VAN DAM MURDER VERDICT [VERDICT IN: GUILTY!]

I predict that over the next few weeks/months some jurors will read through the testimony and threads,such as these on FR, and come to the horrible realization that they convicted an innocent man.

I predict you have an exaggerated sense of the importance of your posts.

Dragon Slayer scene... the dragon already killed. The king walks up to poke it with his sword, "All behold the dragon slayer!"

Apple users are gay

Wow, fascinating. I didn't know that. Did you know that, Hal?

Dupont Circle?

Hey, do I get a high-five for this?:

To: nycgal

I predict that over the next few weeks/months some jurors will read through the testimony and threads,such as these on FR, and come to the horrible realization that they convicted an innocent man.

I predict you have an exaggerated sense of the importance of your posts.
621 posted on 8/21/02 5:31 PM Eastern by FreeTheHostages [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 616 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

Really enhances the need to get cameras out of the courtroom.

...and juror sequestration for the duration of the trial and deliberations.

Yes, Dupont Circle. Active member of the DC Chapter. Where we go out and protest in the real world. I don't just stay home all day and post stuff in cyberspace and think I've changed the world.

If you know I mean, Mr. WesterfieldIsInnocent.

Score one for the real world.

People v. Westerfield: The VerdictAssociated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A neighbor was convicted Wednesday of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, whose disappearance was the first in a series of high-profile child abductions that have horrified the country this year.

David Westerfield, a divorced self-employed engineer, was convicted after a lurid trial in which the defense suggested that the swinging lifestyle of Danielle's parents put her at risk. Prosecutors, however, said drops of the victim's blood on Westerfield's jacket were a DNA-backed "smoking gun" that jurors couldn't ignore.

Click above for
ongoing coverage.

Pool Photo

David Westerfield

The Superior Court jury convicted Westerfield, 50, of murder, kidnapping and possessing child pornography. He faces a possible death sentence.

The six-man, six-woman jury, which returned its verdicts on the 10th day of delibations, was ordered to return Aug. 28 to begin the penalty phase.

Westerfield sat at the defense table, his eyes panning the jurors. He did not physically react when the verdicts were announced.

Danielle was last reported alive on Feb. 1. Her father said he put her to bed and she was missing the next morning. Her nude body was found nearly a month later along a road outside the city, too decomposed to determine the cause of death or whether Danielle had been sexually assaulted.

Westerfield, who lived two houses away from Danielle, was placed under surveillance early in the investigation after authorities learned he was at the same bar as Danielle's mother and two of her girlfriends the night the girl vanished. He also left on a long, meandering trip in his motor home early the next day as police and volunteers searched the neighborhood.

He later retraced his RV trip with police and made the unsolicited comment that "this would be a great place to dump a body," according to court documents.

The girl's blood was found on one of his jackets and her hair inside Westerfield's home. Investigators also found Danielle's blood, hair and fingerprints inside Westerfield's motor home.

The defense said there was no motive and suggested it was improbable that the 6-foot-2 suspect could have slipped into the girl's home in the dark and snatched her away without leaving any evidence of his presence.

Defense lawyer Steven Feldman also noted that Danielle and her mother had once been in Westerfield's home for about 15 minutes as the girl sold him Girl Scout cookies, suggesting that's why her hair was found.

Feldman suggested that someone else was the killer, noting that a fingerprint found in the van Dam home and a hair found on the girl's body were never identified.

The defense also argued that the lifestyle of Danielle's parents, which included marijuana use and spouse-swapping, exposed their home to people who might have been responsible for the girl's disappearance.

The case captivated much of San Diego, with local television and radio stations broadcasting gavel-to-gavel coverage and talk-radio programs delving into the details.

Damon van Dam, 36, testified that he kissed and "snuggled" in bed with one of his wife's friends the night his daughter disappeared. He also said he and his wife smoked marijuana with her friends earlier in the evening.

Other witnesses said they saw Brenda van Dam and Westerfield "dirty dancing" and being "huggy huggy" at the bar that night. One said van Dam rubbed her hips and bosom against Westerfield as he giggled. Brenda van Dam denied she danced with him.

The van Dams said their lifestyle had nothing to do with their daughter's abduction and slaying. Brenda van Dam wept as she testified, and both she and her husband sometimes gazed downward when their lifestyle was brought up during the rest of the trial.

Prosecutors called experts who described the DNA link between Danielle and the blood on Westerfield's jacket. One said the odds that another person would have the same DNA were at least 1 in 130 quadrillion.

Julie Mills, a clerk at a dry cleaner, testified that Westerfield came to the store two days after Danielle vanished, arriving in his motor home to drop off the bloodstained jacket, two comforters and two pillow covers.

She said it seemed odd that -- on a cold morning -- he was barefoot and wearing only a T-shirt and shorts. Detectives later came to the dry cleaner and confiscated the items for testing.

Danielle's slaying preceded other frightening abductions this year, including those of Elizabeth Smart in Utah, Samantha Runnion in Orange County and Cassandra Williamson in Missouri. All but Smart were killed; the Utah girl remains missing.

Chronology of events in the case of Danielle van Dam:

Feb. 1, 2002 -- Danielle van Dam is last seen when her father puts her to bed about 10 p.m. in her family's suburban San Diego home.

Feb. 2 -- Danielle's parents report her missing. Volunteers begin searching for the 7-year-old.

Feb. 2-3 -- David Westerfield spends weekend traveling around San Diego County in his motor home, stopping in the desert east of the city.

Feb. 5-6 -- Police search Westerfield's home twice and impound two of his vehicles, including the motor home. The search turns up child pornography.

Feb. 22 -- Police arrest Westerfield for investigation of kidnapping after Danielle's blood is found on an item of his clothing and in his motor home.

Feb. 26 -- Westerfield is arraigned on charges of murder, kidnapping and possession of child pornography. He pleads innocent.

Feb. 27 -- Volunteers discover the nude body of a girl 25 miles east of San Diego.

Feb. 28 -- An autopsy confirms the body is that of Danielle.

April 25 -- Prosecutors announce they will seek death penalty in case against Westerfield.

May 17 -- Jury selection begins in trial of Westerfield.

June 4 -- Trial begins.

Aug. 8 -- Jury begins deliberations following two months of trial and two days of closing arguments.

Aug. 21 -- Jury returns its verdict on its 10th day of deliberations.

8/21/02

Thanks for your posting, but may I note that by including a report that indicates "Julie Mills, a clerk at a dry cleaner, testified that Westerfield came to the store two days after Danielle vanished, arriving in his motor home to drop off the bloodstained jacket, two comforters and two pillow covers. " you're only going to upset people here who think Westerfield was innocent.

Because they have a very very tricky explanation for this. Or perhaps you'll be called "sheep" again for even posting a media report. Because, you see, it's very hard to prove that the aliens DIDN'T do it. </scarey music>

Because the parents had a creepy lifestyle, does not mean that Danille needed to be murdered. You have a peculiar sense of justice.

Oh, for Pete's sake, I didn't say it did. I simply stated that had Westerfield been aquitted, the parents lifestyle would have been to blame, because it raises reasonable doubt.

Jury convicts David A. Westerfield on all counts

By Alex Roth
and Jeff McDonald
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
August 21, 2002

David Alan Westerfield was convicted today of kidnapping and murdering Danielle van Dam in a case that became a public obsession and prompted nationwide debate about neighborhood safety, parental reponsibility and sexual promiscuity in San Diego's suburbs.

Ending nine days of deliberations, the jury announced late this morning that Westerfield is guilty of abducting and killing 7-year-old Danielle, who was reported missing from her Sabre Springs home Feb. 2. Her body was found Feb. 27 along a rural East County roadside.

The same panel of six men and six women must now decide whether to recommend that Westerfield, the girl's neighbor, be executed for the crimes or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Westerfield, 50, also was found guilty of possessing child pornography, a charge prosecutors said pointed to the defendant's attraction to young girls. They said Westerfield kidnapped and sexually assaulted Danielle before killing her.

As he had throughout virtually the entire trial, Westerfield sat stone-faced and expressionless as the verdict was announced.

Just a few yards away, Danielle's mother, Brenda van Dam dropped her head and cried as the initial guilty verdict on a murder count was read. Damon van Dam leaned over and hugged his wife, who buried her head in his shoulder.

As the other two verdicts were rendered, Brenda van Dam clasped hands with her husband and family friend Susan Wintersteen.

The distraught parents were escorted into an elevator by bailiffs as soon as the 30-minute court session ended. When reporters asked them for comment, all Brenda van Dam could respond was, "No, we can't."

Even before the verdict was entered, defense attorney Steven Feldman requested additional time to prepare for the penalty phase. He said he has at least 10 out-of-state witnesses who could testify, presumably in an attempt to convince jurors to spare his client's life.

Prosecutor Jeff Dusek immediately objected, saying that the jury deserves to wrap up their obligations as soon as possible. "We're ready to go on Monday," he told Judge William Mudd.

The penalty phase will begin Wednesday, the judge ruled.

Across the county, office workers, shoppers and others planted themselves in front of televisions to listen to the verdicts, which were broadcast live shortly after 11 a.m.

"Watch the Westerfield verdict here this morning," a sign at one downtown lunch spot stated.

Dad's Cafe & Steakhouse in Poway, where Brenda van Dam spent much of the Friday night before Danielle disappeared, was filled this morning with more members of the news media than customers. There were six television cameras and two newspaper photographers taking pictures of five patrons and two co-owners.

Tom Gerlach, 31, smiled when the verdict was read. "Stick a fork in him," the customer said. "He's done."

Prosecutors said Westerfield, a self-employed design engineer, kidnapped the girl from her bedroom in the middle of the night, killed her and dumped her nude body off Dehesa Road east of El Cajon. They described him as a pedophile who collected child pornography and appeared to have been spying on the van Dams.

He lived two doors away in the upscale community of Sabre Springs, and Danielle's parents said he was an acquaintance whose name they had only recently learned.

Westerfield's lawyers said he had nothing to do with the crime. He was a normal 50-year-old guy, they said, with two ex-wives, several ex-girlfriends, two college-age children and no history of pedophilia.

The defense suggested the girl was kidnapped by someone within the van Dams' circle of friends, someone the couple may have invited into their lives with what the defense labeled "risque" behavior.

Danielle's parents – Damon and Brenda van Dam, a Qualcomm software engineer and a homemaker with two other children – admitted smoking marijuana onthe night their daughter vanished. They also admitted a history of swapping sex partners with their friends.

On the Friday night her daughter disappeared, Brenda van Dam was partying nearby with two girlfriends at Dad's Cafe & Steakhouse. Some witnesses described the trio as dancing and flirting with virtually everyone. Among the people in the bar that night was Westerfield, who left before van Dam and her friends.

The second-grader was discovered missing the next morning, Feb. 2, and Westerfield came under suspicion within days because he was the only one in the neighborhood who wasn't home that weekend as police and volunteers conducted a massive search. A hose uncoiled across Westerfield's impeccably manicured front yard made police suspect that he had taken off in a hurry.

He returned on the morning of Feb. 4, and police greeted him in his driveway. He said he had taken a meandering, 550-mile motor-home trip to Silver Strand State Beach near Coronado, back to Sabre Springs, out to the Imperial County desert town of Glamis, to the Borrego Springs area and then back to Coronado.

Parts of Westerfield's story were true. He was, for example, spotted at the beach and the desert that weekend. Other parts of his story, prosecutors said, were provably false.

He gave police permission to search his house, his black Toyota 4Runner and 35-foot 1997 Southwind motor home. They discovered that he had several loads of laundry going in his house and that his sport utility vehicle appeared to have been scrubbed down.

Police discovered that Westerfield had made a trip to a Poway dry cleaner that morning, dropping off two comforters, two pillowcases and a jacket. DNA testing revealed that the jacket contained Danielle's blood.

Further forensic testing in subsequent weeks revealed Danielle's blood, hair and fingerprints in his motor home. Other hairs and fibers linked to the girl and the van Dams' family dog were found throughout Westerfield's bedroom, SUV and motor home.

The defense sought to explain the forensic evidence by suggesting the girl sneaked inside the unlocked motor home, which Westerfield sometimes parked in the neighborhood. They noted that Danielle and her mother had been inside his house that week selling Girl Scout cookies. And they suggested Brenda van Dam might inadvertently rubbed some of the girl's hair and fibers off on Westerfield at Dad's bar that Friday night.

The defense noted that no trace of Westerfield was found in the van Dams' house. It said insect evidence proved the girl's body was dumped after Westerfield was under constant police surveillance.

Westerfield was arrested Feb. 22, and five days later volunteer searchers discovered the body amid shrubs and trash off Dehesa Road east of El Cajon.

By this time, the case had become a public obsession. It seemed that everybody had an opinion – about Westerfield, about the parents' lifestyle, about the troubling issue of whether we can feel safe in our own homes.

The defense rushed the case to trial, and the trial was televised from beginning to end. Perhaps never before in county history has a criminal case received more media scrutiny.

By the end, everyone in San Diego had become familiar with the mannerisms and quirks of the judge and the two lead lawyers – Judge Mudd's love-hate relationship with the Padres, prosecutor Dusek's buttoned-down intensity, defense lawyer Feldman's inability to stand still.

Like the O.J. Simpson trial, the Westerfield case had its cast of characters whose testimony made them local celebrities – the friends of the van Dams, the bartender at Dad's Cafe who kept saying "conversate" on the witness stand. Also, several people who spend their time studying the life cycles of insects have now achieved cult status on the Internet.

Staff writers Christine Millay, Kristen Green and Jonathan Heller contributed to this report.

Geez, you are maudlin, penalty phase doesn't start till next week.

If he gets the DP, it will be for the murder of Danielle Van Dam, not dirty pictures.

He'll die of heart/circulatory disease before the appeals are over. He'll have a comfy 15 years on death row, protected from Bubba in general population, get himself a jailhouse degree in law and even another patent or two maybe.

Probably won't have access to any children ever again though.

I'll bet they are too. Something to think about, all you "swinging" parents out there.

LOL. Me? A swinger?

Oh brother! I didn't mean YOU you. I meant you as in general. Sheesh.

Source is Laura Inghram?(sp) KFI and the broccoli stalk jocks

Why don't you go directly to the source at signonsandiego.com and read the transcripts instead of believing what the media tells you or mishearing what was said on a tape. There was NO testimony that a headboard fiber was found on head.

Hey, do I get a high-five for this?: To: nycgal I predict that over the next few weeks/months some jurors will read through the testimony and threads,such as these on FR, and come to the horrible realization that they convicted an innocent man. I predict you have an exaggerated sense of the importance of your posts. 621 posted on 8/21/02 5:31 PM Eastern by FreeTheHostages [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 616 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

I also predict that you are so unsure of your wit that you need to call in back up.

http://www.courttv.com/trials/westerfield/convict_ctv.html

By Harriet Ryan
Court TV

SAN DIEGO — A jury Wednesday convicted David Westerfield of the kidnapping and murder of his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam.

The panel of six men and six women deliberated about 40 hours over 10 days before finding Westerfield guilty of murder, kidnapping and possessing child pornography. The jury will reconvene Aug. 28 to decide whether to sentence Westerfield to death or life in prison without parole.

Westerfield shook slightly, as he has throughout much of the trial, but remained stoic as the verdict was read at 2:15 p.m. ET. A roar rose up from the crowd watching the proceedings on television monitors outside an adjacent courthouse. Two jurors, one man and one woman, were in tears.

Danielle's mother, Brenda van Dam, whispered, "Oh my God," and buried her face in her husband Damon's neck, crying softly. After the last juror was polled, the couple embraced tightly.

Over the course of the two-month trial, prosecutors presented a mountain of physical evidence, including fingerprints, blood, hair and fibers, that seemed to link Westerfield to Danielle's abduction and murder.

The second-grader was snatched from her canopy bed the night of Feb. 1. A massive search failed to locate her for nearly a month until volunteers happened across her body in a trash-strewn lot some 25 miles from her home.

Police initially focused on Westerfield, a 50-year-old twice-divorced father of two college students, because his alibi for the weekend she vanished seemed convoluted. He told officers he took a meandering 560-mile solo roadtrip in his recreational vehicle.

Investigators later found strands of Danielle's long blond hair in Westerfield's bed, RV and laundry. There were drops of her blood on the floor of his RV and a stain of it on his jacket. Her palm and fingerprint was discovered above the RV's bed, and distinctive orange and blue fibers from the death scene were also found on Westerfield's property.

Police discovered a stash of violent child pornography on Westerfield's computer, which prosecutors presented in court as a possible motive for the crime.

San Diego Police Chief David Bejarano credited the quality and thoroughness of the investigation with the conviction.

"Based on the evidence, the person responsible will not be able to harm another child," Bejarano told reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday, noting that the case was one of the biggest in the department's history. Because of a gag order, the lawyers and family members did not comment.

Scores of people gathered around the media area outside the courthouse when the verdict was announced.

"I was very surprised that it took them so long, but I wasn’t surprised by the verdict," said observer Ed Bowe, who was in town for a national Scrabble tournament. Asked why he was convinced of Westerfield's guilt, Bowe replied simply, "Blood."

Danielle's murder focused national attention on child abductions by strangers, a spotlight that grew stronger with subsequent high-profile kidnappings, including Elizabeth Smart in Utah and Samantha Runnion in Orange County.

Despite the apparent proliferation of such high-profile abductions, however, statistics show that stranger abductions remain a small minority of the missing children cases each year.

Revisiting the forensic evidence

During the trial, Westerfield's defense blamed prosecution "spin," contamination by police and even the van Dam family for the allegations against him.

The defense suggested that the van Dams' unconventional lifestyle could have let a killer into their lives. Danielle's parents testified that they smoked marijuana with friends the night of the abduction and had on previous occasions engaged in group sex with other couples. Some defense witnesses testified that the night Danielle vanished, Brenda was in a local bar "dirty dancing" with Westerfield and propositioning strangers to come home with her. The housewife denied those charges.

But with their verdict, jurors apparently agreed with prosecutors who said the "sex, drugs and rock-and-roll" were irrelevant to the crime.

The jury also apparently put little stock in the insect evidence the defense believed was its strongest hope for acquittal. A forensic entomologist originally retained by the prosecution concluded that the age of maggots plucked from Danielle's badly decomposed remains indicated she was dumped after Westerfield came under close police surveillance.

With the findings of that expert and two other entomologists, the defense suggested that someone else killed Danielle. For the final days of the trial, the courtroom became a course in forensic entomology with the prosecution using its own experts to argue that the field was woefully inexact.

During its deliberations, the jury asked to review some of the testimony concerning Danielle's time of death, but also the child pornography evidence taken from Westerfield's home and his audiotaped statement to police.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Jeff Dusek said he could sense the jury was struggling to reconcile the brutality of the crime with the outwardly normal appearance of its perpetrator.

"If he is the guy, that destroys all of our senses of protection. How can I protect mine if there are are not any outward signs?" Dusek said. "But he did it. He did it."

Ri-i-ght.

Watching the verdict being read, that dude just looked like the "sweaty brow" type that you see parked on the street near school playgrounds....

Posted by demsux to ~Kim4VRWC's~
On The Smokey Backroom Aug 21 5:19 PM #414 of 432

I feel bad for Danielle, but NOT her parents...whether it was DW and/or someone else, DVD/BVD WERE NEGLIGENT PARENTS.
If BVD/DVD had not been stoned/drunk on that evening, if they had checked on their children, if BVD and her "friends" had not been soliciting strangers to come to the home after dads, if.....

Danielle would still be alive and DW would not be a convicted killer.

Those remaining boys should be removed from that home ASAP. Drug use, swinging, getting drunk...none of these is conducive to a healthy homelife for the children.

The transcripts.