Posted on 09/17/2002 5:28:16 AM PDT by 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.
Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
A poster who is following the trial by watching, reading transcripts and reading news articles develops an opinion that Westerfield is guilty. That poster proceeds to state this opinion and support it citing the aforementioned sources.
For their trouble they are SHRIEKED at and called names like jackals. They are the ones accused of not following the trial and merely parroting Nancy Grace or some other media entity.
It was repulsive, juvenile, hateful behavior that one does expect at Free Republic.
(Hope you're feeling OK)
Most criminal lawyers never even ask the Defendant about his guilt or innocence because they do not want to know. That does not stop a lawyer from attempting a plea negotiation on behalf of his client. The lawyer attempts to get the best deal and communicates it to his client. If the client accepts, the he will have to place those facts on the record which support his guilt.
Well, we have different perceptions on this. Brenda began reading their prepared statement and was unable to complete it, so Damon finished reading the statement.
I didn't read anything unusual into either of their behavior.
That does not stop a lawyer from attempting a plea negotiation on behalf of his client. The lawyer attempts to get the best deal and communicates it to his client. If the client accepts, the he will have to place those facts on the record which support his guilt.
I, and others, have said before on these threads what you said in your first sentence. As for your other remarks, which are also quite true, the reality is that if, in fact, Feldy was negotiating for a life sentence in return for telling them where her body was, then O'Reilly and the people here on these threads are absolutely right in saying that Feldy knew DW was guilty.
I avoided these threads because of this "brigade" who only seemed to want to punish the parents, and kept forgetting that an innocent child was murdered by the pervert neighbor.
How will they "explain" how he would've been able to "give up the body?"
False choice. In the other cases the bug guys support rather than contradict the physical evidence.
especially since the prosecution paid for two of the bug guys.
Irrelevant information.
Your denial that the a possible option can include that the bug guys are wrong in this case runs contrary to the scientific method. A good scientist would allow that possibility.
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