Criminal
Aug. 16, 2002
Westerfield Jury Focuses First on Pornography
SAN DIEGO - The jury in the David Westerfield murder trial first focused on the defendant's pornography collection, court files showed Wednesday.
As jurors completed their fifth day of deliberations, court records revealed that the panel asked last week to see the pornography and then asked to see photos Westerfield took of his girlfriend's youthful daughter.
This week they asked to hear a tape of Westerfield's first interview with police and to review the transcript of it, the records showed.
When jurors requested the pornography, they asked to see all of the images that were introduced as evidence. Police have testified that the collection includes as many as 10,000 images.
Eighty of those images were child pornography, according to trial testimony. The images included rapes of young girls by adult males, police testified.
Westerfield, 50, is charged with kidnapping and murdering his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam. He also is charged with a misdemeanor count of possession of child pornography.
Prosecutors said his possession of a vast collection of pornography suggests a motive for the crime. But his defense lawyers replied that merely watching pornography doesn't necessarily lead to crime.
On Wednesday, out-of-town media for the first time outnumbered San Diego reporters.
Attention on the sensational case is intensifying with each day that passes without a jury verdict.
The swelled ranks of reporters crammed into the courtroom of Superior Court Judge William D. Mudd. But they learned nothing new.
A hearing on a sealed defense motion is scheduled this morning. At least initially, the hearing will be closed to the public.
Danielle's parents discovered Feb. 2 that the second-grader was missing from her upstairs bedroom. As a massive search began radiating out from the neighborhood, police going door to door noticed that Westerfield was the only neighbor not at home.
When he returned Feb. 4, his behavior and his odd tale of an unplanned 550-mile trip in his 35-foot motor home aroused suspicion among police.
Westerfield was arrested Feb. 22 after Danielle's blood and hair were found on the defendant's clothing and in his home and motor home. Her fingerprints also were found on a cabinet beside a bed in the motor home. He was jailed without bail and faces the death penalty if convicted in the trial, which began June 4.
On Feb. 27, volunteer searchers found Danielle's naked, decomposing body. She had been partially eaten by animals after being left among old couches, tires and engine blocks beside a rural road in eastern San Diego County.
The jury has masses of evidence to consider. During the trial, 199 exhibits were introduced, and 98 individuals testified, some of them two or three times.
Claude Walbert
For reprint rights or to order a copy of your photo:
Email
Jeremy_Ellis@dailyjournal.com
for prices.
Direct dial: 213-229-5424
Send a letter to the editor:
Email: letters@dailyjournal.com