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American Morning

Man Accused of Kidnapping and Murdering Danielle Van Dam Has Day in Court

Aired February 27, 2002 - 09:09   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we move on to another tragic case, the search for answers in the case of 7-year-old Danielle Van Dam. Her disappearance, nearly a month ago, first led authorities to one of the family's neighbors and, finally, to a determination that Danielle was dead. Yesterday, in San Diego, the man now accused of kidnapping and murdering her had his day in court.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Superior court is now in session.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): David Westerfield walked into the courtroom to face his accusers, never once making eye contact with the Van Dam family. But Brenda and Damon Van Dam had their eyes on him. His presence triggered outburst of emotion for his mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Westerfield would enter pleas of not guilty as to all counts.

GUTIERREZ: David Westerfield was charged with one count of murder, with a special circumstance allegation that he murdered Danielle during the kidnapping. Count two is kidnapping, and count three is possession of child pornography.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charges in the complaint, guilty or not guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you deny the allegations?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

GUTIERREZ: After the arraignment, the Van Dams spoke out at their home.

BRENDA VAN DAM, DANIELLE'S MOTHER: There are no words to express the anguish we feel as Danielle's parents and her greatest admirers, but today was an important step forward in hopefully finding our daughter, and making sure that this doesn't happen to any other innocent child.

GUTIERREZ: Even with the grim reality that Danielle may never come home again. Her parents and hundreds of volunteers vowed they will not give up the search.

VAN DAM: We've been asked, again and again how are we feeling? All we can answer is, that we miss Danielle desperately. And in the pain of her absence is absolutely unbearable.

GUTIERREZ: Just two doors away from Van Dam's, David Westerfield's home remains empty, as he sits in the San Diego County jail, held without bail.

STEVEN FELDMAN, ATTORNEY FOR WESTERFIELD: Please, respect the Constitution. Stop guessing about what the facts are. Let the case be tried in the courtroom, not on the streets of San Diego.

GUTIERREZ: On the streets of San Diego, the community mourns for a little girl with the bright smile, who will never have a chance to grow up.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, San Diego.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And Danielle's mother, Brenda Van Dam, is now asking the public to help in a massive search this weekend for her daughter, a sign, perhaps, that Danielle's parents have not given up hope, in spite of the tragic conclusion reached this week by prosecutors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL PFINGST, PROSECUTOR: After conferring with police chief Dave Bejarano (ph), the case investigators, my prosecutors, and the Van Dam family, I must conclude that Danielle Van Dam is no longer living, and was killed by her abductor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: The big question this hour: How tough is it to get a murder conviction without a body? San Diego prosecutors have done it before.

And joining us now from Washington is a former federal prosecutor, Cynthia Alksne.

Good to see you, again, Cynthia.

CYNTHIA ALSKNE, FMR. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Good morning.

ZAHN: What allows for the district attorneys to make this finding when no body has been found?

ALSKNE: Well, one element of a murder case is that somebody has been killed. Now ordinarily, that's done by a family member coming in and saying I went to the morgue and I saw my family member who was deceased. That's the way ordinarily the government proves that element of the crime.

In this case, what will happen is the parents will come in and say our daughter is seven years old. She's disappeared. She doesn't have any money. She didn't take anything from room. There's no family issue where the husband -- or there's no custody issue. And there will appeal to the purest form of common sense of jurors to make a finding that since she was -- since she's disappeared that she is dead. And when you add to that evidence that her blood was found on her abductor's clothing and her blood was found in her abductor's RV that he drove the day after her disappearance, then you see that a jury can make a finding based on common sense that she's deceased.

ZAHN: As we know, though, from some cases in the past, that evidence hasn't been necessarily persuasive to a jury.

ALSKNE: Well, it's been...

ZAHN: How ironclad is this evidence?

ALSKNE: Well, nothing is ever ironclad. But the San Diego district attorney's office has done four of these cases in the last 15 years. They feel confident that they can do it this time. I must tell you, San Diego's my hometown. I know the district attorney. He is a man who knows a lot about murder cases. He's very good at them. And I feel confident there will be a conviction in this case.

ZAHN: Tell us a little bit about what impact this arraignment now will have on the search for Danielle? What is the likelihood that Mr. Westerfield will reveal perhaps where the body is?

ALSKNE: Well, I think what is going on behind the scenes now that everybody will deny, but what's going on is that there are plea negotiations going on, please return to the body to the family in return for not a lesser charge than murder, but perhaps a dealing of the death penalty away, because you know, in some cases, you wouldn't do that, but in the case of a child, my guess is that's what is happening now.

In addition, they will work hard to try and find the little girl. You know, they know he was out in his RV. He said he was at the beach. He said he was in the desert. They have some idea where he went, I understand, from his statements. In addition, there's evidence out there in cases like this, cell phone records. You know, cell phones just don't track the phone numbers where you are, but also because you use repeating stations, cell phones also track where you went. So there's a lot of options available to investigators, and the full court presses is on to find this little girl.

ZAHN: And there's seems to be no doubt in the police department's mind that Mr. Westerfield tried to clean out this van. They talked about having so much bleach, finding the scent of so much bleach in the van, that it caused their bloodhounds not to be able to pick up any scent.

ALSKNE: Well, they certainly did find some blood, so he wasn't as effective as he had hoped. And also, you know, we have some forensic evidence that is evidently back. There's a lot more than will come in a couple of weeks. My experience is when you try to get DNA evidence and forensic evidence out, you have to beg, borrow and steal to get it out in three weeks, usually six, sometimes eight or 12. So more evidence will be coming in the next couple weeks.

ZAHN: We understand the district attorney is beginning to lay the groundwork for a potential death sentence for Mr. Westerfield. Given the precedence that we've seen in the past, is that at all a possibility if you don't find the body?

ALSKNE: Sure, that's a possibility. In fact, two of the four cases that the -- this district attorney's office prosecuted without a body, two of them were death penalty cases and were convictions. So there is a precedence for that. The special circumstances here is kidnapping. You also notice that there's also a misdemeanor charge of pornography. That's an interesting charge, because it will be a one more thing that the jury learns about -- it's probably the motive for the murder. And keeping that charge in the indictment is a vehicle to make sure that the jury understands the full motive.

ZAHN: Meanwhile, I guess it's so hard for any of us to understand the waiting game that the Van Dams have to play. We've seen families ripped apart by this. It's horrendous, isn't it?

ALSKNE: Right.

ZAHN: All right, Cynthia, thanks so much for your insights this morning. Cynthia Alksne, a former federal prosecutor. Always glad to have you on "A.M."

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