SAN DIEGO -- Prosecutors in the Danielle van Dam murder case announced Thursday that they will seek the death penalty against her accused killer.

DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002 Watch Danielle Video Montage DISCUSSION Share your feelings, thoughts Email: daniellevandam @yahoo.com Send mail to: P.O. Box 501515 San Diego, 92150

David Westerfield, a neighbor of the 7-year-old girl reported missing from her Sabre Springs home Feb. 2, is charged with murder and the special circumstance allegation of murder during a kidnapping.

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Brenda and Damon van Dam's daughter was the subject of a wide-ranging search that lasted nearly a month before the second-grader's body was found among some trash along a rural Dehesa road on Feb. 27.

Westerfield, who lived two doors away from the van Dams, was questioned almost immediately in connection with the girl's disappearance. Police kept Westerfield under surveillance and initially arrested him Feb. 22 on suspicion of kidnapping.

He was charged with Danielle's murder a day before the body was found.

During a hearing last week, the judge reaffirmed the gag order placed on attorneys and witnesses in the days following Westerfield's arrest, and extended it until the trial, set for May 17.

Mudd broadened the order to include any county employee who may have anything to do with the case, including those who work in his courtroom.

Mudd ordered television crews to stay out of the north corridor on the third floor of the downtown county courthouse while pretrial proceedings are under way. An exception was granted for members of the news media covering other cases.

The judge has said he wants to work out a plan to allow for live pool television and radio coverage of the trial.

Westerfield's attorneys, who have suggested wrongdoing by police, were granted access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of people involved in two complaints against an unnamed San Diego police officer.

The attorneys allege San Diego police detectives improperly questioned their client and held him against his will when he was not technically under arrest.

The judge is expected to hear arguments on pretrial motions the week of May 6.