Criminal
Aug. 7, 2002
Westerfield's Defense Won't Call More Witnesses
SAN DIEGO - The defense team for David A. Westerfield, charged with the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, said Monday that it will call no more witnesses.
With testimony ended, Deputy District Attorney Jeff B. Dusek and lead defense attorney Steven E. Feldman were scheduled to begin delivering closing statements today
Before the statements, San Diego County Superior Court Judge William D. Mudd will instruct the jury.
Feldman earlier had said he might call a final witness, a forensic anthropologist, to reply to a prosecution forensic anthropologist. The prosecution expert said mummification of the second-grader's body had formed a barrier to colonization by flies for about two weeks, but then animals opened areas of the body still fresh enough to attract flies.
On Monday, Feldman gave no reason for the decision not to call the anthropologist.
In his opening statement June 4, Feldman said "science" would prove that Westerfield didn't leave the child's body beside a rural road in eastern San Diego County, where volunteer searchers found it Feb. 27, two days after Westerfield's arrest.
Forensic entomologists testifying for the defense said the life stages of blow fly larvae collected from the body showed when it had been first exposed to insects. That date, the entomologists said, was about two weeks after Danielle's parents discovered on Feb. 2 that she was missing from her second-floor bedroom in the northern San Diego community of Sabre Springs. Westerfield, a 50-year-old self-employed engineer, lived two doors away. He was under police surveillance from Feb. 5 until his arrest.
Westerfield insisted after the arrest on his right to a speedy trial, an unusual tactic in a case that could put Westerfield on death row if he is convicted. The trial, which began just four months after Danielle vanished, moved speedily at first but in its last phases slowed considerably as prosecutors and defense lawyers tried to line up witnesses.
The prosecution built its case against Westerfield on DNA identifications of Danielle's blood and hair found in his motor home and on his clothing; her fingerprints found in the motor home; and hair and fiber evidence linking Danielle and Westerfield.
Westerfield's motive, the prosecutors said, could be found in the thousands of pornographic images stored on carefully labeled computer disks and in computers. Those images included bestiality and child pornography. Westerfield is charged with misdemeanor possession of child pornography, in addition to the felony charges of kidnapping and murder.
Feldman attempted to show that Westerfield's son, now 19, had downloaded those images, but the son denied doing so.
Another part of the defense case was the suggestion that someone from the van Dam's circle of friends could have taken Danielle. Brenda van Dam, the girl's mother, admitted smoking marijuana and drinking several alcoholic beverages the night Danielle vanished, and she and her husband said they had engaged in spouse-swapping.
Claude Walbert
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