Jury decides death penalty for girl’s killer

? A jury decided Monday that David Westerfield should get the death penalty for killing 7-year-old neighbor Danielle van Dam, the little girl who vanished from her bedroom in the first in a string of high-profile child abductions across the country this year.

Westerfield, a 50-year-old engineer, shook slightly as the verdict was read and his mother began to cry in the courtroom gallery. A defense lawyer leaned over to her and said, “I’m so sorry.”

Danielle’s mother also wept nearby.

Westerfield had faced either execution or life in prison without parole for killing Danielle in February. Despite the jury’s recommendation, Superior Court Judge William Mudd has the option of sentencing Westerfield to the life sentence Nov. 22.

“Today, justice was done for Danielle van Dam; justice was done for her family,” San Diego County Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst said.

Under California law, all death penalty cases are automatically appealed.

Defense attorney Steven Feldman said he was disappointed and he criticized the death penalty. But he told reporters: “We will not appeal the case on the streets of San Diego through the media.”

The same jurors who convicted Westerfield indicated earlier Monday they were deadlocked on his punishment after five days of deliberations. But they returned a unanimous recommendation.

“We really wanted David Westerfield to speak to us and give us what his state of mind was,” said the jury foreman, who identified himself only as Tony. Westerfield never took the stand in his defense.

After the verdict, one juror left the courtroom to compose herself. The foreman said the death penalty decision was tough for the jury.

“Each person had to come to peace with that decision,” he said. “Everybody had to go through that step that ‘Holy Cow, this is real.”‘

Danielle’s parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, left without speaking to reporters.

Westerfield lived two doors away from the van Dam family in an upper-middle class suburb. The girl sold him Girl Scout cookies days before her abduction.

Danielle was last seen on Feb. 1, when her father put her to bed. 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.