SAN DIEGO -- The jury deciding the fate of David Westerfield is under way with a ninth day of deliberations today after spending a day rehearing testimony 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 left about an hour earlier than normal yesterday because one member was feeling ill.

A court reporter read back the entire testimony of San Diego County Medical Examiner Brian Blackbourne and insect expert David Faulkner.

The jury, made up of six men and six women, has deliberated more than 35 hours over eight days since it was handed the case Aug. 8.

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. He 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 could have 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 Monday 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 if they were 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.

Is The Jury Taking Too Long?

A big question looming in the minds of many San Diegans is: What is the delay in reaching a verdict?

"It means nothing, absolutely nothing," Colin Murray, a former prosecutor now in private practice, told the Los Angeles Times.

"It would be nice to be able to predict what the jury is doing. It would also be nice to be able to predict who the winner of the ninth race at Del Mar is going to be."

Other attorneys disagree, saying the deliberations -- particularly the extensive testimony that the jurors have asked to have read back to them -- indicate either that the panel is deadlocked or that one or more members are not convinced on a verdict.

"I can't imagine they'd go through all this process if they all agreed," Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego, told The Times. "Nobody spends a week listening to testimony if they're all in agreement.

"Each additional day they're out gives more hope to the defense," Brooks said.

Murray disagreed. "It could be that they're looking at it to feel good about rejecting the defense theory," he said.

Veteran defense attorney Mary Ellen Attridge told The Times that trying to determine how a jury is leaning "is like reading tea leaves."

Many juries, she said, complete their task quickly because the issue is one of degree of guilt, not the identity of the criminal, because the evidence against the accused is overwhelming. The Westerfield case, she said, does not fit this mold.

"The majority of cases are not whodunit cases," she said. "Whodunit cases take longer. A jury in a case like that is likely to be out longer because they have serious issues of fact to decide."