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.

The other evidence is kinda tough to explain away, though.

Reasonable explanations have covered all the evidence so far. Including the FACT that the DOGS did not hit on the MH, so Danielle could not presumably, have been in it for 2 weeks before the dogs searched it.

And now, since Testimony in court has repeatedly backed up the notion that her body was dumped on or very close to the 16th and that she was killed at almost the same time, WHAT OTHER EVIDENCE are you talking about ?

but it sure sounds like your side wants to say a differing perception than your own is invalid for some reason. Just an observation.

No, not at all. Cyn, when you are on the SCENE of a car wreck, and you hear a reporter on the radio, getting a relay from someone on a cell phone, that drove by the wreck at 50 miles and hour, and the story on the radio in no way resembles what you are seeing and hearing, WHAT WOULD YOU THINK?

If the witness sounded like a failure, you would see posters on here admitting so, no matter what their 'side'.

Some reporter that is reading off a script and has not been watching the trial or listening, and is getting paid to say what the PRODUCER wants said, is more valid to you than are hundreds of people listening intently to every second of the trial.

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2nd Bug Expert Bolsters Westerfield Defense

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