Plea deal 'minutes away' when body found

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | September 17, 2002 | J. Harry Jones

[Bug]

Plea deal 'minutes away' when body found

By J. Harry Jones
STAFF WRITER

September 17, 2002

Minutes before Danielle van Dam's remains were found Feb. 27, David Westerfield's lawyers were brokering a deal with prosecutors:

He would tell police where he dumped the 7-year-old girl's body; they would not seek the death penalty.

Law enforcement sources told The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday defense lawyers Steven Feldman and Robert Boyce were negotiating for a life sentence for the 50-year-old design engineer, a neighbor of the van Dams in Sabre Springs.

The deal they were discussing would have allowed Westerfield to plead guilty to murder and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, said the officials, who spoke on condition they not be identified.

Prosecutors were seriously considering the bargain when Danielle's body was discovered off Dehesa Road that afternoon, nearly four weeks after she disappeared from her bedroom.

"The deal was just minutes away," one of the sources said.

It was aborted, but details were confirmed yesterday soon after a San Diego Superior Court jury recommended the death penalty for Westerfield.

The officials outlined this chronology:

Feldman and Boyce were at the downtown San Diego jail discussing the final arrangements with Westerfield when volunteer searchers found Danielle's remains beneath trees along Dehesa Road east of El Cajon.

When the lawyers left to meet with prosecutors, they noticed members of the news media gathering in the street and asked what was happening.

After being told a body had been found, they went directly to the nearby Hall of Justice and met with prosecutors. The defense lawyers were handed a copy of a Thomas Guide map of the Dehesa area on which a circle had been drawn indicating the location of the body.

Feldman and Boyce took the map back to Westerfield and later telephoned to say they no longer "had anything to discuss regarding a plea bargain."

Neither Feldman nor Boyce could be reached for comment last night.

Danielle was reported missing from her home the morning of Feb. 2, and Westerfield, who lived two doors away, quickly became the primary suspect. He was watched closely by police for weeks as authorities and volunteers searched from the Sabre Springs neighborhood to the Imperial County desert.

After DNA results linked Westerfield to the crime, he was arrested Feb. 22 and charged with kidnapping and burglary.

Three days later, even though Danielle's body had not been found, District Attorney Paul Pfingst announced murder and kidnapping charges would be filed that could carry the death penalty.

Many law enforcement officials feared Danielle's body might never be found. Then, on Feb. 27, volunteer searchers combing the Dehesa area, far from where police had focused, found Danielle's badly decomposed remains.

At that point, the official sources said yesterday, any opportunity Westerfield and his lawyers had to win a plea bargain evaporated.

---

J. Harry Jones: (619) 542-4590;

email

Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

[Freedom2specul8]

PS: It just seems to me to be pointing to a 3rd party. Spec and I were contemplating his son at one point.

[cinFLA]

I meant that it's scary to think that he could have been found "not guilty" even though the lawyers and judge knew otherwise.

Yes but he was no OJ.

[John Jamieson]

I still Barb is a possibility too. As well as Rowland.

[Valpal1]

If you're looking for an accomplice, may I recommend his ex BIL "Cletus" to you to fill the position.

You are wrong about the accuracy of the bugs. Anomalies are a dime a dozen in the natural world and entymologists have not studied every environmental factor possible, nor is it possible to "know" every invironmental factor to draw the window of possibility so tight as to exclude DW as the dumper.

Not one of the bug-sperts testified beyond "likely" and "unlikely" time frames. That was weak in comparison to the blood, hair, print that positively place the victim in DW's property, for which there was no adequate refutation.

"Might have" snuck in and played there 4-12 moths previously, without witnesses or other evidence isn't a refutation, it is just a pathetic, desperate grasp at straw.

The 3rd possiblity is that the Forensic Entymologists have a lot more studies to do, to figure out what they missed.

[VRWC_minion]

The third possibilty ignores it.

Still omiting a logical alternative which is the bug theories are incomplete.

[Amore]

I'd take some issue with claiming there was abuse on the threads, by the way.

Your perogative of course. But unless you were reading every day and reading every post quickly, you really don't know because there's plenty that was deleted as being over the line.

[Aquinasfan]

O'Reilly is making the point on his radio program today that these defense lawyers were (now obviously) defending a man that they knew was guilty.

They're sleazeballs.

This is where O'Reilly excels. Will anyone else in the media go after attorneys who represent clients that they know are guilty?

[Amore]

So you're saying that a defense atty might say something publicly...that is negative about his client?

No, I'm not saying that at all.

And maybe you're right. From the article you cite to and the context in which it arose, maybe it is 3rd-person stuff. If it is, I would guess that maybe the state was trying to get "similar evidence" in, into the trial portion -- the evidence that WAS admitted in the penalty portion -- the weirdo teeth rubbing, adjusting of the girls' pajamas evidence.

[John Jamieson]

The same bug guys have sent alot to people to prison or the chair. Were they "incomplete" then? You can't have it both ways, especially since the prosecution paid for two of the bug guys.

Do you rule out that others were involved? Wouldn't that make all the evidence fit much better (especially if the other one had free access to the house)?

[Freedom2specul8]

whoa...have you been thinking about the bil for awhile?

[cyncooper]

The newspaper must be part of the CONSPIRACY!!!!

I'm late to the thread so forgive me if someone else has said this, but there are some westie supporters who say that his own attorney, Feldman, was in on the conspiracy.

[John Jamieson]

Re Cletus, I wouldn't rule anyone out.

If I had been on the jury it would have been hung. On the other hand, the three times I tried to get on juries they threw me off as soon as I said "engineer". I think I'm off the list completely now!

[EllaMinnow]

I've been thinking bil had a lot of involvement in the kiddy porn for a long time.

[Freedom2specul8]

Sorry about the confusion. This is one of those frustrating moments. What could they possibly bring out after ALL the appeals process is over? Why wait?

[John Jamieson]

The van Dams, this morning, said you can't believe the papers.

[Roscoe]

I'm late to the thread so forgive me if someone else has said this, but there are some westie supporters who say that his own attorney, Feldman, was in on the conspiracy.

Figures.

[Valpal1]

O'Reilly is being a twit. Everyone, including the guilty, are constitutionally entitled to counsel.

Someone has to represent the guilty. No defense lawyer can represent only the innocent. There aren't that many.

Stop watching Perry Mason. Hamilton Berger would have been booted out of office if he had that many mistaken prosecutions in real life.

[Freedom2specul8]

wrt:barb/rowland...But it doesn't negate all that points at DW.

[El Sordo]

It isn't outside the realm of possibility that Forensic Entymology is about to learn something new regarding the science behind their discipline.

I'd expect Haskell and the rest to be spending quite a bit of time in drier climates this next February.

[Valpal1]

Well, I have definitely formed the opinion that he is a creep of the slap-his-face-I-don't-tolerate-or-associate-with kind.

I think he was DW's good buddy because they are a matched pair in alcoholic degradation. JMO, of course.