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.
In this case, "the prosecution was atrocious--and the jury came up with a unanimous verdict of 'guilty' and 'worthy of death.'"
Sorry, I just don't get it. The jury heard the same thing you did, and they came up with what looks very much to be the correct verdict--since it appears Westerfield had unofficially admitted his guilt.
I think you can't argue with success.
I believe it was Cherokee's mom. If you read the context of the conversation I think it had something to do with River's testimony.
I'll be here for 5 minutes. Then hopping on the freeway home. Yippee!
CA voters will get a new SC, when there is a conservative majority in CA-- when pigs fly. :)
When Westerfields jacket was in contact with Danielle.
Alert the anti-DP people and inform them that they needn't bother showing up to protest on execution night.
Easy, the discussion of plea bargains in exchange for information are never used. Its sort of a gentlemen's agreement among attorney's. Otherwise no defense attorney would ever try to bargain.
GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD: Most of us here think the evidence was OVERWHELMING, and thought Westerfield did it all along. To us, your continuing harping on the same, discredited themes is just bizarre.
As far as "FR being able to recover," this was such a small topic in comparison to others we've had--like the 2000 elections. We had a LOT of people turn "renegade" against FR during that period, and it was MUCH worse than the Westerfield threads ever thought about being, so I'm sure FR will recover.
If Feldman knew Westerfield was guilty and defended him anyway, I think Duseks closing statements on how it probably happened really hit Feldman in the gut. He just couldn't put it together for the closing after that.
By negotiating with the prosecutors to reveal where he had dumped the body. Haven't you been paying attention?
Without the blood on the jacket, the bugs would have ruled the day. IMO.
But he had to get it cleaned, rather than burn it. That's what got him.
Thanks. Does the law bind them after the case is over ?
I think he thought it was a small amount and that his hand cleaning followed by the dry cleaning would be enough to avoid detection. If the coat was not at the cleaners its likely it would not have been scrutinized as closely.
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