and her mother were living together in his Sabre Springs home.
"I was in an abusive relationship, and my mom and David were aware of that, and they were trying to get me to leave it," she said.
At their invitation, Gonzales and her baby moved into Westerfield's house. She testified that while she was living there, Westerfield frequently parked his motor home at a park up the street before and after trips to the desert. She said that the recreational vehicle was often left unlocked.
"While the motor home was parked at the park, did you see any children at the park?" Westerfield's lawyer, Robert Boyce, asked.
"I remember seeing one child with his mom," she said. "I don't remember if it was a little girl or boy."
But prosecutor Jeff Dusek pointed out that Gonzales never actually saw any children playing in the motor home. He also got her to admit that Westerfield usually planned his desert trips in advance and took his all-terrain sand vehicles with him on those trips.
"That was the reason for going to the desert, to play with those things?" Dusek asked.
"We did that while we were there," she said.
Westerfield told police that he left his sand vehicles at home when he went to the desert on the weekend Danielle disappeared.
Stephanie Escudero, an acquaintance of Westerfield, also testified about the motor home. She that Westerfield showed it to her once while she was attending a barbecue at his house.
"When you exited the motor home, do you recall if the Mr. Westerfiled locked it?" defense attorney Steven Feldman asked.
"No. We just left and closed the door," she said.
Several other witnesses testified Tuesday, including Jeffery Graham Jr., a police fingerprint analyst. Graham talked about a handprint found on a wall near the door of Danielle's room. Graham said that he compared the print with Westerfield's prints and was able to exclude Westerfield as the person who left the print. Graham said that police have not identified who left the print.