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CNN Live Today

Westerfield Jurors Go Back to Deliberations

Aired August 09, 2002 - 10:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Jurors return to their deliberations in the murder trial of David Westerfield. They are going to pore over two months of testimony, trying to decide whether the San Diego man abducted and killed his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam.
Our Thelma Gutierrez has been following the case. She joins us from San Diego now with the latest -- Thelma, good morning.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. You are right. When jurors resume deliberations this morning, sometime later today, they will have a huge job ahead of them. After all, this trial has lasted 27 days, nearly 100 people testified. They are going to have 199 different exhibits to pore over. They are going to have a lot to consider.

Now, one of the most dramatic moments in this trial came yesterday during the prosecution's rebuttal argument. Lead prosecutor Jeff Dusek told jurors that if, by some miracle, he could bring Danielle van Dam back to life to testify, she would point the finger at David Westerfield as the man who killed her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF DUSEK, PROSECUTOR: I told you with my hair, you know where you found it. I told you with the orange fiber that you found on my choker (ph), and where you found it. I told you with the blue fibers that were on my naked body, and where you found it. I told you with my fingerprints, and I told you with my blood. Please listen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTIERREZ: And with that dramatic statement, the case went to the jury. They will begin their second day of deliberations, as we had mentioned. They were only supposed to deliberate four days a week, Daryn, but they told the judge they wanted to go five days a week. Today was supposed to be a day off. They will be back at it today -- back to you.

KAGAN: And Thelma, did the jurors give a reason why they wanted it that way? I guess the judge was trying to make it a little bit easier on them by just having them work four days.

GUTIERREZ: Well, you know, that's exactly right. They were supposed to go the four. He said yesterday, in a very brief statement, that he had received many notes from jurors that they had scheduling issues, that kind of a thing, but didn't really say why they wanted to go the full five. I suspect they just have a lot of work to do.

KAGAN: That they do. Very, very important issue looking at in San Diego. Thelma Gutierrez, thank you so much.

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