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Jurors Tour Westerfield Motor Home

More Porn Evidence Introduced

POSTED: 3:05 pm PDT June 26, 2002
UPDATED: 3:18 pm PDT June 26, 2002

Jurors in the David Westerfield trial Wednesday got a close-up view of the defendant's motor home.

Danielle van Dam, David Westerfield
WESTERFIELD TRIAL
DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002

Westerfield Moter Home

The RV (pictured, right) was moved from Kearny Mesa to a garage near the San Diego County Courthouse. No testimony was given, however jurors were allowed to take notes if they chose to.

Judge William Mudd said that there will be no testimony Thursday or Monday.

Testimony will resume Tuesday at 9 a.m.

Deputy District Attorney Jeff Dusek said that he has one more witness before the prosecution rests its case.

Mudd said that he may not allow the witness to testify, however. If so, the prosecution will rest its case Tuesday morning. If the witness is allowed to testify, Dusek estimated it would take half a day.

In earlier testimony, a police computer expert testified Wednesday that 85 sexually oriented images of underage females were found on computer equipment belonging to Westerfield, who is accused of killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.

Computer forensic examiner James Watkins said that the images were among at least 8,000 deemed to be pornographic. There were a total of 100,000 images on the computer, but many were simply the icons and arrows which make operating systems work.

The prosecution believes the sexually oriented material provided the motive for the crime.

Jim Watkins

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Steven Feldman, Watkins (pictured, right) conceded that what he called "questionable images" made up only a small portion of what was discovered.

"What percent is 85 out of 100,000?" Feldman asked.

"Obviously less than one percent," Watkins answered.

"What percentage is 85 of 8,000?" Feldman inquired.

"About one percent."

Watkins told Feldman he found "borderline" images in which he could not be certain the females depicted were under the age of 18. He said he gave the benefit of the doubt to the defendant in those cases.

Feldman tread on dangerous territory after receiving a tongue-lashing from Superior Court Judge William Mudd at the end of the day Tuesday.

Video
"You've represented that there's just 13 images that can be found against your client," Mudd said angrily to Feldman, after jurors were excused.

"Believe it or not, this is a search for the truth," the judge told Feldman. "And the truth is there are more than 13 images."

In his comments after the jury was excused, Mudd said that he and the two sides had spent days in pretrial hearings to determine which images would be allowed into evidence.

At first, only those samples shown Tuesday would have been allowed. Now, because Feldman has "opened the door," all the images discovered on the computer equipment are in evidence, he said.

Mudd told Feldman he had purposely structured the prosecution's case to "minimize the prejudicial impact" on Westerfield.

"I didn't mean to open any doors," Feldman said. "If I did, it was inadvertent."

"The door has been opened like a barnyard," Mudd retorted.

The images jurors saw included several photos of nude females, who appeared to be teenagers. Others were drawings of girls. Three were movies, each with females screaming.

Three female jurors dabbed at their eyes at the end of the screening.


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