2nd Bug Expert Bolsters Westerfield Defense: (Dusek Melting Down Before Juries Eyes!!)

SAN DIEGO -- The trial of David Westerfield resumed Monday with more testimony about insects, as defense lawyers tried to show that their client was not the person who dumped Danielle van Dam's body along a two-lane road in East County.

Before testimony began, Judge William Mudd warned jurors to ignore last week's murder of a young girl in nearby Orange County. Mudd said that the abduction, sexual assault and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion "bears no relation" to the trial of David Westerfield.

Westerfield's trial had been in recess since July 11 so the judge could take a previously scheduled vacation.

Westerfield, 50, lived two doors from Danielle, who vanished after her father put her to bed the night of Feb. 1. Searchers found the girl's nude body on Feb. 27 along a rural roadside east of San Diego.

Neal Haskell, forensic entomologist A forensic entomologist, testifying Monday for the defense, said Danielle's body could not have been dumped at the roadside before Feb. 12, according to his analysis of flies and larvae collected during an autopsy. The blow flies that were found on the body typically descend on a cadaver shortly after death, but it can take longer in cooler temperatures, entomologist Neal Haskell said. Based on his analysis of the temperatures in the area at the time, Haskell (pictured, right) put "the time of colonization" likely at Feb. 14 and no earlier than Feb. 12.

Prosecutors challenged the defense's weather data.

Haskell's testimony puts the time the body may have been dumped several days earlier than suggested by a previous defense witness, entomologist David Faulkner. The defense has seized upon the time of death, which could not be precisely determined, to suggest that the body was dumped at a time when Westerfield was under constant police surveillance.

Westerfield was put under observation soon after Danielle disappeared, according to police testimony. He was arrested on Feb. 22.

During Haskell's testimony about insects devouring Danielle's body, the girl's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, stared at the floor as they sat in the back row of the courtroom. It is the first time that Damon van Dam has been in court since Judge William Mudd banned him from the proceedings almost a month ago as a security risk. Mudd restored his trial privileges just before going on vacation.

Lawyers for Westerfield have said they expect to offer two to three more days of testimony.

20    Q.   How about Danielle?  What was she doing?

21    A.   Danielle played or read at the table for a while, 

22  and asked me the spellings of a few words, because she was 

23  reading her book and then writing it in her journal, and 

24  she asked us to turn the TV down.  And then after a while 

25  she moved into the family room, which is just behind where 

26  we were sitting.

27    Q.   Where were you with the boys, which room?

28    A.   Living room -- the room with the TV, which 






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1  I believe is the living room.  Is that right?  

2    Q.   Do you remember what was on TV?

3    A.   Project Gotham racing.

4    Q.   It wasn't a TV show?  

5      THE COURT:  That makes three of us.  Go ahead.  

6  BY MR. DUSEK:  

7    Q.   What happened after you guys were done watching 

8  the computer stuff on TV?

9    A.   At about a little before 10:00 I asked 

10  them -- the kids to all go up and brush their teeth and get 

11  in bed, and I turned off that and I watched TV downstairs 

12  for a little while while they went up and got ready for 

13  bed.

14    Q.   Did they get ready by themselves?

15    A.   Yeah.  They got ready by themselves.

16    Q.   And as they were upstairs getting ready, you were 

17  doing what?

18    A.   Watching TV.  Cleaned up the kitchen a little.

19    Q.   Then what?

20    A.   Went up at about 10:00, went up and put them into 

21  bed, and went in Dylen's room first, and Danielle was 

22  reading to Dylen, and I asked her to go to bed, 

23  and -- well, I checked that they had brushed their teeth 

24  and all.  I asked her to go to bed.  I tucked Dylen under 

25  the sheets and gave him a kiss good night, said good night 

26  to him.  Then I went to her room and she'd already gotten 

27  in her bed, and I gave her a kiss good night.  And I went 

28  to Derrick's room, and he was still reading, and I asked 






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1  him just to turn the light off when he was done reading, 

2  because he usually puts himself to bed a few minutes later.  

3  And cracked all their doors a crack.  They wanted them 

4  open, but I was going to watch TV.  So I just left them a 

5  crack open.

6    Q.   When you say a crack, can you estimate for us 

7  about how big the opening --

8    A.   Six inches, eight inches.

9    Q.   Did you leave any lights on upstairs?

10    A.   When I left Derrick's room, his light was left 

11  on.  All the upstairs lights were off.  There may have been 

12  a bathroom light on in our room, but I'm not sure.

13    Q.   Do they have any night lights either in their 

14  rooms or in their bathroom?

15    A.   There's a night light in their bathroom.  There's 

16  a night light in Dylen's room.  Danielle's room did not 

17  have a night light.  The blinds were open.  And I'm not 

18  sure if Derrick's room had one at the time or not.

19    Q.   After you tucked them in, where did you go?

20    A.   Went back downstairs and watched TV a little 

21  longer.

There were only 400 pairs of the infamous OJ gloves produced. They weren't sold at Mervyns.
That's nice.

The gloves were at the crime scene - that doesn't prove OJ was wearing them,

I'm not sure where you're going here because I didn't follow the OJ trial or even vaguely implicate it in the post of mine you are referring to.

anymore than that the presence of the blood and hair in the MH prove that the MH was a crime scene.

I don't belive I ever implied that it was a crime scene. I also don't belive that we have found the primary crime scene, (where DVD was killed) the Dehusa Rd. site would be the secondary crime scene. JMO

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2nd Bug Expert Bolsters Westerfield Defense

Expert Says Fly Infestations Show When Danielle's Body Was Dumped