SAN DIEGO -- David Westerfield may have lurked up to an hour in Danielle van Dam's darkened bedroom before he abducted and killed the 7-year-old neighbor girl, a prosecutor argued Tuesday.

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

"He gets penned in and hides somewhere, probably in her room ... he got lucky," Jeff Dusek said during closing arguments. "The bottom line is, though, he did it."

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For the first time, Dusek presented the prosecution's blow-by-blow theory of how the 50-year-old divorced engineer allegedly snatched Danielle as she slept.

"It's a simple case when you sit back and look at it all," Dusek told jurors.

Dusek called it an "evil crime" not just for what happened to the Sabre Springs girl, but for actions Westerfield allegedly took to cover up the crime.

Dusek pointed to a television interview Westerfield gave in his driveway, two days after the girl was discovered missing. While her parents were just down the street wondering what happened to their daughter, the defendant was "yuck-yucking" around with the media and wondering whether he should be wearing his hat, Dusek said.

Westerfield could face the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping and killing Danielle, who lived two doors down from him in San Diego. The girl was last seen when her father put her to bed Feb. 1. Her nude body was found nearly a month later along a rural road east of the suburb of El Cajon.

Dusek detailed what he argued was compelling physical evidence linking Westerfield to the girl. Her fingerprints were found on a headboard in his motor home, her hair was found in bedding at his permanent home, and her blood was on a jacket that Westerfield had dry cleaned and on a carpet in the motor home, Dusek argued.

The defendant showed up at a dry cleaning business in Poway, Dusek said, dressed only in underwear on a cold morning.

"No shoes, no socks, no personality," Dusek said in describing the defendant, based on testimony by an employee of the business.

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"That in and of itself tells you he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt -- that alone," Dusek told jurors.

Westerfield gave the clerk at the dry cleaners two comforters, two pillow shams and a jacket that morning, Dusek said. Danielle's blood, he said, was found by police evidence technicians on the jacket while hair from her dog was discovered on a comforter.

Westerfield also gave a "phony alibi" about where he was the weekend that the girl vanished, Dusek argued.

"He tells us where he went most of the time, but he left off big chunks ... all of the incriminating things," Dusek told the jury.

Westerfield sat impassively as the case was laid out.

Why would "an ordinary 50-year-old guy" kidnap and kill a 7-year-old girl? Dusek asked rhetorically.

He reminded jurors of pornography police computer experts found in the office of Westerfield's Sabre Springs home.

"Why would a normal 50-year-old man have pictures of young girls, not on his computer, but on disks?" Dusek wondered aloud. "One is too many for a normal 50-year-old man."

The prosecution projected what Dusek termed "tame" samples of the photographs on a screen on the courtroom wall. He then reminded the jurors of photographs of minors having sex and drawings depicting rape and sodomy.

Dusek read to jurors transcripts of dialogue from the rape scenes on the computer.

"Those are his fantasies," Dusek said of Westerfield. "His choice. That's what he wants. Fantasies breed need."

"If you answer why a 50-year-old man would have that stuff, I'll tell you why he would kidnap and kill a 7-year-old girl," Dusek continued. "Looking wasn't good enough. It explains why a 50-year-old man would take a 7-year-old girl to his home, to his bed -- and to the bed of his motor home."

Dusek said Westerfield's motivation also came from a Jan. 25 outing to Dad's Cafe and Steakhouse in Poway, where testimony described Brenda van Dam and her two friends as acting, as the prosecutor called it, "loosely."

When Brenda van Dam and Danielle sold Girl Scout cookies to the defendant several days later, Westerfield said he wanted to meet one of the friends, Barbara Easton.

When they returned to Dad's the night before Danielle was discovered missing, Easton introduced herself to Westerfield, who bought drinks for the women, Dusek said.

But two male friends of Brenda van Dam, Keith Stone and Rich Brady, showed up. The women, Dusek said, turned their backs on Westerfield.

"He wasn't a part of it," Dusek said about Westerfield the rest of the night.

Dusek said authorities believe Westerfield left the neighborhood bar where he had seen Danielle's mother and then the 6-foot-4-inch tall, 245-pound man sneaked into the house through an unlocked side door of the attached garage.

Danielle, her father and two brothers were asleep, but a short time later Danielle's mother and some friends arrived.

Westerfield crouched and hid, probably in Danielle's bedroom, while they and the father chatted and had pizza. He waited until the parents went to sleep and then, at around 3 a.m., grabbed Danielle and fled through a sliding glass door in the back of the home, Dusek said.

He took the girl to his home and then on a long trip in his motor home, Dusek said.

He did not provide for jurors any speculation on where or how the girl was killed.

"He dumped her body like a piece of trash," Dusek said.

Dusek reminded jurors that Westerfield also is charged with misdemeanor possession of child pornography, and that graphic digital pictures of children in sexual poses allegedly were seized from his home office.

The defense had argued that the lifestyle of Danielle's parents, which included marijuana and extramarital sex, might have exposed the girl to strangers who could be potential suspects.

Dusek rejected the theory and said police quickly eliminated friends and parents, and also Westerfield's 18-year-old son, Neal, as suspects.

"All of the drugs, all of the alcohol, all of the sex, that has nothing to do with it," he said.