Danielle van Dam’s killer moved off death row
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — David Westerfield, the San Diego man convicted of the 2002 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, was transferred off of San Quentin’s death row and moved to another California state prison.
Westerfield, 72, was moved to High Desert State Prison near the Northern California town of Susanville to serve out the remainder of his sentence, according to records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
The transfer was confirmed by CDCR spokesperson Terri Hardy to be a part of California’s Condemned Inmate Transfer Program, which was launched after voters approved an overhaul to the state’s death penalty system through Proposition 66 in 2016.
Vigil held for 16-year-old killed in wrong-way crash on I-5
Under the program, inmates sentenced to death — also known as a “condemned sentence” — are moved out of death row and into other high-security prisons, requiring them to work to pay restitution to their victims as they serve out their sentence.
The program also allows the state to phase out segregated death row prison cells. However, it does not change or otherwise alter an inmate’s condemned sentence, Hardy noted.
The Condemned Inmate Transfer Program began as a pilot program run between 2020 and 2022 before launching in full. Since then, 209 inmates out of the 641 with a condemned sentence have been transferred out of death row at San Quentin and Central California Women’s Facility.
Westerfield is among those who have been transferred this year — over 22 years after Danielle was murdered.
Danielle disappeared from her home in San Diego in February 2002, prompting a massive volunteer-led search across the county. She was found nearly a month later badly decomposed on the side of a rural road in East County.
Westerfield, her family’s neighbor, was arrested on Feb. 22, five days before the search party discovered Danielle’s body.
He was later convicted of abducting and killing the 7-year-old following nine days of jury deliberations in the televised trial that captured national attention. He was also found guilty of possessing child sexual abuse material.
A death penalty sentence was finalized by a judge in the case in early 2003, with the California Supreme Court upholding it a 2019 appeal.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
