|
|||||||||
Gavel-to-gavel coverage of the David Westerfield trial will air live on NewsChannel 15 and will be live streamed on TheSanDiego Channel.com
The story is being covered extensively by all San Diego television stations, and several from Los Angeles. It also will be aired live on Court TV, which has set up a mobile studio in front of the courthouse.
Superior Court Judge William Mudd has designated 10 seats for the media throughout the trial. An overflow room for reporters is set up next door in an empty courtroom.
Mudd ruled last week that the girl's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, must stay out of the courtroom until they are called to testify.
Before jury selection began, Mudd ruled that jurors will hear only limited information on the "swinging" lifestyle of the parents.
The jury also will be allowed to view certain pornographic images -- including photographs of naked children -- that investigators say they found on Westerfield's computer.
Jurors also will hear statements the defendant made to police the day he became a suspect, the judge ruled.
Prosecutors contend the alleged pornographic computer images prove Westerfield's motive was to molest Danielle sexually when he allegedly took from her home the night of Feb. 1.
The child's blood, hair and fingerprints were found in Westerfield's motor home, prosecutors said.
Volunteer searchers found her decomposed body Feb. 27 off a road near Dehesa, in San Diego's East County.
What To Expect On Day 1
At 9:45 a.m. there will be a discussion with a juror who has concerns about a brother and a scheduling conflict. Mudd will then bring in the entire jury for about 30 minutes of instructions.
The prosecution has indicated its opening statement will take from 45 minutes to an hour.
The defense will then have the option of proceeding or taking an early lunch break.
The first witnesses are expected to be called in the afternoon.
Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek said Damon van Dam could be called to the stand late in the day, after testimony is heard from witnesses who found her body Feb. 27.
His comment came near the end of a hearing Monday on a sealed pretrial motion and other housekeeping issues.
The hearing on the motion, which took nearly three hours behind closed doors, concerned evidence from a search by dogs in the neighborhood near the van Dam home.
In prior hearings, defense attorney Steven Feldman argued that search dogs had picked up "false positives" in the area.
Judge William Mudd ruled that limited evidence would be allowed regarding a dog named "Cielo."
Mudd also allowed three photographs offered by the prosecution to be entered into evidence. They show Danielle in two poses -- one of them taken the day before she disappeared and just after she got a haircut. It was used on fliers distributed throughout the area.
The second photo was of Danielle before her hair was cut. The third was of her and her two brothers.
"We have found hair from Danielle van Dam," Dusek told Mudd, in a lint trap found in garbage and on the floor and sink of Westerfield's motor home.
Experts determined the hair to be 8 inches long, Dusek said.
The photos, he said, would show the jury how long her hair was at different times and poke holes in defense contentions that the strand got into the motor home at an earlier time.
"The prosecution is trying to put a memorial to Danielle van Dam in this courtroom," Feldman argued.
Dusek countered that the photographs were necessary because the defense would make an issue of Brenda van Dam's credibility.
"The court does not find this is a tribute or memorial to Danielle van Dam," Mudd ruled. "They will be permitted with appropriate (legal) foundation."
Mudd ordered attorneys for both sides to be in the courtroom 15 minutes before each court session, and warned that lunch breaks would be limited if the trial falls behind schedule.
"The history of this case has been replete with, 'Oh, by the ways,'" Mudd complained. "We have (12 jurors and six alternates) sitting on this case and we've given them a timeline. I don't want to take trial or jury time to argue items not necessarily about that day's events." Gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial will air live on NewsChannel 15, and will be live streamed on TheSanDiegoChannel.com beginning at 10 a.m.
According to statements by Mudd and the attorneys during jury selection, the trial could reach into the end of July or early August.
