Judge sentences murderer of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam to death; mother calls him a `monster'

Friday, January 3rd 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SAN DIEGO (AP) _ David Westerfield, called a ``monster seeking only self-gratification,'' was sentenced to death Friday in the kidnap and murder of 7-year-old neighbor Danielle van Dam.

Superior Court Judge William Mudd imposed the sentence, which had been recommended by a jury, after tearful testimony from the girl's parents. Danielle was snatched from her bedroom last February and her body was found month later.

``What were you thinking as you killed her? Did she not touch your heart one bit? If not, you are heartless. You are an empty shell,'' the girl's mother, Brenda van Dam, told Westerfield while fighting back tears.

``You did not deserve any leniency, any mercy, because you refused to give it to Danielle.''

Westerfield sat without emotion, as he had done throughout the trial. He declined to make a statement before sentencing, turning aside the mother's plea that he apologize.

``Our precious Danielle was taken by a monster seeking only self-gratification,'' she said. She remembered her daughter as ``a real girly girl'' who liked to cook and have her nails painted.

Earlier, she had burst into tears as the judge recounted how her daughter's body was found naked and missing teeth.

Danielle's father, Damon van Dam, said he regretted that he would never see his daughter grow up.

``I'll never get to see her be a doctor or a teacher. I'll miss seeing her going to the prom. I'll miss her graduation. I'll miss seeing her go off to college and seeing what she will become,'' he said. ``We know we have a whole lot of hearts that will never heal.''

The killing was the first in a string of child abductions that gripped the nation last year. The sentence, which is automatically appealed, made the 50-year-old engineer 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 had argued that police misconduct would justify a lesser sentence. They contended detectives interrogated Westerfield without reading him his rights or letting him talk to a lawyer.

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 did not explain, 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.

On Thursday, the parents filed a lawsuit accusing Westerfield of wrongful death. The suit is intended largely to prevent Westerfield from profiting if he decides to write a book or sell his story.

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.