Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Plea deal 'minutes away' when body found
San Diego Union Tribune ^ | September 17, 2002 | J. Harry Jones

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.


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

email

Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: westerfield
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 641-655 next last
To: Cultural Jihad
No, unfortunately you are mistaken. They were not "DU types." There were several long-standing (1998) respectable Freepers defending DW. This case has damaged a lot of relationships on FR. It's been painful to watch (& be involved in).
61 posted on 09/17/2002 7:17:27 AM PDT by Amore
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Kevin Curry
--ing BRILLIANT!!!
62 posted on 09/17/2002 7:19:09 AM PDT by Illbay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Jaded
So do you believe it or not?

I don't remember ever seeing anything about a plea bargain deal on your "Free Stealth Ninja Dave" fansite.
63 posted on 09/17/2002 7:21:10 AM PDT by EllaMinnow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: Kevin Curry
I assure you, there are "true believers" in Westerfield's innocence

who would call Westerfield a liar if he admited it and produced a video of the murder to back him up.

64 posted on 09/17/2002 7:22:26 AM PDT by VRWC_minion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

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

Case closed, justice was served.

65 posted on 09/17/2002 7:23:38 AM PDT by xJones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cultural Jihad
I missed those threads wherein some DU types

Not DU'ers. Some are FR finest.

66 posted on 09/17/2002 7:23:53 AM PDT by VRWC_minion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Illbay
Well, you just have to figure he was innocent, Illbay. He had kiddie porn on his home computer, and everyone knows kiddie porn voyeurs are harmless. Only vile lying statists would "see" a connection between kiddie porn and the actual sexual abuse and murder of a child. They invent these false connections to justify suffocating the legitimate freedoms of all of us.

The destruction of the Constitution continues apace. *Sigh*

67 posted on 09/17/2002 7:28:21 AM PDT by Kevin Curry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: VRWC_minion
I have no idea what would constitute the 'finest' in anyone's mind. There are many old timers here I would consider borderline mentally ill and definitely America-haters. There are occasional cases in the news which surface wherein they'll scramble to pin the blame upon society, or law enforcement. As such they are no different from whiney liberals with their whiney cop-outs.
68 posted on 09/17/2002 7:30:11 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: VRWC_minion
who would call Westerfield a liar if he admited it and produced a video of the murder to back him up.

Perjury? Guilty. Child sexual abuse and murder? Innocent.

I believe you are correct in your assessment.

69 posted on 09/17/2002 7:31:40 AM PDT by Kevin Curry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Amore
Not "painful" for me. I've relished every minute of it.

When you asked them some honest questions, without first uttering the holy mantra "David is innocent, and God will avenge him!" you were attacked mercilessly.

They began to descend into a sort of shorthand in their conversations that took them further and further out of the realm of reality and into their own little universe "through the looking glass."

No, these weren't "long-standing respectable Freepers," it was the same bunch of conspiracy mongers and navel-gazers that we're only able to rid ourselves of when something hit the fan, like Buchanan pulling 0.4% of the popular vote (we were relieved of the burden of a great number of really nasty Brigadiers at that time).

70 posted on 09/17/2002 7:32:09 AM PDT by Illbay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: Kevin Curry
I think that the saddest aspect of this whole episode is that it appeared that Westerfield's support was engendered SOLELY because someone said, that his brother said, that Westerfield was a conservative Republican.

I mean, if that was the fundamental basis for his support among the throng of rowdies that infested those threads, I say that's just as evil as the support for Bill Clinton's many crimes by the feminists, etc., because he supported abortion.

71 posted on 09/17/2002 7:35:03 AM PDT by Illbay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: Kevin Curry
Only vile lying statists would "see" a connection between kiddie porn and the actual sexual abuse and murder of a child. They invent these false connections to justify suffocating the legitimate freedoms of all of us.

It's UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!!

72 posted on 09/17/2002 7:37:21 AM PDT by Roscoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: redlipstick
Not really, it appeared in print so what? Now the media is without sin?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/649597/posts?page=322#322

Here's the one I posted in March, post 322. Mine is from the wife of a SD cop who participated in the arrest festivities outside of Feldman's office.

My question remains, why is it more credible now?
73 posted on 09/17/2002 7:37:46 AM PDT by Jaded
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

Well, obviously, all the questions that I had about inconsistencies have evaporated into thin air. Westerfield obviouly did this heinous crime and, as I said before, if he did it he should get a death more horrible than injection.





74 posted on 09/17/2002 7:38:19 AM PDT by It's me
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: redlipstick
I don't believe everything I read, especially not when it comes from the likes of Doug Pierce and jameson.

So you only believe what an anonymous source tells a reporter? Well, I assume that is exactly the kind of idiotic response the media and law enforcement expected.

Here in LA, the news keeps repeating the femi-male juror's comment about how "silly" he thought the idea of the VD's lifestyle having anything to do with the murder was.

That's the message we are supposed to learn. Suspect all your neighbors, trust noboby, except government agencies and fellow "swingers", if you can remember their names. Might be helpful when unidentified fingerprints and blood are found in your home.

Remember, don't let that "buggy" evidence bother you, the government would never do anything wrong or illegal. Trust us, we never would have you convict an innocent man, on live national TV.

75 posted on 09/17/2002 7:41:03 AM PDT by CW_Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: Illbay
... Westerfield's support was engendered SOLELY because someone said, that his brother said, that Westerfield was a conservative Republican.

I can't believe that was the reason for their irrational support of him, Illbay. People who laud and defend sociopaths are not Republicans. There were drugs and promiscuous sex and child porn involved in this case.

76 posted on 09/17/2002 7:41:59 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: Jaded
My question remains, why is it more credible now?

Because its sourced in a paper that could be held accountable rather than an anon person in internet.

77 posted on 09/17/2002 7:43:22 AM PDT by VRWC_minion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Jaded
My guess is it's more credible now because:
now that both portions of the trial are over, and
now that the appellate court has ruled certain matters could not be sealed,
the information is free to come out whereas before it fell under the gag order and/or matters sealed by Judge Mudd.
78 posted on 09/17/2002 7:43:26 AM PDT by Amore
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: OldFriend
They ignored Danielle's blood on the wall behind the bed, Danielle's blood on Westerfield's bedding, Danielle's blood on Westerfield's jacket........

Look, I already said I was terribly wrong with my questions. I wasn't totally sold either way. Now obviously, I know undoubtedly.

BUT, let's get it right: the blood spots were on the jacket and on the carpet under a towel, NOT on Westerfield's bedding and the wall behind his bed.

79 posted on 09/17/2002 7:43:54 AM PDT by It's me
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Cultural Jihad
There were drugs and promiscuous sex and child porn involved in this case.

And HETEROSEXUALS! They should be banned. :-)

80 posted on 09/17/2002 7:44:58 AM PDT by jlogajan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 641-655 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson