Did any of you follow the David Westerfield trial...

[Princess Turandot]

the guy accused of murdering his 8 year old neighbor, Danielle Van Dam? I had seen some of it on Court TV, but only the morning sessions since I live on the East coast. He was found guilty after lengthy deliberations and eventually given the death penalty.This was the case where the parents had made 2 or 3 forays into 'swinging' with other couples, which the defense made great mention of during the preliminary hearings, trying to imply that one of them had killed her. Several of the other people were called as witnesses and lost their jobs because of it.

I felt he was justly convicted. One of the San Diego papers printed the trial transcripts each evening on-line, and it seemed that all the defense attorney's could do was try to raise reasonable doubt.
He was found to have a large collection of porn on his computer, and his defense tried to imply that Westerfield's college age son, who lived with him part time, had actually downloaded it. (Some was child pornography.) When they reached that tactic, I figured one could go no lower.

There was extensive testimony by every Tom, Dick & Harry on the insects found on her remains. (The defense was trying to prove that the flies hatched too late for Westerfield to have dumped the body before he was arrested.) One of the defense bug experts actually referred to the child as 'an insect buffet' while her mother was in the courtroom. She fled it at that point.

When the trial was over, tapes that the police made of Westerfield speaking with them while he voluntarily came to the station to offer 'help' were put on line. It was clear why they never put him on the stand after seeing those tapes.

Last time I checked, people were still fighting over this on a Sandiego Tribune forum.

[livetohike]

1. I live in San Diego County and

followed the trial closely. I also participated in a forum (not the Union-Tribune forum).

I'm still amazed that he (Westerfield) was able to sneak into the Van Dam house and take Danielle. Apparently, he left no evidence behind.

I think the parents were too stoned/tired to hear anything that night. Also, the dog didn't alert them, or if he did, the parents didn't respond.

Cyril Wecht consulted on the case and I have a lot of respect for him (from my hometown of Pgh). I believe he concluded from the insect activity that Danielle's body was placed there after the date the prosecution stipulated.

It was an interesting case/trial.

[Princess Turandot]

2. I think she went outside during the night for some reason..

and that's how he got her.

The bug stuff was all over the place. I had the impression that each of them could not rule out either scenario. I don't believe the cops planted her handprint on his motor home's headboard, and none of the stuff they threw out to explain it made sense to me!

The Trib posters were a little scary IMO. I just read the forum but never signed up for it.