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Prosecution, defense prepare for penalty phase of Westerfield trial

David Westerfield listens to the jury's verdicts Wednesday.

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- A day after a jury found a 50-year-old engineer guilty of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, attention moved to the penalty phase of the trial.

Jurors will begin listening to testimony next Wednesday to decide whether to sentence David Westerfield to death or to life in prison without parole.

The six-man, six-woman jury found Westerfield guilty of felony murder and kidnapping of Danielle, who was abducted from her suburban San Diego home in February. Her nude body was dumped near a desert road.

Under the felony murder charge, Westerfield was accused of killing Danielle during the commission of another crime -- kidnapping -- a special circumstance which would make him eligible for capital punishment.

The jury unanimously found that special circumstance to be true, and prosecutors vowed to seek the death penalty if Westerfield was convicted.

Westerfield also was found guilty on a misdemeanor count of possessing child pornography.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Anne McDermott gauges the reaction to the guilty verdict given to David Westerfield in the kidnap-murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam (August 22) Play video   RESOURCES • Indictment: People v. Westerfield  (FindLaw document, PDF format) • Court TV: Complete coverage of the trial  • Court TV: Capital cases in San Diego     CNN NewsPass Video    •  Westerfield case enters sentence phase  MORE STORIES   •  Body of missing girl's father exhumed   •  More arrests in California boy's kidnap   •  Ricci's widow: Police had the wrong man   •  Smart's dad: More than one person took daughter  RESOURCES   •  Gallery: Technology to keep children safe   •  Safety experts offer tips   •  Facts: Missing children   •  Gallery: Recent missing youngster cases   •  AMBER Alert System  EXTRA INFORMATION   •  TIME.com: Keeping your children safe   •  National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

On Wednesday, Westerfield sat trembling, his face impassive, as the verdicts were read and the jurors were polled individually on each count.

Seconds before the verdicts were read, Danielle's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, clutched each other in the last row of the small courtroom.

Superior Court Judge William D. Mudd said a gag order will remain in place until the penalty phase is complete.

Jury consultant Toni Blake told CNN that the rules in the penalty phase allow both sides to delve deeper into Westerfield's character than during the trial phase. Because of the different rules, Westerfield's character becomes the central issue of the penalty phase, Blake said.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said the defense will try to show the jury that "this act was an aberration, that their client is an honorable family man."

Prosecutors will counter, Toobin said, by "focusing on the monstrousness of this act, and that there were signs that Westerfield was a sexual predator." Such allegations that there were previous signs that Westerfield was a sexual predator may be the most compelling part of the penalty phase, Toobin said.

Westerfield attorney Steven Feldman will appeal to jurors who sounded or appeared hesitant in their guilty verdicts on the murder and kidnapping charges, Blake said. At the same time, prosecutors will tailor their arguments to jurors who sounded most emphatic in their guilty verdicts.

If even one juror is opposed to the death penalty, however, "it's over, that won't be an option," Toobin said.

Under California law, a judge can overrule a jury's decision on a penalty. It is unlikely that will happen if the jury chooses life in prison, Toobin said, given a Supreme Court decision earlier this year that ruled that only juries, not judges, may sentence a person to death.

Regardless of the jury's decision, Westerfield likely will die of natural causes in prison, Toobin said. At age 50, with California's backlog of prisoners on death row and with that state's slow pace of executions – about one a year – Westerfield will likely die in prison.