Westerfield Jury: No Decision After 8 Days

SAN DIEGO -- Jurors in the David Westerfield trial spent the day listening to read back of testimony from two witnesses on how insects found on Danielle van Dam's body could help determine when she died.

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

The panelists, who have deliberated more than 35 hours over eight days, left about an hour earlier than normal, however, because one member was apparently feeling ill.

Before leaving Friday, jurors asked to re-hear the testimony of San Diego County Medical Examiner Brian Blackbourne and insect expert David Faulkner.

Blackbourne and Faulkner were among a group of witnesses who testified about how insects found on the child's body could help determine when she had been dumped off an East County road near Dehesa.

Faulkner, a forensic entomologist, found 14 insect species on the girl's body when he examined it at the East County recovery site.

Video

A Short Day For The Jury

The witness testified that fly larvae first infested the body 10-12 days before volunteer searchers discovered it on Feb. 27.

On cross-examination by prosecutors, Faulkner conceded that he could not give a maximum time that Danielle's body was exposed to the elements. Blackbourne testified that the body was in an advanced state of decomposition and that animals had been feeding on it. He testified that Danielle died between Feb. 1 and Feb. 18.

Other experts testified that insects infested the body as little as four days before it was discovered to six weeks earlier.

Westerfield, 50, is charged with murder, kidnapping and misdemeanor possession of child pornography in connection with the death of the 7-year-old.

The twice-divorced, self-employed design engineer could face the death penalty if the jury convicts him of killing his Sabre Springs neighbor and finds true a special circumstance allegation that the second-grader's murder occurred during a kidnapping.

Brenda van Dam discovered her daughter missing from her bed the morning of Feb. 2.

Superior Court Judge William Mudd denied a media request to unseal the transcripts of all closed-door hearings in the case.

Making the sealed transcripts public would cause prejudice that would be "hard to compute," the judge said.

Mudd said he had no reason to believe that the media would use good judgment in reporting the contents of the closed hearings were they released.

"It must be apparent that this court has a deliberating jury," Mudd said. "The overriding concern right now is that the jury be completely unhindered from a deluge of commentary on items that were not allowed in the trial. What the public has heard is what the jurors have heard."

The judge said the fact that both sides deserve a fair trial overrides any right of the public to find out what was not before the jury.

"I don't need the headaches," the judge said, referring to stories about the closed hearings in the morning paper.

Mudd lashed out after an editorial in Saturday's San Diego Union-Tribune criticized his decision to banish a radio producer from the trial because the station she worked for aired the contents of a closed hearing.

The judge said he "had no idea" that he was the "Saddam Hussein" of the First Amendment in San Diego.