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(KGTV) - The California Supreme Court Monday upheld the conviction and death sentence for David Westerfield, the man found guilty of killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam in 2002. Young Danielle was reported missing from her Sabre Springs home on Feb. 2, 2002, and her disappearance led to a search that spanned all of San Diego County. Investigators gathered enough evidence to arrest Westerfield, a neighbor of Danielle and her family, for her disappearance and death on Feb. 22. Five days later, Danielle’s badly decomposed body was found along Dehesa Road in Harbison Canyon. In August 2002, Westerfield was found guilty...

FRANKFORT — The race for Kentucky attorney general slid to the right during the last 60 days as Democrat Andy Beshear lost the seven-point lead he held in July over Republican Whitney Westerfield. Beshear and Westerfield are tied at 38 percent in a new statewide Bluegrass Poll of 701 likely voters conducted Sept. 22-27 by SurveyUSA. Twenty-two percent said they were undecided; 2 percent said they were not following the race. The poll, taken on behalf of the Herald-Leader and WKYT-TV in Lexington and The Courier-Journal and WHAS-TV in Louisville, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8...

Andy Beshear, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, has been promoting his plan to fight heroin use in Kentucky, including mandatory minimum prison terms for dealers, better access to anti-overdose medication for emergency workers and a "Good Samaritan law" that legally protects drug users who report an overdose to authorities, all of which he says should be done "without further delay." But Beshear's proposals — featured on his campaign website — already are the law. They were included in last winter's hotly debated Senate Bill 192, signed by his father, Gov. Steve Beshear, in March, and crafted in part by...

The Republican Attorneys General Association has launched a new television ad released Thursday again linking Democratic attorney general candidate Andy Beshear with President Barack Obama. A female narrator in the ad, titled “Follow the Money,” says Beshear has collected “hundreds of thousands from the same liberal donors who funded Barack Obama.” “Why? Because Beshear would support Obama’s policies, putting Obama ahead of Kentucky,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot, which can be viewed here: Scott Will, executive director of RAGA, said in a statement, “You may not always know what Andy Beshear stands for, but you know who he...

The Republican Attorneys General Association is keeping up their mid-July ad barrage against Democratic candidate Andy Beshear, seeking to bring attention to Beshear’s background. In the ad, the group specifically targets who Beshear would represent as attorney general. The 30-second spot points to a lack of law enforcement experience for the candidate, who is an attorney with Louisville-based Stites and Harbison. “How about the special interests bankrolling his campaign raising questions of ethics? Or the companies he’s worked for but would oversee as attorney general,” a narrator in the 30-second ad says. When asked by Pure Politics and other media...

LOUISVILLE (WHAS11) – A pedicure received by Kentucky Attorney General Candidate Whitney Westerfield before his 2009 wedding is the focus of an attack ad launched Monday, July 20, by the Kentucky Democratic Party. Calling pedicures Westerfield's "secret guilty pleasure," the ad relies on a report by CN2 that showed criticism of Westerfield by a former co-worker in his personnel file as an assistant Commonwealth's Attorney that alleged Westerfield's "'personal interests often [took] priority over work duties,'" including "'Teeth Cleaning vs. Jury Trial,' 'Pedicure vs. Arraignments,' and 'Cell Phone in Court.'" Westerfield is the Republican nominee for Kentucky Attorney General. He...

The campaign of Democratic attorney general candidate Andy Beshear is attempting to have an ad by the Republican Attorneys General Association removed from Lexington airwaves. The ad first was launched on Tuesday in the Lexington market where the 30-second spot is airing on: WLEX-TV, WKYT-TV and WTVQ-TV. As previously reported, the spot highlights Republican candidate Whitney Westerfield, a Hopkinsville attorney and the state Senate Judiciary chairman, as having spent time as a prosecutor “who put criminals behind bars.” The ad targets Beshear for having a lack of law enforcement experience, having a campaign “funded by special interests he would oversee...

Governor: MATT BEVIN (R) MattBevin.comOpponent: Jack Conway (D) Lt. Governor: JENEAN HAMPTON (R) (Note: In Kentucky, Governor and Lt. Governor run together on the same slate as running mates vs. separate elections like in many other states) Opponent: Sannie Overly (D) Secretary of State: STEVE KNIPPER (R)Steve Knipper campaign websiteOpponent: Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) State Auditor: MIKE HARMON (R)Mike Harmon campaign websiteOpponent: Adam Edelen (D)Attorney General: WHITNEY WESTERFIELD (R) Whitney Westerfield campaign websiteOpponent: Andy Beshear (D)State Treasurer: ALLISON BALL (R) Allison Ball campaign websiteOpponent: Rick Nelson (D) Commissioner of Agriculture: RYAN QUARLES (R)RyanQuarles.comOpponent: Jean-Marie Lawson Spann (D)

Westerfield's death-row letters Killer claims he was framed for Danielle van Dam murder By Alex Roth STAFF WRITERMay 3, 2003 From his cell on death row, David Westerfield spends his time reading murder mysteries and writing letters declaring he was framed for the murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, his Sabre Springs neighbor. "From the second that the police said that they found dvd's blood on my jacket, I knew I was being set up by one of two groups of people," the former design engineer wrote to one friend. "#1 the police or #2 the parents. My attorneys started...

SAN DIEGO – The District Attorney's Office spent nearly $270,000 prosecuting David Westerfield, including thousands for DNA analysis and expert witnesses, it was announced today. Westerfield was sentenced to die for the February 2002 killing of 7-year- old Danielle van Dam. The former Sabre Springs resident and neighbor of the victim is now on death row at San Quentin. According to figures the District Attorney's Office released, more than $35,000 was spent on experts for Westerfield's trial, and more than $146,000 on DNA analysis. More than $62,000 was spent on a telephone survey and a jury questionnaire review.

Is anyone out there in Southern California listening to the recording of David Westerfield's interrogation and lie detector test on KOGO radio? Oh my...What I've learned is NEVER, EVER take a Lie detector test. I'm not saying he's not guilty...He's guiltier than hell.. but the way they do it. I would NEVER subject myself to this if I were accused of a crime. I know I'll be flamed, but I don't like it. On the other hand...Westerfield did himself in with how cooperative he appeard to be. Calm and chatty. One of the questions was "Have you ever hut anyone...

<p>SAN DIEGO (AP) Child killer David Westerfield told detectives interrogating him after the disappearance of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, ''My life is over,'' and he asked the detectives to leave him alone with a gun.</p> <p>A newly released videotape of the interrogation, conducted three days after Danielle was reported missing, shows Westerfield sitting in a small room fielding questions from two detectives, who pleaded with him at one point to admit to the crime and tell them where to find the girl.</p>

Early last month, Dave Laspisa, a Poway businessman, opened his mail and discovered a holiday card from his old friend David Westerfield. "Greetings of the Seasons," the card announced, and inside was a handwritten note of thanks for Laspisa's support. Van Dams file lawsuit against Westerfield During the past year, Laspisa has been fairly vocal in his belief that Westerfield, his camping buddy, had nothing to do with the murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. "Please know that I was not involved in the death of this child," Westerfield wrote. "I'm saying this to you not to solicit more help...

SAN DIEGO – The parents of murdered 7-year-old Danielle van Dam sued her convicted killer, David Westerfield, on Thursday, one day before a San Diego judge was expected to sentence him to death for the harrowing crime. Damon and Brenda van Dam seek unspecified damages in their San Diego Superior Court lawsuit against Westerfield, the 50-year-old engineer who was found guilty in August of snatching Danielle from her bed and killing her. Westerfield, a twice-divorced father of two who lived near the van Dams in Sabre Springs and bought Girl Scout cookies from Danielle just days before her February abduction,...

When a person goes in search of enlightenment, it's usually good advice to avoid an Internet chat room. And yet it was a random posting on the Internet that led to a key piece of evidence in the David Westerfield case. At a luncheon in Mission Valley yesterday, prosecutors Jeff Dusek and George "Woody" Clarke told a number of anecdotes – some of them funny, others poignant and revealing – about what happened behind the scenes in the most publicized criminal trial in San Diego County history. The luncheon was organized by the San Diego Crime Commission and about 100...

Attorneys for Westerfield are citing "new evidence" from an "unnamed Police source" that suggests Danielle Van Dam might have been murdered in her room. This would negate the "special circumstance" that would enable the CA death penalty.Trial will likely be continued with judge granting defense motion that defense is "not ready" to present evidence on behalf of Westerfield in sentencing phase.

Defense lawyers in van Dam case ask for new evidence, delay of sentencing SAN DIEGO (AP) — Lawyers for the man convicted of kidnapping and killing Danielle van Dam requested Thursday that his sentencing be delayed and prosecutors hand over evidence they believe could show the 7-year-old girl wasn't kidnapped. If that were the case, David Westerfield would not face the allegation that made him eligible for the death penalty. Danielle vanished from her bedroom on Feb. 1. Her body was discovered along a rural road nearly a month later. A jury recommended that Westerfield be put to death for...

Fox talk show host calls for disbarment of Westerfield lawyers Defense lawyers for David Westerfield confer at trial. By Harriet Ryan Court TV The phones in the San Diego County Bar Association's offices rang nonstop Thursday morning. Nearly 100 callers with demeanors ranging from annoyed to downright irate told employees that they were calling at the urging of talk show host Bill O'Reilly to file ethics complaints against David Westerfield's lawyers. "We had to change our voice mail the calls were coming in so quickly," said Sheree Swetin, the association's executive director, sounding exhausted and hastening to add that it...

By Greg Moran UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER September 19, 2002 The grounds for appeals in the David Westerfield case could cover everything from how jury summonses were sent at the trial's beginning to the unusual sequence of events that ended in 12 jurors voting for the death penalty. And many, many areas in between. Legal experts in death-penalty work said the way the Westerfield case was tried provides fertile ground for an appeal, which is automatic because it is a capital case. The goal of the defense is to find a solid reason that appellate judges should throw out the guilty...