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Westerfield Trial Takes Another Day Off

Judge, Attorneys To Go Over Upcoming Witnesses, Evidence

POSTED: 7:44 am PDT July 23, 2002
UPDATED: 7:55 am PDT July 23, 2002

Just a day after returning from an 11-day break, the jury in the David Westerfield trial has another day off Tuesday so the judge and attorneys can go over upcoming witnesses and evidence.

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

Judge William Mudd said that Tuesday's hearing will involve potential witnesses the prosecution could call in their rebuttal case, which is likely to start this week.

Watch LIVE Coverage Of Trial Wednesday @ 9 a.m.

The hearing could also involve videotapes subpoenaed by the defense from local television stations.

Westerfield, 50, is charged with murder, kidnapping and misdemeanor possession of child pornography in the February death of the 7-year-old Sabre Springs girl. He faces the death penalty if convicted of the felonies.

When the trial resumed Monday after its lengthy break, Westerfield's attorneys focused on entomological evidence in an effort to show he wasn't the one who put van Dam's body where it was found.

Video

Forensic entomologist Neal Haskell (pictured, right) testified that blowflies did not colonize the body of the girl until at least Feb. 12 -- a time when Westerfield was under constant police surveillance.

"I concluded the time of colonization for the decedent would have been the 14th of February to the 20th of February," said Haskell, adding that the colonization could have occurred on the 12th or 13th in extreme cases.

The Sabre Springs second-grader was discovered missing Feb. 2. Her body was discovered beside a road east of El Cajon Feb. 27 -- five days after Westerfield's arrest.

The defense says Westerfield was under tight police surveillance beginning Feb. 5, making it physically impossible for him to have placed the body there.

Haskell, based in Northern Indiana, said blowflies lay eggs in newly dead bodies. Temperatures during February were not cold enough to inhibit the flies' activities, he testified.

The defense argues that the testimony on when the insect-invasion occurred proves Westerfield was not the killer because he was under constant police surveillance from Feb. 5 up to his arrest Feb. 22.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Jeff Dusek, Haskell said he worked under the assumption that Danielle was placed in Dehesa at the time of her death -- or was killed there.

When Dusek suggested the body may have been transported around the desert in a motor home for 24-36 hours, Haskell agreed decomposition and the drying effects of mummification could have been enhanced, but not enough to inhibit insect activity.

"Just because we have mummification, that doesn't change your opinion that the body wasn't set out there before February 10th?" defense attorney Steven Feldman asked when he resumed questioning.

"That's correct," Haskell said.

Dusek also attacked temperature data Haskell used to form his conclusion. Temperatures, according to courtroom testimony, could affect the speed of decomposition of a body and the speed of insect activity.

Haskell said that he used temperatures taken from the National Weather Service at Brown Field in Otay Mesa. The airfield is more than 15 miles from where the body was discovered.

Haskell told the court he "was comfortable" using the Brown Field data because the elevation was about the same as that of the recovery site. He also said he did not see the types of insect larvae he might observe if the body was out in the open for a long time.

San Diego police detective James Tomsovic testified Monday that he discovered a "drag trail" about 80-90 feet from where the child's body was discovered.

"There was pieces of hair -- appeared to be blond human hair," Tomsovic said of the 42-foot trail. "Most of the entire length of the drag mark had a greasy smear to it."

The trail, he said, was too big to have been made by a foot, which was missing from the body, but too small to have been made by the body itself.

The drag mark did not appear to lead to or from the body, Tomsovic said.

The significance of his testimony, called for by the defense, was not immediately clear.


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