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.
So a verdict of "not guilty" can be returned? What in your mind is the purpose of a trial?
Good point bump!
I understand and accept that.
If the client accepts, the he will have to place those facts on the record which support his guilt.
In this case, when his client accepted, the attorney had to know that his client was guilty. He then set about trying to prevent his client from being convicted. I don't accept that.
Not when the defendant is guilty and the attorney knows it.
A defense that could reduce the defendant's sentence? Fine. A defense that works to return a "not guilty" verdict? No.
Brenda and Damon van Dam said they were prepared to accept either punishment for David Westerfield so long as he was found guilty of kidnapping and killing Danielle.
"In my eyes, love has conquered evil," Brenda van Dam said during a news conference at La Jolla Shores. "What mattered most is knowing that this monster could never again hurt another child."
A jury on Monday recommended death for David Westerfield, the 50-year-old neighbor of the van Dams who was convicted in August of killing Danielle.
Both Brenda and Damon van Dam said they were not aware that Westerfield had offered to plead guilty in February – just before their daughter's body was found on Feb. 27 – so long as prosecutors would not ask for the death penalty. The story was first reported in this morning's San Diego Union-Tribune.
They said they were not sure whether the offer was actually made.
"Just because it's in the paper doesn't mean it's true," Brenda van Dam said.
The van Dams said they held the 10-minute news conference at the sheltered beach because it was one of Danielle's favorite places. The family held a memorial to Danielle there in March.
"She loved this beach at La Jolla Shores," Brenda van Dam said. "We spent a lot of time here as a family, so on this day we remember Danielle fondly in her happy place."
Reading from a prepared statement, the van Dams thanked the citizens who turned out by the hundreds to help search for Danielle after her Feb. 2 disappearance and the police officers and other law enforcement employees involved in the investigation.
They reserved special thanks for the jurors.
"The evidence and images you were subjected to must have been heart-wrenching," Brenda van Dam said. "The only way we can possibly give back to you is to ask our angel Danielle to watch over you and your families. We don't know what power she has with her new little wings, but we know that she will take special care of you."
Asked later if there was anything she would want to hear from Westerfield, Brenda van Dam initially said, " I don't think I want him to tell me anything. I don't want to hear his voice."
But the discussion later turned to the enduring mystery of how and when Westerfield abducted Danielle from her Sabre Springs bedroom.
"If I ever have one question answered, it would be about how he did it," Brenda van Dam said.
The couple said it was painful for them when the focus of the case seemed to move away from Danielle, especially when they were questioned about their allegedly "swinging" lifestyle and their use of marijuana.
"It was difficult to actually answer all those questions, but we knew in our heart it was irrelevant to the case," Brenda van Dam said. "We wanted to get it out and get past it."
She also commented on the difficulty of sitting through the more gruesome parts of the trial, especially after Superior Court Judge William Mudd ejected Damon van Dam from the courtroom for allegedly threatening Westerfield.
"If Danielle was old enough and something like this happened to me, she would be there every day," she said.
Damon van Dam said he didn't blame the judge for acting on what the bailiffs told him had happened.
"What has been reported in the case of me being banned is being blown out of proportion," Damon van Dam said. "I did nothing other than to let (Westerfield) know I was there, but apparently the bailiffs think there was more to it than that."
The bottom line is that an attorney cannot permit a client to lie to the court, even though it does happen on occasion.
As far as the public is concerned, yes. But legally, plea negotiations are confidential and cannot be used against the accused.
-bc
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