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CNN Live Today
Westerfield Sentencing
Aired November 22, 2002 - 10:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The fate of David Westerfield now is in the hands of a superior court judge. Westerfield was convicted in August of killing and kidnapping a 7-year-old neighbor Danielle Van Dam, you may recall. The jury recommended the death sentence, but today's hearing today could change.
CNN's Rusty Dornin joins us from San Diego with details on all that this morning.
Hello, Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, that's right, Judge William Mudd (ph) has the option of giving Westerfield a lesser penalty. He could sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, or he could go with the jury's recommendation.
But there is a fly in the ointment. What could also happen today, is there could be a continuance, because there's been a motion to continue the entire sentencing. But we'll get into that a little later.
First, let's do a review of the timeline, the chain of events that has brought us to this day. On February 2nd of this year, 7- year-old Danielle Van Dam was reported missing from her home, taken from her bedroom while her family slept in the house.
Three weeks later on February 27th, the neighbor, David Westerfield, is arrested, then five days after that on February 27th, the body of Danielle Van Dam is discovered in a rural area in El Cajon about 90 miles from her home.
Now on June 4th, the trial begins for David Westerfield for the kidnapping and murder of the young girl, then on August 21st, a jury finds David Westerfield guilty of the kidnapping and murder of that little girl, and then less than a month later, they decide to sentence him to death.
Now, today what is going to happen is there's been a motion to continue the entire sentencing, and that's because the defense is claiming that an article in the "San Diego" magazine brought up an unnamed police source, and that unnamed police source claims Westerfield murdered little Danielle Van Dam in her bedroom. And the quote is, "He hit her, and that was it."
If indeed she was killed in her bedroom, that would take away the special circumstances, which is why the death penalty was invoked. The prosecution has already argues in their replies that this is ridiculous, it's a speculative theory. There is no evidence that the little girl was -- there was any kind of violent assault in her bedroom.
So now Judge William Mudd (ph) will make the decision today on whether or not to sentence Westerfield.
Meantime, the Van Dams have hired Gloria Allred, a very high- profile attorney out of L.A. to represent them. And they're going hold a press conference after the continuance or the sentencing today. We don't know what's going to be said, we have no idea whether there's going to be a civil suit filed, or why exactly they've hired Gloria Allred -- Leon.
HARRIS: Yes, that is sort of the $64,000 question. We'll have to wait to find out.
Thanks, Rusty. We'll see you in a bit. Rusty Dornin checking in live from San Diego. We'll be going back out to Rusty in San Diego once the courtroom, actually the action in the courtroom begins.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 22, 2002 - 10:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The fate of David Westerfield now is in the hands of a superior court judge. Westerfield was convicted in August of killing and kidnapping a 7-year-old neighbor Danielle Van Dam, you may recall. The jury recommended the death sentence, but today's hearing today could change.
CNN's Rusty Dornin joins us from San Diego with details on all that this morning.
Hello, Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, that's right, Judge William Mudd (ph) has the option of giving Westerfield a lesser penalty. He could sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, or he could go with the jury's recommendation.
But there is a fly in the ointment. What could also happen today, is there could be a continuance, because there's been a motion to continue the entire sentencing. But we'll get into that a little later.
First, let's do a review of the timeline, the chain of events that has brought us to this day. On February 2nd of this year, 7- year-old Danielle Van Dam was reported missing from her home, taken from her bedroom while her family slept in the house.
Three weeks later on February 27th, the neighbor, David Westerfield, is arrested, then five days after that on February 27th, the body of Danielle Van Dam is discovered in a rural area in El Cajon about 90 miles from her home.
Now on June 4th, the trial begins for David Westerfield for the kidnapping and murder of the young girl, then on August 21st, a jury finds David Westerfield guilty of the kidnapping and murder of that little girl, and then less than a month later, they decide to sentence him to death.
Now, today what is going to happen is there's been a motion to continue the entire sentencing, and that's because the defense is claiming that an article in the "San Diego" magazine brought up an unnamed police source, and that unnamed police source claims Westerfield murdered little Danielle Van Dam in her bedroom. And the quote is, "He hit her, and that was it."
If indeed she was killed in her bedroom, that would take away the special circumstances, which is why the death penalty was invoked. The prosecution has already argues in their replies that this is ridiculous, it's a speculative theory. There is no evidence that the little girl was -- there was any kind of violent assault in her bedroom.
So now Judge William Mudd (ph) will make the decision today on whether or not to sentence Westerfield.
Meantime, the Van Dams have hired Gloria Allred, a very high- profile attorney out of L.A. to represent them. And they're going hold a press conference after the continuance or the sentencing today. We don't know what's going to be said, we have no idea whether there's going to be a civil suit filed, or why exactly they've hired Gloria Allred -- Leon.
HARRIS: Yes, that is sort of the $64,000 question. We'll have to wait to find out.
Thanks, Rusty. We'll see you in a bit. Rusty Dornin checking in live from San Diego. We'll be going back out to Rusty in San Diego once the courtroom, actually the action in the courtroom begins.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
