SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for a man convicted of kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old San Diego girl nearly 20 years ago.
The San Diego Union-Tribune says the judges on Monday unanimously rejected nearly a dozen defense arguments to overturn David Westerfield’s first-degree murder conviction and sentence.
Westerfield can seek a U.S. Supreme Court review.
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Danielle van Dam disappeared from her bedroom on Feb. 1, 2002. Her nude, partially decomposed body was found off a remote trail three weeks later.
Westerfield lived two doors away. Danielle’s blood, hair, fingerprints and DNA linked him to the crime.
His trial broke new ground. It was the first time that test results on mitochondrial DNA - which is less specific than nuclear DNA - were allowed as evidence in California.
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