Westerfield Defense Set To Rest Case Tuesday

SAN DIEGO -- The defense in the David Westerfield trial will rest its rebuttal case Tuesday, but may first call one more witness that day.

WESTERFIELD TRIAL Judge William Mudd Issues Death Penalty Sentence Hear Jury's Death Penalty Recommendation Watch The Jury's Verdict Being Read Share Your Thoughts DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002 Watch Danielle Video Montage E-mail: daniellevandam @yahoo.com Send mail to: P.O. Box 501515 San Diego, 92150

If one more witness is called, closing arguments will be heard Wednesday. If the defense rests first thing Tuesday, jury instructions and closing arguments will begin immediately.

A defense insect expert testified Thursday that blow flies infested the body of Danielle van Dam long after police began surveillance of her accused killer, but also admitted that he left out differing calculations.

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Another Day Of Detailed Testimony

Robert Hall, interim vice provost for research at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said the 7-year-old victim's body was infested by the blow flies "no later than Feb. 23, 2002, and no earlier than Feb. 12, 2002."

Entomologists have testified that such infestation of a body usually occurs within minutes to hours of being exposed to the elements.

The defense contends Westerfield could not have placed the Sabre Springs second-grader's body under a tree in the East County because, by then, he was being so closely watched by police and the media.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Jeff Dusek, Hall conceded that he left out a computation derived from one of three main studies in the field of forensic entomology.

The study, by a researcher in British Columbia, was done under temperatures similar to those found in February in the area, near Singing Hills Country Club, where the girl's body was found.

Under such temperatures, flies which infested the victim's body would have been slower, "which means we get back to the beginning of February," Hall said.

"What date in the beginning of February?" Dusek asked.

"It would have been around the first of February," Hall replied.

The youngster was discovered missing on the morning of Feb. 2. Westerfield came under police suspicion two days later, with tight surveillance beginning the next day.

The defendant was arrested Feb. 22, and the girl's body was discovered near the Singing Hills Country Club five days later.

Westerfield, 50, is charged with murder, kidnapping and special circumstance allegations that could lead to the death penalty if he's convicted of killing the child.

He is also charged with misdemeanor possession of child pornography.

Thursday's often tedious testimony had a visible effect on the jury. Hall, also an attorney, frequently avoided direct answers to questions.

At one point, when Hall failed to give Dusek an answer he was looking for, the jurors en masse reacted with heavy sighs, laughter and slumping in their seats.

As a defense rebuttal witness, Hall cast doubt on a pair of experts produced by the prosecution.

Hall said the conclusion by Dr. William Rodriguez (pictured, right), a forensic anthropologist with the Department of Defense, was "inconsistent with the evidence I examined."

Rodriguez testified last week that Danielle had been dead for four to six weeks when her body was found.

Hall said calculations by Chaminade University entomologist Madison Lee Goff (pictured, left) introduced Tuesday were simply incorrect.

The witness conceded, however, that there were variables to conclusions made by entomologists, including a body being "in the trunk of a car for some period of time."

The prosecution has suggested that the girl's body was in the storage compartment of Westerfield's motor home for a period of time.

Defense attorney Steven Feldman asked Hall to assume a body carried around in such a storage compartment before being dumped Feb. 4.

"I would expect fly activity to occur as soon as an opportunity presented itself," Hall said about such a circumstance.

At any rate, he said, he would not expect a five- to seven-day delay of infestation.