SAN DIEGO -- The man accused of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam told a court again Thursday that he is not guilty.

DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002 Watch Danielle Video Montage DONATIONS The Danielle van Dam Family Trust Mail donations to: Community Bible Church 9919 Carroll Center Road San Diego, 92126 DISCUSSION Share your feelings, thoughts Danielle Web site Send mail to: P.O. Box 501515 San Diego, 92150

Lawyers for David Westerfield, 50, also chose not to "waive time," meaning the case will go to trial within 60 days. Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh set a trial date of May 17.

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The case will be tried in the courtroom of Judge William D. Mudd, 10News reported.

Defense attorney Milton Silverman told 10News that the fact that Westerfield chose not to waive time may signal that his lawyers will not seek to move the trial out of San Diego.

Silverman said he anticipated that the trial would last for upwards of three months.

After a three-day preliminary hearing, Superior Court Judge H. Ronald Domnitz ruled March 14 that there was enough evidence for Westerfield to face the charges at trial.

Brenda and Damon van Dam reported their second-grader missing the morning of Feb. 2. the girl's partially decomposed body, lying face-up, was discovered by volunteer searchers the afternoon of Feb. 27 off a road in Dehesa, east of El Cajon.

Westerfield fell under suspicion after he returned from a trip to the desert the weekend the girl was discovered to be missing.

A San Diego police fingerprint examiner testified at the preliminary hearing that a latent fingerprint lifted from a cabinet above a bed in Westerfield's motorhome belonged to the victim.

Jeffrey Graham Jr. testified that the lifted print matched those taken from the mummified hands of Danielle van Dam after her body was discovered.

The print examiner told defense attorney Steven Feldman that he couldn't tell when the prints were placed on the cabinet.

A police forensic biologist also testified that DNA found in blood stains in the motorhome and on a jacket belonging to Westerfield were an almost certain match with the child's DNA.

Biologist Annette Lynn Peer testified that 19 areas of Westerfield's motorhome were tested for blood, with three containing positive results.

The three included stains on the carpet between the door and the bed in the motorhome, she said.

Peer testified she also received a jacket belonging to Westerfield, which police said they seized at a Poway dry cleaner, and underwear belonging to the victim.

A police forensics examiner testified that while searching files on Westerfield's computer hard drive and disks, sexually suggestive photos of a girlfriend's teenage daughter named Danielle were found.

Detective James Watkins testified he copied the hard drives of four computers and the contents of a Palm personal digital assistant device in Westerfield's home three days after Danielle van Dam was reported missing. Investigators also seized three CD-ROMs and two "zip" disks, he said.

Prosecutor Jeff Dusek said that Watkins' testimony would support a charge of misdemeanor child pornography and would go to the issue of motive in Danielle van Dam's murder.