San Diego, California – David Westerfield, the man sentenced to death for the 2002 kidnapping and killing of 7-year-old Sabre Springs resident Danielle van Dam, was recently moved from San Quentin to a new state prison facility. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed that Westerfield, now 72 years old, was transferred to High Desert State Prison in northeastern California last month as part of the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program. This program does not change the condemned sentence of the inmates being moved.
The transfer comes as the CDCR is in the process of phasing out segregated death row units at San Quentin in compliance with Proposition 66, which mandates that death-sentenced inmates work to pay restitution to their victims. The program, approved in January, aims to relocate those with death sentences to general population prisons across California by the summer. These new institutions will have electrified secured perimeters as per the CDCR’s plan.
The case of Danielle van Dam’s disappearance in February 2002 led to a widespread search by volunteers in San Diego. Her body was tragically discovered nearly a month later in El Cajon. Westerfield, who resided near the van Dam family, was convicted six months after her disappearance of kidnapping, first-degree murder, and possession of child pornography.
In February 2019, the Supreme Court of California upheld Westerfield’s death penalty sentence, and as of April 12, there were 641 individuals with condemned sentences in CDCR. San Quentin and Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla have seen numerous transfers in recent months, according to state agency data. Westerfield will serve the remainder of his sentence at the High Desert State Prison facility.