Criminal
Jun. 21, 2002
Prints in Vehicle Match Slain Girl, Expert Testifies
SAN DIEGO - A police fingerprint expert testified Wednesday that fingerprints found on a cabinet beside a bed in the rear of David A. Westerfield's motor home were made by Danielle van Dam, the 7-year-old girl he is accused of kidnapping and murdering.
Jeffrey Graham Jr., employed by the San Diego Police Department, stretched out his left hand to show how the prints could have been left there.
Not all five fingerprints could be identified because the hand had moved while placed against the cabinet, but the left middle and ring fingers left clear patterns, Graham said.
"These two prints were made by Danielle van Dam," Graham said under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Jeff B. Dusek.
Dusek asked how certain he was.
Graham replied, "Absolutely certain."
The testimony came Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors, who had spent two days explaining how the evidence was collected, began outlining its significance.
Earlier Wednesday, a San Diego homicide detective testified that, while searching Westerfield's house, police found a print advertisement for bedroom furnishings featuring a canopy bed similar to that of the slain second-grader. The ad was folded so the only part that was visible showed the bed, Detective James Tomsovic said. Tomsovic said the ad was found in Westerfield's kitchen.
The detective also testified that he had seen the bed of Danielle, who lived two doors away from the Westerfield house in the northern San Diego community of Sabre Springs, and that the bed in the ad was "like a larger version of Danielle's."
During a search of Westerfield's house, Tomsovic said, he found binoculars in a dresser drawer in Westerfield's second-floor bedroom. Danielle's bedroom, also on the second floor in her house, can be seen from a window in Westerfield's bedroom, the detective said.
Tomsovic's testimony came as prosecutors continued to put witnesses on the stand to explain how evidence against Westerfield was gathered, including DNA evidence.
Danielle's parents found that she had disappeared from her bedroom early the morning of Feb. 2. The night before, her mother, Brenda van Dam, had been with friends in a Poway bar for a "girls' night out," while her husband watched Danielle and her two brothers.
Westerfield, who had purchased Girl Scout cookies from Danielle a few days earlier, was also at the Poway bar Feb. 1 and left before the women did.
The next day, before the van Dams knew Danielle was missing, Westerfield took his motor home on a rambling trip that went from the beach to the desert and back again.
Westerfield, who faces the death penalty if he is convicted, came under police suspicion when police found he was the only neighbor who was not home during the massive search launched within hours after Danielle vanished. He was arrested Feb. 22 and has been held without bail since then. His case moved swiftly to trial before Superior Court Judge William D. Mudd because Westerfield refused to waive time.
Danielle's body was found Feb. 27 beneath a clump of oaks beside a road east of El Cajon. The medical examiner was unable to establish a time or cause of death because of decomposition and damage caused by animals.
The area around the body was littered with illegally dumped sofas, mattresses, and beer cans, according to testimony Wednesday of police forensic specialist Karen LeAlcala, who said she wore a jumpsuit to protect herself from poison oak that grew in the area.
When questioned by defense attorney Steven E. Feldman, LeAlcala said she could not identify some plants in a photograph of the scene as poison oak.
Tomsovic, under questioning by Dusek, also said that poison oak grew there.
The prosecution and defense questions about poison oak points to something not yet mentioned in the trial: Police saw scratches on Westerfield's arms when he returned from his three-day trip. Lawyers haven't provided an explanation for those scratches.
But most of LeAlcala's time was spent telling how she found and collected evidence in Westerfield's house and motor home that prosecutors believe is among their most powerful, according to the opening statement by Dusek on June 4.
Among the evidence was a lint ball from the dryer in Westerfield's laundry room that contained three hairs, hair found in the sink of the motor home, hair from the rug in the motor home, fibers similar to those in the carpet of Danielle's bedroom and blood on the carpet outside the bathroom in the motor home.
In his opening statement, Dusek said the odds are one in a quadrillion that the DNA in some of those items belongs to anyone other than Danielle.
Claude Walbert
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