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.

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

email

Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

[John Jamieson]

For the last 200 posts or so. Still haven't seen any evidence that DW confessed to anything. I heard that Dusek made an offer and it wasn't accepted. Even that, may well be putting it too strong.

[VRWC_minion]

Dad falling apart.

Little does he know that it gets worse from here.

[Poohbah]

Are you saying that the plea agreement was never discussed prior to Danielle's body being found, and that Westerfield or his attorney never attempted to cut a deal in this regard?

[Amore]

I don't honestly know. I certainly hope it doesn't, because I'd like to see some record evidence which supports what the article says. Not that it will convince any of the DW supporters . . . .

On Jameson's webbsite, there is someone named John Boy who has been posting throughout and apparently has an in with SD LEOs. He SAYS that the plea negotiations were initiated by the defense and that it was to the point that DW had a pen in his hand to sign the plea agreement (life in prison in return for Danielle's body) when word came that a body had been found.

[Spunky]

Joshua Allan Spurlock, my newest grandson, born in FL about an hour ago

CONGRATULATIONS

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[VRWC_minion]

I heard that Dusek made an offer and it wasn't accepted.

I makes more sense that Feldman approached Dusek with the offer but once the body was found there was nothing to trade. Ordinarily the defense attorney is in the roll of "feeling out" the prosecuting attorney to see where he is coming from and what kind of deals might be made. I would infer by this that Dusek must have indicated that he would recommend a life sentence if Westerfield confessed and led them to the body.

Without the body, Dusek would have tough case so a deal would make sense in that Dusek would be able to end the ordeal.

[Ditter]

Don't worry, I don't flame & when someone flames, me I ignore them from then on, even on other threads.

I don't know why you think I have been spoon fed. I don't watch Nancy Grace, I still dislike her for her defense of clinton during impeachment.

I get all my info right here on FR. I have listened to both sides, read the transcripts & made up my mind very late in the trial. I am not a VD defender, I think their lifestyle could very well have allowed this awful thing to happen to Danielle.

I can't get past the blood/dna evidence, the print in the MH, Danielle's hair. How you can just explain away (or ignore) those things is beyond me.

DW does not look innocent, sweet & kind, he looks evil & sinister. He had trouble with relationships with women, drank too much & looked at child porn. You are ignoring all those things & focusing on......... I don't know what. OH, I know, you think he was framed. What do you think about the new story that he was ready to tell them where her body was? Lies...... all lies..... right? What will you say if it is true?

[UCANSEE2]

Kim, your belief in DW's guilt is based on hours and hours of research, discussion, debate. You have kept an open mind on the subject. I don't know why you think you are on the 'other side'.
I am talking about the process. I think we all should be questioning it. Those that don't question the process because it gave the answer they wanted all along, are the ones that , to me , are on the other side.

[Ditter]

pinz n needlez came forward as the person who would have Westerfield over to dinner with her grandchildren. She says the invitation still holds.

[cyncooper]

Congratulations!

Now THAT'S good news.

[UCANSEE2]

Congratulations, John!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EllaMinnow]

"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"

That is a direct cut-and-paste from the article at the beginning of the thread.
It specifically says "David Westerfield's lawyers were brokering a deal with prosecutors."

[VRWC_minion]

pinz n needlez came forward as the person who would have Westerfield over to dinner with her grandchildren

But would she let him do the 2:00 am teeth rubbing and jamie fixing for the little girls ?

[UCANSEE2]

Still haven't seen any evidence that DW confessed to anything. I heard that Dusek made an offer and it wasn't accepted. Even that, may well be putting it too strong.

Gee, John, it's the same evidence used in the case to convince the public that DW is guilty as hell. If it's in the papers, it's true. If the reporter uses literary license and let's the imagination run a little wild, well, it's still true.(/sarcasm)

There are tons of DUPED posters and DUPED public in the US that are buying into it as a FACT that DW knew where the body was, when the article NEVER SAYS any such thing. It says the process was ABORTED. Why? It was aborted because the Prosecutor offered it to defense, if DW told them where the body was. When defense went to DW and DW had no info to give, the process was ABORTED.

And the sheeple continue to sleep. Content that all is OK.

[itsahoot]

--Where did that come from?--

---

Certainly implied in the article.

Maybe the paper has misrepresented the story. If and that is IF, he tried to trade the body location for no death penalty, then it goes a long way in my mind toward proving guilt.

If on the other hand this was just an offer being made by the prosecution, and refused by the defense on the basis that he didn't and couldn't know, then I have to wonder why that was not made clear in the article.

As I have stated previously, I would have held out for an aquittal based on the evidence I have been presented. That does not mean, that I am convinced he is innocent.

[itsahoot]

-- DW had a pen in his hand to sign the plea agreement (life in prison in return for Danielle's body) when word came that a body had been found.--
-----•-----•-----

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Sort of makes one wonder why he didn't take that pen he had in hand and just sign it. If the DA didn't want to honor it, he would have his signed copy.

He certainly had more incentive after the body was found than before, wouldn't you think?

[UCANSEE2]

If on the other hand this was just an offer being made by the prosecution, and refused by the defense on the basis that he didn't and couldn't know, then I have to wonder why that was not made clear in the article.

Does the fact that this same article was in the newspapers at the beginning of this case affect what you think? That they same tactic, trying to make it sound as if DW KNEW where the body was, was used before, and debunked back then.

A reporter is told by his manager to come up with followup pieces. He goes back and researches material that seems applicable now that DW has been convicted and sentenced. Anything that will apply and sell papers. TADA! Old article, new release, more literary license used. No direct lies, just a case of what they didn't say. One of the best techniques for leading the sheeple around by the nose.

[UCANSEE2]

That they same tactic

(sorry, correction) That they used the same tactic.

[NYCVirago]

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.

Illbay, you have a way with words. I was trying to remember that phrase I've heard you use about Occam's razor -- it definitely seems to apply to some folks here.