Danielle van Dam's killer, David Westerfield, transferred off San Quentin's death row

David Westerfield, the man sentenced to death in the 2002 kidnapping and killing of 7-year-old Sabre Springs resident Danielle van Dam, was transferred out of San Quentin to another state prison last month, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed to NBC 7 on Friday.

Westerfield, 72, was moved to High Desert State Prison, located in the northeastern area of California near Susanville, on March 12 as part of the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program, according to CDCR spokesperson Terri Hardy. He is expected to serve the rest of his sentence there.

Hardy clarified that transfers under this program do not alter an inmate's condemned sentence.

Westerfield's move comes as the CDCR continues phasing out segregated death row units at San Quentin in part to comply with voter-approved Proposition 66, which requires death-sentenced inmates to work to pay restitution to their victims.

The program, which was approved on Jan. 31, plans to move those with death sentences to general population prisons across California by this summer. The inmates will be rehoused in institutions with an electrified secured perimeter, according to the CDCR's website.

Van Dam's disappearance in February 2002 prompted a massive county-wide search conducted by volunteers. Nearly a month later, her badly decomposed body was found in the underbrush off Dehesa Road in El Cajon.

Six months later, a jury convicted Westerfield, who lived across the street from the van Dam family, of kidnapping and first-degree murder. He was also found guilty of possession of child pornography.

In February 2019, the Supreme Court of California upheld a death penalty sentence for Westerfield.

The latest numbers from April 12 show that 641 people in CDCR have condemned sentences. Since Feb. 26, San Quentin has seen 189 transfers, while Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla has seen 20, according to the state agency's data.