nickel
01-03-2003, 09:44 AM
just a few minutes ago
- David Westerfield has been sentenced to death for the kidnap and killing of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.
http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030103/thumb.1041568615.kidnapped_girl_ny110.jpg
AP Photo
"The court finds that weight of the evidence as outlined above supports the jury's verdict of death," Superior Court Judge William Mudd said. "The motion to modify the sentence is hereby denied."
Mudd then declared a brief recess to read a probation report and then began hearing testimony from the girl's parents. He then formally sentenced Westerfield to death.
"I am so thankful to have been blessed with Danielle ... to have had seven years with her," her mother, Brenda, tearfully told the court.
Earlier, Westerfield showed no emotion but the girl's mother burst into tears as the judge recounted how her daughter's body was found naked and missing teeth.
The killing was the first in a string of child abductions that gripped the nation last year.If sentenced to death by lethal injection, the 50-year-old engineer would become the 617th inmate on California's death row.
In motions filed last week, prosecutors said there was no justification for anything less than the death penalty for such an "evil, selfish, cold-hearted child killer."
Attorneys for Westerfield said police misconduct would justify a lesser sentence. They contend detectives interrogated Westerfield without reading him his rights or letting him talk to a lawyer. If he is sentenced to death, they are required by state law to appeal.
Danielle was last seen Feb. 1, when her father put her to bed in the family's home in an upper-middle class neighborhood of San Diego. Her nude body was found nearly a month later along a road outside the city, too decomposed to determine the cause of death or whether she had been sexually assaulted.
Westerfield, who lived two doors away and bought Girl Scout cookies from Danielle days before her disappearance, became an early suspect.
Investigators learned he was at the same bar as Danielle's mother and two friends the night Danielle vanished. He left in his motor home early the next day as police and volunteers searched the neighborhood.
Ultimately, the girl's blood was found on Westerfield's jacket, and her hair was discovered in his bedroom. Investigators also found Danielle's blood, hair and fingerprints inside his motor home.
For reasons the defense has not explained, Westerfield decided to exercise his rights to a speedy trial. On Aug. 21, he was convicted of murder, kidnapping and possessing child pornography — an unusually rapid end for a capital case.
During the two-month trial, the defense suggested Danielle's parents' lifestyle had put the little girl in danger by opening their home to potential suspects. The couple and authorities maintained their personal life had no connection to the abduction.
California's death row is by far the largest of any state. Just 10 people have been executed there since 1976, including one in 2002.
link (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=514&ncid=514&e=1&u=/ap/kidnapped_girl)
- David Westerfield has been sentenced to death for the kidnap and killing of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.
http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030103/thumb.1041568615.kidnapped_girl_ny110.jpg
AP Photo
"The court finds that weight of the evidence as outlined above supports the jury's verdict of death," Superior Court Judge William Mudd said. "The motion to modify the sentence is hereby denied."
Mudd then declared a brief recess to read a probation report and then began hearing testimony from the girl's parents. He then formally sentenced Westerfield to death.
"I am so thankful to have been blessed with Danielle ... to have had seven years with her," her mother, Brenda, tearfully told the court.
Earlier, Westerfield showed no emotion but the girl's mother burst into tears as the judge recounted how her daughter's body was found naked and missing teeth.
The killing was the first in a string of child abductions that gripped the nation last year.If sentenced to death by lethal injection, the 50-year-old engineer would become the 617th inmate on California's death row.
In motions filed last week, prosecutors said there was no justification for anything less than the death penalty for such an "evil, selfish, cold-hearted child killer."
Attorneys for Westerfield said police misconduct would justify a lesser sentence. They contend detectives interrogated Westerfield without reading him his rights or letting him talk to a lawyer. If he is sentenced to death, they are required by state law to appeal.
Danielle was last seen Feb. 1, when her father put her to bed in the family's home in an upper-middle class neighborhood of San Diego. Her nude body was found nearly a month later along a road outside the city, too decomposed to determine the cause of death or whether she had been sexually assaulted.
Westerfield, who lived two doors away and bought Girl Scout cookies from Danielle days before her disappearance, became an early suspect.
Investigators learned he was at the same bar as Danielle's mother and two friends the night Danielle vanished. He left in his motor home early the next day as police and volunteers searched the neighborhood.
Ultimately, the girl's blood was found on Westerfield's jacket, and her hair was discovered in his bedroom. Investigators also found Danielle's blood, hair and fingerprints inside his motor home.
For reasons the defense has not explained, Westerfield decided to exercise his rights to a speedy trial. On Aug. 21, he was convicted of murder, kidnapping and possessing child pornography — an unusually rapid end for a capital case.
During the two-month trial, the defense suggested Danielle's parents' lifestyle had put the little girl in danger by opening their home to potential suspects. The couple and authorities maintained their personal life had no connection to the abduction.
California's death row is by far the largest of any state. Just 10 people have been executed there since 1976, including one in 2002.
link (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=514&ncid=514&e=1&u=/ap/kidnapped_girl)