SAN DIEGO -- David Westerfield committed "the ultimate evil" by killing Danielle van Dam, a prosecutor said Tuesday, but the defendant's attorney said there was no direct evidence linking his client to the crimes.

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

In his 3 1/2-hour closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek urged jurors to find Westerfield guilty of the kidnapping and murder of the 7-year-old -- a conviction that could put him on death row.

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"He's guilty of this ultimate evil," Dusek told the jury. "He's guilty to the core."

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

But defense attorney Steven Feldman said in the first part of his closing argument that the prosecution's case was based entirely on circumstantial evidence.

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"There's no direct evidence in this case, ladies and gentlemen. There's none," Feldman told the jury.

Feldman suggested Danielle van Dam's killer was someone else who had access to the van Dam home the night of Feb. 1.

Playing off the prosecution's habit of placing exhibits on white poster boards, Feldman held up a blank board.

"This is the evidence we have of David Westerfield in the van Dam residence," he stated.

Feldman, who spoke for just over an hour, at times almost seemed to be yelling at the jury, while at other times he spoke very softly. By the time the day ended, his shirttail could be seen hanging over his pants.

"I looked throughout the trial at you -- I see tears," Feldman told them. "It makes me nervous, frankly. If I see jurors crying during a presentation, I get rattled."

The attorney criticized the so-called "swinging lifestyle" of Brenda and Damon van Dam.

"There's risks," he said. "When you invited the world in you don't know what it will bring."

Feldman stopped short of blaming them for their daughter's death, suggesting they did not understand the risk.

Before Feldman (pictured, left) spoke, 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.

Dusek also slammed the defense team for trying to blame the defendant's son for child pornography police say was found on computer equipment in Westerfield's office.

"He tried to blame his son," Dusek said of Westerfield. "We know that's not true."

"Absurd," is how Feldman termed to prosecution contention, reminding jurors that they never questioned him. "What they did to Neal Westerfield was disgraceful."

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

During the earky hours of Feb. 2, "somebody kidnapped Danielle van Dam out of her own house -- out of her own bedroom."

Dusek (pictured, right) said Westerfield's motivation 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.

About 55 hours later, according to Dusek, the defendant showed up at a dry cleaning business in Poway, 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.

"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.

Later, more blood and hair were found in Westerfield's motor home (pictured, left), Dusek said.

"Two months ago, I told you this case was about only two people," Dusek said. "David Westerfield and Danielle van Dam ... a 7-year-old who will never see her eighth birthday."

Dusek also tried to shoot down the defense theory that Westerfield couldn't have killed the victim and dumped her body off Dehesa Road because he was under 24-hour police surveillance beginning the morning of Feb. 5.

But prosecutors say the defendant could have stuffed the victim in a container, then disposed of her partially mummified body immediately or days later.

Dusek recalled Feldman's words to the jury from the defense attorney's opening statement.

"He said, 'You're going to be convinced beyond any doubt that it was impossible ... impossible ... for David Westerfield to have dumped Danielle van Dam in that location,'" the prosecutor read from Feldman's earlier statement.

"That's how good the defense thought the evidence was," Dusek said. "Does it measure up? Hardly."

The prosecutor was referring to insect evidence and testimony by entomologists and a forensic anthropologist that tried to pinpoint how long the body had been out in the East County.

Dusek said entomologists hired by the defense "cooked the numbers" to present a range of time that placed Danielle van Dam's body at the recovery site after Westerfield was being watched.

"This is not an exact science, this is not DNA," the prosecutor said.

Dusek also said the wandering weekend trip Westerfield (pictured, right) took to the Silver Strand and the desert community of Glamis was far out of character for a man who usually planned such trips well in advance, loading his motor home the day before leaving and always taking his off-road vehicles.

"Something was making him do things he doesn't ordinarily do," Dusek said. "He was in a hurry. He needed to load up and get out."

Dusek -- admitting he was speculating -- suggested the defendant returned to his home the afternoon of Feb. 2 to place the victim's body nearby, "put her somewhere -- pool, canyon, somewhere."

But seeing the commotion in the neighborhood prevented him from doing so, Dusek said, so he left within 15 minutes.

The prosecutor further suggested that the rest of the weekend was an attempt by Westerfield to find a place to leave the body. He pointed out that cellular telephone records showed it took him 47 minutes to get to Ramona from Carmel Mountain Ranch, took the motor home at night to the desert via back-country roads and was unaccounted for the night of Feb. 3.

"His expressed motivation was way out of the ballpark," Dusek said about the trip.

Westerfield, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance allegation of murder during a kidnapping.

The divorced father of two is also charged with misdemeanor possession of child pornography in what prosecutors say reflects a motive for the crimes against the victim.

"Why would a normal 50-year-old man have pictures of young naked girls?" Dusek asked the jury. "One (picture) is too many for a normal 50-year-old man. That's the scariest part. He was a normal guy right down the street."

The pictures of young, naked girls being sexually assaulted were Westerfield's fantasies, Dusek said.

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."

The arguments began after two months of testimony in a case in which Westerfield exercised his right to be brought to trial within 60 days of his arraignment.

Brenda van Dam discovered her daughter missing from her bed the morning of Feb. 2. Police immediately focused on Westerfield.

The design engineer was arrested Feb. 22, just five days before volunteer searchers found the second-grader's body.