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.

[John Jamieson]

I saw it on both sides, and it was very hard to figure out where and when it started, but I didn't like it from either side.

I begged JR to bring back one long thread he deleted and he did.

[John Jamieson]

Yes, and I've seen cases that no one was convicted because it couldn't be decided which of two people did it.

[Neenah]

Van Dam Press Conference today

[CharacterCounts]

Negotiations for a plea, are not an admission of guilt and are not admissable before the jury. Just because you are exploring the possibility of resolving the case without a trial does not indicate guilt. I think the part of the story that people are latching on to is that he would supposedly show them where the body was. But, I beleive thst part of he offer came from the prosecution not the Defense.

[marajade]

"I've seen cases that no one was convicted because it couldn't be decided which of two people did it."

Well that can't be applied in this case though since never ever was there any suggestion by the prosecution or the defense that someone else conspired with him to do it.

[marajade]

That's not what the article states:

"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."

[bvw]

The personal attacks were first and most often from the hang-Westerfield side. After a while the "presume him innocent and prove him guilty beyond any reasonable doubt" crowd, on account of and in response to having suffered incessant barrages of personal attacks, became extra wary of any Westerfield is guilty poster and took to preemptive strike first and ask questions later tactics.

Now it is close to a balance of terror, but the hang 'im high crowd has been favored by local moderators, and many due process zealots have moved on.

[Freedom2specul8]

"You are a seriously deluded human being. Get help. I mean it. It is frightening to think that you view the universe through the lense of that mind, and sobering to think what decisions you might be inclined to make as a result. "

Do you have any idea how many posts like that have been written to me and others on the threads? We FINALLY can post on the threads MOST OF THE TIME in peace cuz they left. (BTW, the worst I was called was a bitch and the mod didn't even remove the post--of course I could have hit the abuse button but didn't as usual) I would like to see the people who are left to not lower themselves to that kind of crap. I'm not being a post police...just a bystander who is fed up with it all.

[Freedom2specul8]

"The personal attacks were first and most often from the hang-Westerfield side"

Not from the regulars.

[CharacterCounts]

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

I took the article to mean that both parties were negotiating and that the defense wanted no death penalty and the prosecution wanted to know where the body was dumped. Your interpretation may be the correct one.

[marajade]

You missed the : (colon).

[Freedom2specul8]

Geeze louise, I cannot believe you are even writing that. The threads have not been disrupted like it use to be for days...and people who disagree have been debating civilly...and this is what we wanted all along. You stood by while "your" side just reamed their relentless attacks on regulars, while they high fived each other. (the hit and run posters shouldn't even be counted) Rather than POINT fingers at who started what..why not encourage civilized discussion..all you are doing is dredging up old wounds.

[Freedom2specul8]

Or how bout exchanging information about danielle's death..how bout revealing where he got the child porn. How bout telling the judge where he dumped her pajamas. And more...

[pinz-n-needlez]

You think I'm ignoring important info, I think you are not looking critically at things that don't add up to me. I guess we can agree to disagree.

I think, re-reading the article, that this story is constructed to look like DW was offering a plea bargain. But at the time, there was info that the DA was offering the plea bargain. Put on your Clinton parsing ring, and this article says that, too.

I think the DA is putting this out to try and smoke out Feldman's appeal tactics, so he can be prepared to counter them.

It doesn't matter what you or I think on this, DW is going to sit in jail for a long time, probably forever. Danielle died a terrible death. And we're really just playing a parlor game here, try to understand points of view.

Thank you for your response.

[drlevy88]

I take anything from the news media with a huge grain of salt. They get so much stuff wrong or scrambled up. It will come out in print if it is true that DW volunteered the location of the body in exchange for leniency.

[marajade]

Well I know of three different news sources that are reporting it... Do you honestly believe that all three have the same source?

[bvw]

Aye, there are a bunch of regulars who start with personal attacks and then move on to content if they have any, and another bunch that never do more than make personal attacks, bait or otherwise disrupt.

Vanity and hubris are the reason for a great numbet of posts -- including my own -- those too "vices" aren't always so vice-ful as long as they move things along, and keep people talking and thinking and looking into things. It does mean though that cliques form, grudges grow from petty misunderstandings or too quick, too cute, too clever a response, that a slap received is remembered longer than a slap given, that folks come to tire of the bickering, yet some level of "bicker" feeds the vanity that moves people to post, to feel a need to join in.

[ladyinred]

Not only that, but his attorney admitted his guilt in an interview also.
Of course they will probably not believe him either, right?

[bvw]

While don't mean to dredge up old wounds, except such as needed to set a newer wound to heal up.

[drlevy88]

The prosecution would not give a hoot about most of these things. Finding a dead body is of some symbolic value, but what would it mean for real... some saved police search effort? Would it result in the Van Dams asking for leniency? Pajamas... eh? They made of gold or something? The porn? Maybe, if they want to catch who gave it to him, but if it was via internet from out of the state then knowing the source is of no value to California.