Child pornography on David Westerfield's computers might belong to the accused killer's son, a defense computer expert suggested Wednesday.

Marcus Lawson, the president of the Spokane private forensic firm Global Compusearch, said Neal Westerfield, a college student who lived part-time with his father outside of San Diego, apparently used his father's office computers as well as his own PC to check his e-mail and look at sex sites featuring teens, schoolgirls and pornographic cartoons.

The elder Westerfield, 50, faces the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping and murdering his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam. He is also charged with misdemeanor child pornography possession, and prosecutors hope that disturbing images gleaned from files and computers in his home office will provide jurors with a motive for Danielle's abduction. Several panelists burst into tears last week when shown some of the 85 images of naked girls and young teens being raped by men.

Lawson said one of the most graphic pornographic files, a movie of a young Asian girl screaming out as she is violated by two men, was viewed last fall within an hour of a user accessing images of Japanese anime cartoons. The expert showed jurors e-mails indicating a computer user named DNWest visited such anime sites. DNWest, according to Lawson, was the e-mail address for Neal Westerfield, whose full name is David Neal Westerfield.

The 18-year-old is listed as a potential witness in the trial and therefore is precluded from attending the trial or commenting on the case. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he and his older sister, Lisa, supported their father. Neighbors say both children spent time at Westerfield's home, just two doors from the van Dams.

Neal Westerfield's e-mail address was used in PCs in his bedroom and on the other PCs in his father's office across the hall. Lawson also said a laptop was used on the afternoon of Feb. 4 to view "pornographic anime sites and what I referred to in my report as teen sex sites." Westerfield was initially questioned by police the morning of Feb. 4 and was in police custody at the time the images were opened. Those sites, he said, included one called Teen Dream and another billed as a Lesbian Bordello.

Under questioning by defense lawyer Steven Feldman, Lawson said there was no record of the computer's internal clock being manipulated.

Neal Westerfield's e-mail address was also used to sign up for a pornography portal called pink4free.com and to order books for his classes at San Diego State University. Lawson showed jurors suggesting that the student spent hours last December "pornsurfing" on his father's computer.

Lawson said he was "sure" some of the more than 8,000 pornographic images on the computer were downloaded by David Westerfield, but he said the elder man appeared to visit adult pornographic sites. One common one, he said, was projectvoyeur.com, a site focusing on amateur pictures of user's wives and girlfriends.

"Most of the images...tended to be women in their 30s," said Lawson. In his opening argument, Feldman said his client favored large-breasted adult women, not children.

On cross-examination, prosecutor George "Woody" Clarke tried to undermine the expert's testimony by getting Lawson to admit that he could not say who downloaded the violent rape scenes and nude shots of young girls found on discs in Westerfield's office.

"As far as Neal having created the images on the zip discs and CDs, that would be speculation on your part," said Clarke.

"That's correct," Lawson agreed.

He also said someone could've watched the "attack" pornography repeatedly and erased the record of such viewing.

"Could they have been viewed on Feb. 1?" Clarke asked, referring to the night Danielle went missing from her bedroom.

"Could they have been? Yes," answered Lawson.

The expert conceded that there was some evidence that Westerfield might be responsible for creating the pornography and may even have used his son's identity online. The password to one file storage site was the last four digits of the older man's Social Security number and some pornographic photos were named with the prefix "IEA," a naming system also apparently used in Westerfield's business files. Another CD containing hard-core child pornography was labeled "Spectrum," the name of Westerfield's engineering company.

The Night at Dad's

Late in the day Wednesday, jurors heard two female acquaintances of Westerfield contradict the testimony of Danielle's mother, Brenda, concerning her behavior the night of the abduction.

The van Dams admitted earlier in the trial that they engaged in swinging with other couples, but said the practice had nothing to do with their daughter's murder. Brenda van Dam specifically denied that she was combing a local bar for sex partners and said she never danced with Westerfield that night.

But Cherokee Youngs, an acquaintance of Westerfield, and Glennie Nasland, who described herself as his "good friend," offered different portraits of Brenda van Dam's conduct.

Cherokee Youngs

Youngs said one of van Dam's friends, Barbara Easton, was hitting on her so aggressively that she grabbed a male stranger and announced that he was her "official boyfriend" for the evening just to ward off the woman's advances.

Brenda van Dam also showed interest, Youngs said, inviting her and the man back to her house and saying of them, "I wouldn't mind taking these two home."

Youngs said she declined, telling Brenda van Dam, "Sorry, I don't share."

Nasland, who has known Westerfield for four years and smiled broadly at him from the witness stand, said she also had sexually charged conversations with the women. She said she and Westerfield talked with Brenda and her friends for 10 minutes and, at one point "for a few seconds" the housewife and Westerfield danced with each other.

Brenda van Dam said she barely knew Westerfield and only briefly spoke with him at the bar. She never mentioned being introduced to Nasland.

Nasland's testimony may have hindered the defense in the end. On cross-examination, she acknowledged that Westerfield was very drunk that night and upset about the end of his year-and-a-half relationship with his girlfriend, to whom Nasland had introduced him.

"He was sad that it didn't work out," said Nasland.

She also said she was certain that Westerfield left the bar just before midnight, but he told police he left at 10:30 and other witnesses have given similar testimony. She also said he was dressed in black that night. Previous witnesses have not described his clothing, but the employee of a drycleaner testified that the day Westerfield was first questioned by police, he brought in an all-black outfit and asked for rush service.

Danielle van Dam's blood was found on another item of clothing he took to the same cleaner.