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    David Alan Westerfield - California Death Row


    Danielle van Dam, 7




    Summary of Offense:

    Westerfield was convicted in San Diego County of first-degree murder for the kidnapping and slaying of seven-year-old Danielle van Dam of Sabre Springs on February 2, 2002. Judge William Mudd sentenced Westerfield to death on January 3, 2003.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Prosecutor who put David Westerfield on death row is retiring

    Jeff Dusek, the lead prosecutor in one of San Diego County’s highest-profile murder cases, didn’t see himself as a trial attorney when he embarked on a career in law.

    Although he knew he had a competitive streak, he had no background — or interest, initially — in speaking in front of groups of people. He figured he would end up an office attorney, perhaps working on business contracts.

    “I was not involved in any public speaking throughout my education,” said Dusek, who is retiring after 34 years as a prosecutor in San Diego County. “I was the guy who sat in the back of the classroom and hoped they didn’t call on me.”

    But in 2002, he was called on to prosecute David Westerfield, who kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old Danielle van Dam of Sabre Springs. The case gripped the public’s attention locally and nationally. The trial was broadcast live on television.

    He had obviously mastered public speaking.

    A courtroom appearance in North County just over a week ago was likely Dusek’s last. It was a sentencing in a cold-case murder from 2001.

    “It’s time,” he said, when asked why he’s leaving the only law-related job he’s ever held. “It’s time to turn it over to some of the young folks.”

    Dusek, 61, was hired by the District Attorney’s Office in March 1977. Before that he attended college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and law school at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va. He also played two years of minor league baseball as a pitcher in the White Sox organization.

    “It was fun while it lasted,” he said of his baseball career. “I knew I didn’t have world-class talent, but I’m glad I got the chance to go as far as my talent would let me.”

    Dusek grew up in San Clemente and always knew he would return to California after law school. Married, with a child on the way, he spent mornings mowing greens at a North County golf course while he studied for the bar exam, and later went door to door at downtown law offices pushing his resumé.

    Becoming a prosecutor proved to be a good fit. Colleagues described him as a meticulous legal mind and a dogged competitor, whose tall frame and booming voice endeared him to juries.

    ‘Go-to’ lawyer

    “He was my go-to trial lawyer,” said former District Attorney Paul Pfingst, who ran the office during the Westerfield trial. “Jeff brings with him a dashing figure and a personal credibility that is very persuasive with jurors.”

    Pfingst, now a defense attorney, went toe-to-toe with Dusek in the case of a Jamul man charged in a fatal shooting in 2006. The defendant, Joseph “Bob” Orlosky, was acquitted of murder and attempted murder in 2008 and of manslaughter and other charges in 2009.

    Pfingst won that battle, but it didn’t come easily.

    “That was the hardest, most physically demanding trial I have ever been in,” he said.

    Pfingst said he’s handled countless trials, as a prosecutor and as a defense lawyer, but none could begin to approach the fight he experienced in the courtroom with Dusek, whom he described as a relentless opponent who always tried to be on offense.

    “In the end, it was like two boxers leaning on each other,” Pfingst said.

    Dusek is retiring as a chief deputy district attorney. In recent years, he has headed the cold-case homicide unit under District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

    But his most public courtroom battle involved Westerfield, who was sentenced to the death penalty and is awaiting execution.

    At the time of the trial, he said, he didn’t feel the intensity of public interest in that case until it was over and a gag order barring him from discussing it publicly was lifted.

    “I certainly did not fully understand how many people were watching and paying attention to this case,” Dusek said.

    Unexpected attention


    But there were clues. He described a moment at the beach with his family when a woman snapped his photo from a distance. Later that day, a child walked up to him on the sand and asked, “Is your name Jeff?”

    When the trial was over, Dusek said, people approached him nearly everywhere — on the street, in stores, on the golf course — to share their thoughts about the case. Even defendants in other cases have offered congratulations.

    “Everyone wanted to talk about it,” he said.

    George “Woody” Clarke, a prosecutor on the Westerfield case who is now a Superior Court judge, said Dusek approached all of his cases the same way, regardless of whether they attracted media attention.

    “I think Jeff truly does represent a person who is unaffected by it,” Clarke said.

    Looking back, Dusek, said he couldn’t have found a better job.

    “I wanted to come to work every single morning,” he said. “I did not anticipate the weekends. Each case was different. Each case was exciting. I just loved the work.”

    Retirement, however, may be a more daunting prospect.

    Dusek, who has two adult daughters and one grandson, said he has no specific plan going forward and doesn’t quite know what to expect.

    “It’s scary,” he said. “You can only play so much golf.”

    Cases Jeff Dusek prosecuted

    • Alejandro Avalos Fernandez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and rape in the 2001 slaying of Gladys Conrad, an 84-year-old retired psychiatrist who was killed in her Carlsbad retirement community. Fernandez was sentenced to 34 years to life in prison on Jan. 7.

    • Jonathan Scott French was convicted in May of first-degree murder in the July 2009 death of Jennifer Stark, 43, his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Stark was a popular court reporter who worked at the Vista courthouse. French was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

    • Frank White, a San Diego police officer, was acquitted of a felony charge of grossly negligent discharge of a firearm and a misdemeanor count of exhibiting a firearm, stemming from a 2008 road-rage incident involving a mother and her young son. Police described the mother, Rachel Silva, as the aggressor in the incident. She was shot twice in her right arm. Her then-8-year-old son was shot in the left leg.

    • Joseph “Bob” Orlosky was acquitted in March 2009 of manslaughter, shooting into an occupied vehicle and two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter, for shooting at three men he thought were stealing copper from his ranch in Jamul. It was his second trial for the shootings. A year earlier, he had been acquitted of the most serious charges of murder and attempted murder.

    • Peter Jacob Johnson was found guilty in December 2006 of killing Robert James Spencer, 19, whose body was found Sept. 17, 1978, in the trunk of a car in Serra Mesa. He had been shot once in the back of the head. Johnson was sentenced to life in prison with parole.

    • Stanley Ray Clayton pleaded guilty in 2005 to fatally stabbing in 1987 William H. Thompson, publisher of what was then San Diego’s only black newspaper. Clayton was sentenced in August 2005 to life in prison without parole.

    • David Andrew Boysen, charged with murder in the beating and shooting deaths of his parents, Robert and Elsie Boysen in their Oceanside home Easter Sunday, April 6, 1980. A Vista judge dismissed the charges in 2005, saying the lengthy delay in filing the case and an incomplete investigation by Oceanside police violated David Boysen’s right to a fair trial. The decision was upheld on appeal.

    George Williams Jr. was convicted in September 2004 of kidnapping, raping and murdering 14-year-old Rickieann Blake of Chula Vista in 1986. Her body was found near Interstate 5 in Barrio Logan on April 11, 1986, the day after she was taken from her home. Williams was sentenced to the death penalty. He remains on death row.

    • David Westerfield was convicted in April 2002 of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. She was reported missing from her Sabre Springs home Feb. 2. Her body was found Feb. 27 along an East County roadside. Westerfield was sentenced to die for his crimes. He was sent to death row at San Quentin state prison, where he awaits execution.

    http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...death-row-ret/

  3. #3
    Senior Member Member Jeffects's Avatar
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    Westerfield was a real piece of garbage! It was big news here in Southern California. They even tried to blame the parents and drag them through the mud. I find it hard to believe that at some point in his fifties he "suddenly" committed such a horrific crime. The press said he made regular jaunts to Tijuana in his murder mobile (motor home). I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were several missing children south of the border over the years.
    Last edited by Jeffects; 06-19-2012 at 08:26 PM. Reason: Am I drunk already?

  4. #4
    Senior Member Member Jeffects's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Armchair Expert View Post
    I’m not aware of the parents being blamed for the crime, but it certainly was one aspect of their lifestyle - smoking an illegal substance in their garage - that gave the perpetrator easy access to their daughter. That’s why the side garage door was unlocked, and the lock on the house garage door was reversed (San Diego Union-Tribune, August 6, 2002).
    Since I've only now seen your snarky reply, I will respond, so that perhaps you can become even more of an expert. As far as the parents being besmirched, I wasn't referring to marijuana use. I was referring to their sex life being used by the defense to try and clear the murderer. You must have forgotten that front page news.


    By Alex Roth
    UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

    June 7, 2002

    Danielle van Dam's mother wept about her daughter's death, glared at the man charged with killing the girl and fielded questions about her unconventional sex life during a day of emotional testimony yesterday.

    Her demeanor shifted dramatically under questioning by Westerfield's attorney, Steven Feldman, who asked her a series of questions about her sex life.

    Westerfield's attorneys have argued that the van Dams were irresponsible parents and that their daughter could have been killed by any number of people the couple attracted into their lives.

    A day after he grilled Damon van Dam about the couple's sexual and marijuana habits, Feldman did the same with Brenda van Dam, asking whether she had sex with her friends Barbara Easton and Denise Kemal and their husbands.

    She acknowledged that she had. She later admitted that she and her husband had sex with Kemal and Kemal's husband, Andy, during a Halloween party in October 2000.


    Also:


    Update: May 15
    The judge ruled today that some of the pornography on David Westerfield's computer will be allowed as evidence in the trial, and that the jury will only hear limited testimony about the Damon and Branda van Dam's sexual lifestyles (as if anybody living in the San Diego area hasn't already read about it in somewhat-graphic detail)


    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/692060/posts

    As far as trips to Mexico:


    Update: February 21
    Based on several tips, investigators have expanded their search area into Mexico (Tijuana is less than 20 miles from San Diego)



    Several tips to investigators is substantially different from one woman claiming to see Danielle in Tijuana.

    I clearly recall references to the murderer making trips to Mexico, I suppose I could research more for you, and then we could both be self proclaimed "Experts"

    3 posts, all about defending this murderer. Pfft.
    Last edited by Jeffects; 08-26-2014 at 03:11 PM.

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Here is a link with a lot of info on this case; including transcripts, warrants and media coverage. It's a good read, I had a brief look. Thought you might like this Jeffects

    http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/metro/danielle/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #6
    Senior Member Member Jeffects's Avatar
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    Thanks Helen. I gave it a quick peruse, and will look forward to getting into it in depth later.

    I believe that we are on the verge of becoming true "Armchair Experts". Unlike those who post here, with some twisted agenda only to defend murderers that grasp a sleeping, innocent child from her bed, rape, torture her for hours and days, and then murder her.

    Then try to blame it on her shattered, and grieving parents.

  7. #7
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Armchair Expert you are a douche-bag and hereby removed permanently from this forum!
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #8
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Nearly 30 Reasons for Appeal: Attorneys

    The man convicted of killing a Sabre Springs girl nearly ten years ago is now asking for an appeal to overturn his death penalty conviction.

    NBC San Diego obtained documents that show attorneys for David Westerfield believe errors were made in his murder case.

    Westerfield was convicted in August 2003 for the kidnap and murder of Danielle Van Dam.

    “Just when you think you’ve got a lot of it behind you, something happens and it brings it all up again,” Brenda Van Dam told NBCSanDiego on Tuesday.

    She said the pain of losing her daughter is still just as deep as it was the day her body was found.

    “You know the holidays are hard anyway and I just kind of really have been down in the dumps lately,” said Van Dam.

    In the appeal, attorneys for Westerfield offer nearly thirty reasons for the conviction to be overturned, including questions about evidence and testimony.

    Van Dam family attorney Spencer Busby called the appeal a legal process that will not lead to the overturning of the death penalty conviction.

    "The DNA evidence was overwhelming," Busby said about the trial.

    He also said Westerfield's defense attorney did an excellent job of trying to disprove the state's case.

    The state supreme court will ultimately decide the fate of the appeal.

    Westerfield is currently on "death row" at San Quentin State Prison.

    http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/loca...136659223.html

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeffects View Post
    Westerfield was a real piece of garbage! It was big news here in Southern California. They even tried to blame the parents and drag them through the mud. I find it hard to believe that at some point in his fifties he "suddenly" committed such a horrific crime. The press said he made regular jaunts to Tijuana in his murder mobile (motor home). I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were several missing children south of the border over the years.

    I have followed this case, but this is the first I’ve heard that he made regular jaunts to Tijuana, whether in his motor home or anything else. Furthermore, the only mention of Tijuana was a tip from a woman who said she saw Danielle there (reported in the San Diego Union-Tribune, February 23, 2002). Just three days earlier, that same newspaper had listed girls in the county who had vanished, but Tijuana was only mentioned in one of those cases. But before you blame Westerfield for that one, it was in 1960, and I seriously doubt that a small child (as he was at the time) was driving a motor home.

    In addition, it was probably only in 1993 that he bought his first motor home (that’s the trial testimony by a friend of his on July 8, 2002). And I find it almost as hard to believe that at some point in his early forties (as he was at that time) he suddenly started committing such horrific crimes. In any case, none of the above-mentioned girls went missing after that date. And anyway the police were unable to link him to any of those cases.

    I’m not aware of the parents being blamed for the crime, but it certainly was one aspect of their lifestyle - smoking an illegal substance in their garage - that gave the perpetrator easy access to their daughter. That’s why the side garage door was unlocked, and the lock on the house garage door was reversed (San Diego Union-Tribune, August 6, 2002).

    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    Nearly 30 Reasons for Appeal: Attorneys

    Van Dam family attorney Spencer Busby called the appeal a legal process that will not lead to the overturning of the death penalty conviction.

    "The DNA evidence was overwhelming," Busby said about the trial.
    There was one small bloodstain containing Danielle’s DNA on Westerfield’s motor home jacket, and one drop containing her DNA on his motor home carpet (Evidence items 94D-2 and 84, respectively). But as they were neighbors, and his motor home was often parked in the streets outside their houses, apparently often unlocked, she could have sneaked into that interesting vehicle at an earlier date, leaving behind that evidence. Supporting this possibility are facts such as that a child could have done so without being seen, and the failure of the search dogs to give an alert (so they couldn’t detect her scent there, implying she couldn’t have been there recently).

    There was no blood in his house, where the first assault(s) supposedly took place (between about 3:30 and 7:30 Saturday morning).

    That’s very little blood for supposed repeated sexual assaults which could have lasted up to two days (between early Saturday morning and early Monday morning), and a murder.

    There’s also reason to doubt both those blood stains. Westerfield handed in his jacket to his dry-cleaners on his way home on Monday morning, but they didn’t see that stain, nor could it be seen on the photo the police took of the jacket after they seized it; and the police didn’t photograph or measure the drop on the carpet.

    There were also some of Danielle’s hairs and some of her dog’s hairs (identified by mostly mitochondrial DNA), in both his house and motor home. But these could have been deposited in his house when she and her family visited him just days before the crimes, and then been transferred from his house to his motor home. Support for that possibility is the fact that the number of hairs in his motor home was much lower than the number in his house.

    There was unidentified DNA in two bloodstains on the very bed Danielle was kidnapped from (Evidence items 8-2 and 10-7A). Westerfield was excluded as the source. And there was an unidentified hair under her body (Item 169). Again, Westerfield was excluded. True, the blood on her bed might have come from a friend of hers. But it might have been from her abductor. So the police should have tried to identify the source by comparing it against a DNA database, but they didn’t. And the hair under her body might have come from one of the police processing the body. But it might have been from her killer. Again, the police should have tried to identify the source.

    The bottom line is that the DNA evidence fell far short of proving guilt.

    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    The trial largely focused on forensic evidence [...] A single orange fiber caught in a tiny choker necklace found on Danielle’s body.

    http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/...page=1#article
    This was Evidence Item number 120.

    A minor point: the fiber was tangled in her hair, it’s that hair which was caught in her necklace.

    Not so minor is that the prosecution didn’t produce a photo showing the fiber while still in her hair. Most people would take the criminalist’s word for it, but when a man’s life is at stake a higher standard of proof is required.

    And then the criminalist failed to produce that fiber in court when the defense attorney asked her to do so, and the judge didn’t want this discussed in front of the jury.

    It’s also a bit disturbing that the fiber in her hair was described as dull orange, whereas those in Westerfield’s environment which were said to match were described as bright or very bright - the criminalist backtracked when this discrepancy was pointed out to her under cross-examination.

    Another more serious point is that the source of the fiber in her hair was never identified. It was assumed to come from something of Westerfield’s, presumably because there were so many similar fibers in his house: maybe more than 200. But there are problems with that ...

    The fibers with her body (there were many other types as well) were said to have come from the last environment she was in, but the last environment was supposedly his motor home (for maybe nearly two days), and there weren’t any matching orange fibers reported in that vehicle.

    Because there were so many similar fibers in his house, only some were tested: many weren’t even collected, and apparently only one was tested using the most powerful instrument available to them, the microspectrophotometer, which they had to go to Sacramento to use. So all the others were only partially tested. Westerfield had an afghan, the fibers from which were so similar to the one in her hair, that the criminalist spent days unsuccessfully trying to prove that was the source. Two of the 22 similar fibers in his SUV were determined by further testing not to match (Evidence Item 35). A Court TV photo of a microscope slide (Court Exhibit 134) shows two orange fibers which are clearly different: one is narrower and brighter than the other. So the number which actually matched might be much less than 200.

    No similar orange fibers were found in Danielle’s own home, but this doesn’t mean much because - inexcusably - only a few items from there were examined. So it’s possible that the source of that incriminating fiber in Danielle’s hair was actually in her own home. Which would eliminate its value as evidence against Westerfield. It wasn’t even established what clothes the van Dams were wearing when they visited him earlier that week. Maybe one of them wore an old orange sweater which shed many of its fibers in his house.

    But even if those orange fibers came from something of Westerfield’s, with so many in his house, several might have got onto Danielle’s clothes or hair during that visit, one of which was still in her hair when she was kidnapped. There was no testimony that she bathed or showered or washed her hair in the maybe two or three days after that visit. And the detailed testimony of the family’s Friday evening activities effectively excludes the possibility that she did so then. So that fiber’s evidentiary value is weak.

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