|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Victim's mother: No forgiveness of WesterfieldBrenda van Dam says she feels 'no mercy' for Danielle's killer
SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- The mother of Danielle van Dam, describing herself as "exhausted emotionally and empty," says she doubts she will ever forgive David Westerfield, a former neighbor sentenced to death Friday for abducting and killing the 7-year-old girl. "I feel no mercy for him," said Brenda van Dam on an interview with CNN's Larry King Live. "He obviously didn't show my daughter any mercy, and I don't know if I could ever forgive him for what he's done to myself, to Danielle ... and to our family." She also said that she and her husband, Damon, were "re-victimized over and over throughout this entire ordeal" by defense attorneys who made an issue of their extramarital sexual activity and drug use. But she also said they do sometimes feel guilt over their daughter's death. "There is some amount of guilt that you find within yourself, wondering ... what if I'd done something different," she said. "I know there was no way we could have stopped Westerfield, but it is very difficult not to blame each other or not to blame yourself." Westerfield, 50, who lived two doors down from the van Dams in a quiet, upscale suburban San Diego, California, neighborhood, was sentenced to death by lethal injection Friday by Superior Court Judge William Mudd, who rejected a defense motion to instead send the twice-divorced engineer and father of two to prison for the rest of his life. (Full story) Westerfield turned down the judge's offer to speak in court, but Brenda van Dam made a dramatic and emotional statement during which she addressed her former neighbor directly and called him "a heartless, empty shell." "It disgusts me that your sick fantasies and your pitiful needs made you feel you needed her more than her family," she said. "You do not deserve any leniency, any mercy, because you refused to give it to Danielle." She looked directly at Westerfield, who remained still and did not look back. In her interview with Larry King, Brenda van Dam said she did not expect Westerfield to show emotion during her statement. "I don't think he's capable of that," she said. She also said she expects her family to eventually sell up and move because of the proximity of Westerfield's former home. "I can't drive by that house every day knowing that she was hurt in there," she said. However, Brenda van Dam said for the time being, she wants to remain in the house because she finds visiting Danielle's room a comfort. A verdict of deathThe van Dam family's ordeal began last February, when Danielle disappeared from her bedroom after being tucked into bed for the night by her father. After a three-week search which drew national media attention, her naked and badly decomposed body was finally found in a desert area about 25 miles from their home. Police said the girl had been sexually assaulted. By the time of the grisly discovery, Westerfield, who had no previous criminal record, had been arrested after police found physical evidence linking him to the missing girl, including her blood on his jacket and her fingerprints and DNA in his house and mobile home. A six-man, six-woman jury convicted him of murder and kidnapping in August and recommended a death sentence. Under California law, Mudd was not bound to follow the jury's recommendation, but he said Friday that a more lenient life sentence was not justified. "Based on a careful and an independent reweighing of the evidence, the court finds that the weight of the evidence ... supports the jury's verdict of death," Mudd said. In California, defendants sentenced to death get an automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court, a process that could take years. In the meantime, Mudd ordered that Westerfield be sent to death row at San Quentin prison, near San Francisco, where he will join more than 600 other men facing lethal injection. Outside the courtroom after the trial, Brenda van Dam spoke repeatedly of the treatment she hopes Westerfield will receive from other inmates. "I hope that he suffers twice, three times, 10 times the pain and fear that he put my daughter through before he dies." She later said she does not mean for inmates to do anything illegal, but just to make their opinions clear. The van Dams on Thursday filed a civil suit against Westerfield, which they said is aimed at making sure he does not profit from his case. They are also pushing for a change in state law that would make it easier to sentence child murderers to death.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
