Criminal
Aug. 8, 2002
DA Weaves Description of Westerfield's Movements
SAN DIEGO - David A. Westerfield crept into the bedroom of the 7-year-old girl he is accused of kidnapping and murdering and then hid there while her parents and four friends ate a late-night pizza snack, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
As he began closing arguments to jurors, Deputy District Attorney Jeff B. Dusek presented a blow-by-blow account of his theory of how Westerfield allegedly murdered Danielle van Dam.
Lead defense attorney Steven E. Feldman, who opened his closing argument late in the day, said Dusek's theory is unfounded because there is no evidence that Westerfield was ever in the van Dam house.
Dusek said the re-enactment was based on eight weeks of testimony in Westerfield's trial. Four hours after he began, Dusek had touched on all the major prosecution evidence in the case.
Westerfield sat impassively through most of the argument.
Some of the prosecution's theory is based on statements to police by Westerfield before his arrest, the prosecutor said. Westerfield did not testify during the trial.
Dusek argued that, during police questioning before he was a suspect, Westerfield indicated he had been in the van Dam house the night the girl vanished.
Dusek said Westerfield blurted out that he hadn't known Danielle's father was home and that he had expected only a baby sitter. He had seen Danielle's mother earlier in Dad's Cafe and Steakhouse, a Poway bar, Westerfield told police.
Dusek told the jury that family friend Denise Kemal testified that she had left a garage door unlocked after going outside to make a telephone call.
"He comes into the house before Danielle's mother and friends come back from Dad's, gets penned in and hides somewhere, probably in [Danielle's] room," Dusek said.
Westerfield waited until the house was quiet again to snatch the girl, Dusek said.
"Then he goes out the back door, out the side gate and back to his house," Dusek said.
Danielle's father woke up around 3 a.m. and found a rear sliding door open, according to testimony.
Dusek told the jurors that they didn't have to decide exactly how Westerfield, who faces the death penalty, got into Danielle's room.
The prosecutor said his theory was the best that could be inferred from the evidence.
Danielle's parents discovered that the girl had vanished from her second-floor bedroom early the next morning.
Westerfield was arrested Feb. 22. Volunteer searchers found Danielle's body Feb. 27, "dumped like trash," Dusek said.
Dusek detailed what he argued was compelling physical evidence linking Westerfield to the girl.
In a necklace around Danielle's neck, Dusek said, police criminalists found an orange fiber. In her hair were blue fibers, he said. Criminalists had found similar orange fibers on the pillow in Westerfield's bedroom, Dusek noted. They were also in three loads of laundry Westerfield was doing when police found him at home Feb. 4, and they were in his sport utility vehicle, Dusek said.
Blue fibers like those in Danielle's hair were found on the headboard of the bed in Westerfield's motor home, in which he took what he told police was an unplanned trip early Feb. 2, Dusek said. Danielle's fingerprints were found on a cabinet beside the bed.
Westerfield also gave a "phony alibi" about where he was the weekend that the girl vanished, Dusek argued.
"There's more to this horrible crime, this evil, evil crime," Dusek said.
He told the jurors that Westerfield, the day after the girl had vanished, turned up at a dry cleaners to leave bedding and his jacket.
The jacket later was found to be stained with Danielle's blood, which alone is enough to establish Westerfield's guilt, Dusek said.
Danielle's hair also was found in Westerfield's bed and on his pillow, in his laundry, and in his motor home, the prosecutor said. Near where the hair was found in the motor home, her blood was on the carpet, he said.
"It gets worse," Dusek said.
Dusek reminded jurors that Westerfield also is charged with misdemeanor possession of child pornography and that graphic digital pictures of children in sexual poses allegedly were seized from his home office.
The defense had argued that the lifestyle of Danielle's parents, which included marijuana and extramarital sex, might have exposed the girl to strangers who could be potential suspects.
"All of the drugs, all of the alcohol, all of the sex - that has nothing to do with it," he said.
Dusek rejected the theory and said police quickly eliminated friends and parents and Westerfield's 18-year-old son, Neal, as suspects.
"No, his dad did it, and all the blame comes down on his own flesh and blood," Dusek said as Westerfield blinked his eyes rapidly and squirmed.
"Why would a normal 50-year-old man want that?" Dusek asked the jury. "Why would he have to hide that from everyone?"
The prosecutor answered his own questions this way: "Those are his fantasies. That's what gets him excited."
"Looking wasn't good enough, it appears; listening wasn't good enough," Dusek said. "We know now why he did it, and that's the scariest part. He's the guy down the street."
"We don't want to hear how he took her out of her own bed, and then to his," Dusek said. "We'll never know, and it's probably better if we don't, if she screamed like those girls in the videos."
Dusek concluded by saying that Westerfield "is guilty of these crimes, guilty to the core."
Feldman began his closing arguments late Tuesday and was expected to continue Wednesday.
Claude Walbert
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