Westerfield trial opens
KIMBERLY EPLERStaff Writer
SAN DIEGO ---- The trial of David Westerfield began Tuesday with prosecutors laying out evidence they say will show that the Sabre Springs man kidnapped and murdered his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam.
Westerfield's defense attorneys, meanwhile, attacked the integrity and honesty of the little girl's parents and told jurors that science will come to their client's rescue.
 Pool Photo |
| Karsten Heinburger, one of the first searchers to find the body of Danielle van Dam, points to an area near where the body was found during questioning on the first day of trial for David Westerfield in San Diego court, Tuesday. Westerfield is accused of the kidnapping and murder of seven-year old Danielle van Dam from her Sabre Springs home, last February. |
Westerfield, 50, has pleaded not guilty to the crimes. The self-employed engineer and twice-divorced father of two faces the death penalty if convicted. He lived two houses away from the van Dams.
The trial is expected to last up to three months. It comes just four months after Danielle vanished overnight from her second-story bedroom in early February.
During opening statements, each side centered on the same three time periods ---- the week before Danielle disappeared, the last night she was seen alive, and the four weeks until her body was found under a tree in the rural East County. But the attorneys painted very different portraits of the main individuals involved.
After sometimes emotional, often animated opening statements, jurors heard from five witnesses ---- the van Dams' neighbor, the two young men who found Danielle's body, a sheriff's deputy who responded to the scene, and a local casino worker.
Jurors also saw photographs of Danielle's nude and decomposed body.
Danielle's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, sat outside the courtroom. Judge William Mudd ruled last week that they would not be able to sit in on the trial until after they testified, a regular procedure in criminal and civil cases. Outside the presence of the jury, Mudd admonished audience members not to wear any pins or shirts bearing Danielle's image.
Prosecutor Jeff Dusek told jurors that Westerfield's description of his activities the weekend Danielle disappeared was full of inconsistencies. He also said samples of Danielle's blood, hair and fingerprints that were found in Westerfield's motor home link him to the crime.
More hair was found in laundry lint tossed in Westerfield's garbage, Dusek said, and fibers lifted from Westerfield's laundry room match fibers found in Danielle's body bag.
Dusek also told the jurors the prosecutor's theory that Danielle was suffocated by something being placed over her nose and mouth with such force that her front teeth were knocked out. Three of her teeth were missing. One was found inside her mouth. The medical examiner has not released a cause of death.
Westerfield's defense attorney, Steven Feldman, in turn questioned the integrity of Danielle's parents and the company they kept ---- saying that they lied to police about their drug use, their lifestyle, and other events the night Danielle was last seen alive.
"It took six (police) interviews to get to the bottom of the van Dams' story," Feldman said. "Why?"
In contrast, he said, his client cooperated with police, allowing them to search his home and motor home. He tried to help, Feldman said.
"Whatever they wanted, he gave to them," Feldman said. "He behaved just like all of his other neighbors did."
In an animated opening argument that included his playing the roles of Brenda and Damon van Dam, Feldman told jurors that there were doubts about the prosecution's case, including how Westerfield could have stolen into the house he had never been in and taken Danielle away.
He said there was absolutely no evidence linking Westerfield to the van Dam house. And, Feldman said, Westerfield's motor home was parked outside of his house so often that it was considered a "bane of the neighborhood."
Feldman also questioned the type of people Brenda van Dam invited over to the couple's home that night.
Feldman said evidence will show that it would have been impossible for Westerfield to have dumped Danielle's body along the rural road near the Sycuan Casino. He also talked about how Danielle, her mother and brother were in Westerfield's house a few days before Danielle disappeared.
The defense said that they were running around, jumping on laundry and furniture, and running upstairs. The prosecution said the children only went out for a moment to look at Westerfield's pool, then stayed by their mother's side.
Feldman countered the prosecutor's theory on Danielle's death, saying there was no way to know how she died. A forensic dentist will testify she had long teeth with a short root that made the tooth less stable.
"It is absolutely impossible, absolutely impossible to know how she died," Feldman said.
Prosecutors said Westerfield's motive in the crime can be found in graphic pornographic images authorities found on his home computer that showed a little girl, or someone dressed as a little girl, being attacked by adult males.
The prosecutor also hinted that Westerfield may have been watching Danielle through his bathroom window. The screen and frame had been pushed out to enable a person to see into the van Dams' back yard, Dusek said.
He said police found several pairs of binoculars during a search of Westerfield's home and a magazine advertisement showing a canopy bed with a mosquito netting that closely matches Danielle's room.
Feldman said most of the pornography found on Westerfield's computers were adults engaged in consensual activities.
Damon van Dam could take the stand today.
Contact staff writer Kimberly Epler at (760) 739-6644 or kepler@nctimes.com.
6/5/02
