Neighbor Pleads Not Guilty to Kidnap-Murder of 7-Year-Old

A suburban San Diego man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, while the girl’s mother wept and trembled at the sight of him.

David Alan Westerfield, 50, was formally charged with slaying the impish youngster who nearly a month ago vanished from her home two doors away from his. The charge carries a “special circumstance” that will allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty, a decision they said they have not reached.

A day earlier, prosecutors announced their conclusion that Danielle, missing since the morning of Feb. 2, is dead, even though no body has been found.

Westerfield was also charged with kidnapping a child under the age of 14, another felony, and possession of child pornography, a misdemeanor.

Authorities have said they discovered the pornography during a search of Westerfield’s home in Sabre Springs, a well-groomed community north of San Diego. They declined to explain the charge further, though the criminal complaint they filed Tuesday says the images were of children younger than 18.

Immediately after the charges were filed, Westerfield, wearing a white shirt and black tie and standing with his hands clasped in front of him, entered his plea in a clear voice that resonated through the tense and crowded courtroom.

“Then you deny the charges?” San Diego County Superior Court Judge Peter C. Deddeh asked.

“Yes, sir,” Westerfield said.

Danielle’s mother, Brenda van Dam, dressed in black and wearing a button with a picture of her only daughter, gasped when Westerfield walked into the courtroom from a holding cell. “Oh my God,” she said, bringing her trembling hands to her mouth as court officers and her husband, Damon, attempted to comfort her.

“There are no words to express the anguish we feel as Danielle’s parents and greatest admirers,” Brenda van Dam said two hours later as she and her husband stood on their front lawn to deliver a statement to the media. “We miss Danielle desperately. The pain of her absence is unbearable.”

Nearly two dozen television cameras were outside their home, broadcasting the couple’s words around the world from a cluster of satellite trucks. Authorities had said Westerfield, who is being held without bail, might also be charged with burglary. But that charge was not brought in the criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

“A burglary charge is unnecessary,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Dusek, lead prosecutor in the case. “He’s charged with murder.”

The prosecutor also told the public that he believes he can win a murder conviction even if Danielle’s body is never found.

His office has cited four cases in which San Diego suspects were convicted of murder though investigators have never found the victims’ bodies. For example, in 1992, Kerry Lyn Dalton was arrested in connection with the torture-murder of a woman in an isolated inland community. The body was cut up and buried and never found, but Dalton, along with two acquaintances, admitted his role in the killing and was sent to death row.

Outside San Diego, several high-profile Southern California cases have ended with similar results. Last year, Orange County prosecutors convicted a Newport Beach man of murdering his wife during a 1997 boat cruise. Prosecutors say Eric Bechler dumped his wife’s body at sea and then tried to collect on her $2-million life insurance policy. They convicted him of first-degree murder although her body was never found.

“You people make more of a deal out of a ‘no body’ case than we do,” Dusek said. “Put your notebook down and be a real person for a minute. Do you think she’s dead? What more do I need?”

The case has captured the attention of the San Diego area, and the media glare has been intense, whether from national tabloids or “America’s Most Wanted,” whose host, John Walsh, sat behind Danielle’s parents Tuesday in court.

The attention became the subject of debate Tuesday.

Westerfield’s defense attorney, Steven Feldman, asked the judge to impose a gag order prohibiting attorneys, law enforcement officers and potential witnesses--which could include Danielle’s parents--from discussing the case publicly.

Deddeh denied the request, and a testy Feldman marched out of the courthouse after the hearing to admonish reporters.

“The adverse publicity will affect our client’s right to get a fair trial,” he said. “Stop guessing as to what the facts are.”

Feldman would not specify what, if any, false information has been disseminated through media reports.

Dusek said he believes Westerfield can receive a fair trial in San Diego--a trial Dusek hopes will begin within a year. He opposed the request for a gag order but said he would prefer that the “media go away.”

Biggest Search Yet Planned for Weekend

In continuing efforts to recover Danielle’s body, organizers of a massive search operation pledged to launch their most extensive effort yet this weekend.

“We ask that you adopt Danielle as one of your own,” Brenda van Dam urged area parents in her statement to the media. “Step forward to volunteer this weekend to help search for her.”

But San Diego Police Chief David Bejarano said in an interview Tuesday that hope of finding Danielle has all but vanished.

“This is the worst nightmare for any parent,” he said. “It’s difficult for the community.”

Danielle was missing from her second-floor bedroom when her parents went to wake her on the morning of Feb. 2. The previous evening, Brenda van Dam spent time with friends in a bar in nearby Poway, where she ran into Westerfield.

Brenda van Dam has said the two only spoke briefly. Westerfield has said they also danced together.

Police say Westerfield was the only one of the Van Dams’ neighbors who was not in the neighborhood the morning Danielle disappeared. They immediately focused on him as a suspect.

Investigators say they believe Westerfield took his motor home to the desert for several days after Danielle’s disappearance, then had it cleaned before they could inspect it. But they said they found traces of blood on his clothing and in the motor home and DNA tests confirmed that the blood came from Danielle.