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Westerfield To Make Court Appearance

Westerfield Could Face Death Penalty

POSTED: 10:11 am PST March 27, 2002
UPDATED: 2:00 pm PST March 28, 2002

A Sabre Springs man accused of killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam and dumping her body in San Diego's East County is scheduled to be arraigned today on charges of murder, kidnapping and possession of child pornography.

Video

Danielle van Dam
DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002
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DISCUSSION

LIVE: Watch David Westerfield's Arraignment

Along with entering a plea, David Westerfield, 50, (pictured, right) may get a trial date at today's hearing and find out if prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against him if he's convicted.

Westerfield's attorney has not yet said whether he will seek a change in venue for his client's trial.

Attorney Steven Feldman has previously said that he felt Westerfield was being tried in the media. That may indicate a defense move to ask a judge to move the trial out of San Diego area.

Only twice in the last two decades have cases been moved out of the San Diego area because of pretrial publicity.

  SURVEY
Do you think the District Attorney's office is charging the right person for the kidnapping and murder of Danielle van Dam?

Westerfield is expected to plead not guilty at the hearing.

Meanwhile, the fight to unseal Westerfield search warrants is far from over.

An appeals court will hear arguments from groups who want the search affidavits made public.

The affidavits contain the police department's reason for looking for certain items, when they searched Westerfield's home.


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