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Defense Attorney Discusses van Dam Murder Trial

Aired August 09, 2002 - 13:05   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A jury in San Diego is deliberating the case of another child abduction and killing.
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez is in San Diego with the latest on the murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.

Hi there, Thelma.

They are still deliberating, aren't they -- or probably just getting started, I suppose?

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're probably right. That's probably going on right now. The judge said yesterday, though, Fredricka, that he would not make public the schedule for deliberations, possibly to make it a little more difficult for some of the media, some of the members of the media, who have tried to follow the jurors around, to try to identify them, and perhaps try to get interviews with them a little bit later.

So the judge has not released the schedule for deliberations, but typically in the past, during the 27 days of this trial, they would start somewhere about 9:00, end anywhere about 4:30 and 5:00. So it's probably fair to assume they're following the same schedule now.

The case went to jury yesterday, but before it did, the lead prosecutor, Jeff Dusek, said that the case was not built on circumstantial evidence, as the defense had suggested, but on physical evidence -- Danielle's hair, blood, and fingerprints. Dusek said that he pointed to a jacket in the courtroom that belonged to David Westerfield allegedly with Danielle's blood on it -- and said that while the defense explained things like hair and fiber that were found, they never explained the blood evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF DUSEK, PROSECUTOR: This is a smoking gun right here, this jacket. This is the smoking gun. Danielle's blood is on that jacket.

And after hearing all of the closing arguments yesterday and part of the day before, this wasn't touched (UNINTELLIGIBLE). This wasn't touched at all. Give me an explanation. You have to be sitting there. Give me another explanation of how it got there -- please. You didn't hear one, not one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTIERREZ: David Westerfield's fate now in the hands of jurors, six men and six women who are deliberating. We're all just waiting for a verdict for that.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: Thanks very much, Thelma Guttierez, from San Diego.

Of course, it's never easy to try to guess what a jury is doing and what they're discussing in those deliberations.

So to talk more about this case, we now are joined by San Diego defense attorney Robert Grimes. He's been tracking the trial on a daily basis.

And good to see you.

Good morning. How are you today?

BOB GRIMES, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Very good.

It's very difficult to try to read a jury. So what we can at least try to base some of our pontificating on for the next couple of minutes is the jurors did ask for a five-day deliberations week, as opposed to continuing their four-day workweek as they have been over the past few weeks. Is there any way in which you can gage sort of their eagerness to try and get this job done based on the fact they asked for a full work schedule?

GRIMES: They want to get to work. This is a little unusual that they would change the schedule that they've been on for over two months, because they've been in session since June 4. But I think what this shows is now that the court calendar is clear, Judge Mudd had matters every Friday, and that's why they couldn't go to court on Friday before. But they are ready to go. They want to start going over the exhibits, going over the testimony, and they want to do that five days a week.

WHITFIELD: Is it your thought that as a defense attorney, does it concern you when you do not have a sequestered or when you do have a sequestered jury? Do you feel like when they're not sequestered they're more likely to be researched or more biased, since these jurors were not sequestered?

GRIMES: We worry about it in a case like this where there's a lot of publicity. It's a cause of concern for the defense. Steve Feldman, the lead defense lawyer, he decided not to move for a change of venue, but he has moved numerous times to have the judge sequester the jury. Judge Mudd says no. He thinks this jury can decide it based on the evidence and not the publicity. But it's something the defense is very worried about.

WHITFIELD: It seems as though the some of the physical evidence would be a nail in the coffin. We're talking about hair and blood found on the property of Mr. Westerfield. But at the same time, you hear from his defense attorneys, who say, Wait a minute, how unusual and unlikely is it that this man could actually enter this home while the father is home, boys are home and a dog and be able to leave with this little girl unnoticed? Do you think that the jurors are thinking very hard about that kind of scenario, and perhaps discounting all of that physical evidence, as a result of that strange hypothetical?

GRIMES: I don't think they are going to discount the blood evidence or the fingerprint evidence, but I think they are going to think very long and hard about the scenario. This is a bizarre scenario that would have to happen where you have Mr. Westerfield actually dancing with Brenda van Dam, the victims' mom, and trying to pick up adult women at Dad's bar, and just within minutes, going upstairs in this house where he had never been in the dark past the dog. And it's a bizarre scenario. And they are going to have to reconcile which seems more credible to them: Would he really do something like that, or as the defense suggested, could it be someone else that had been brought into the van Dam household previously?

WHITFIELD: And the lifestyle of the parents has certainly brought an awful lot into question and has become rather important in the argument of this case. How do you suppose jurors are trying to assess the lifestyle, along with, you know, this egregious disgusting crime that would take place involving this little girl?

GRIMES: It would be willing to bet that there's a division in opinion on that topic, just as there is in our community of San Diego. Some people in the community don't think that it's right that the personal lives of the van Dams should be brought into court. Others do. Others think it's very relevant to other possible suspects. And I wouldn't be surprised if we had the same division of opinion among these 12 people.

WHITFIELD: Robert Grimes, thank you very much for joining us from San Diego.

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