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Defense puts spotlight on Danielle's parents

David Westerfield listens to Judge William Mudd's instructions to the jury on Tuesday.

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- The parents of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam participated in a lifestyle that "put their children at risk" by opening their doors to unsavory characters, a lawyer for the man accused of killing her said Tuesday.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Steven Feldman sought to put the spotlight on Brenda and Damon van Dam rather than on his client, David Westerfield. Both parents testified about smoking marijuana and knowingly allowing their partners to have sex with others, a practice known as "swinging."

"We don't blame the parents," he said. "We don't think they recognized the dangers of the lifestyle that they led. We don't think they understand that they put their children at risk by engaging in the behaviors that they engaged in."

Feldman added that if a couple is engaging in such risqué behavior, then "Who are you inviting into your house?"

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Westerfield, the van Dams' 50-year-old neighbor, is charged with felony murder and kidnapping, plus a misdemeanor count of possessing child pornography. Under the felony murder charge, he is accused of killing the child during the commission of another crime -- kidnapping.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Feldman also tried to cast doubt on lead prosecutor Jeff Dusek's theory that Westerfield entered the van Dam home and spent as long as an hour there before snatching the girl. Feldman said Westerfield "had never been there" before and "it was pitch black."

The abduction, Feldman said, "was most certainly done by somebody very familiar with the family, very familiar with the house."

The defense is to resume its closing on Wednesday.

Earlier Tuesday, Dusek said jurors cannot ignore the physical evidence against Westerfield, including the discovery of her hair in his bed.

"I'm here to persuade you, beyond a doubt ... who murdered Danielle van Dam," Dusek said.

He said investigators "cannot exclude him from what they found in his house, in his bedroom, in his bed," Dusek said. "They found her hair -- Danielle van Dam's hair -- in his bed, on the pillow, on the top sheet, on the bottom sheet."

According to Dusek, Westerfield entered the van Dam home before her mother returned from a night out and hid somewhere until he could seize Danielle and take her home with him, a few houses away. The father and Danielle's brothers also were at home.

Lead prosecutor Jeff Dusek during closing arguments

"Somebody broke into that house and got her," Dusek said. "Somebody got her out without her screaming, yelling, alerting her family, without the dog doing anything."

Dusek said there was strong evidence that Danielle, who was abducted late February 2 or early February 3, spent time in Westerfield's home after the kidnapping. Her body was found in the Southern California desert February 27.

The prosecutor earlier made the point that shortly after she was reported missing, Westerfield appeared at a dry cleaner's wearing no shoes or socks and carrying a comforter with hair on it from the van Dam's dog.

A day after taking a trip in his recreational vehicle, Westerfield also gave the cleaners a jacket which a DNA analyst said was spotted with Danielle's blood. Investigators also found Danielle's blood and fingerprints in Westerfield's recreational vehicle, which he parked near his house -- often unlocked.

In the two-month trial, much of the defense testimony has centered on information from scientists who study bugs on bodies to determine time of death.

Two forensic entomologists hired by the defense said their analyses suggested Danielle's body was dumped along the desert roadside in mid-February, long after Westerfield was under constant police surveillance.

Dusek said the girl's body was so decomposed that the pathologist could not tell how she died or whether she had been sexually assaulted.

The case of Danielle van Dam and the Westerfield trial was the first in a string of grim stories across the country this year of girls being abducted and, in some cases, found dead.

Danielle's death has been followed by a series of child abduction cases, including those of Elizabeth Smart in Utah; Samantha Runnion, in California; Cassandra Williamson, in Missouri; Erica Pratt, in Philadelphia; and two teenage girls in California last week. Samantha and Cassandra were found dead.