Lauren Sarene Key, playing house under the dining table.
Lauren was murdered by her biological father 11/8/2000.
September 18, 2015
On May 13 of this year, a jury found Cameron John Brown guilty of first degree murder in the cliff death of his four-year-old daughter, Lauren Sarene Key. The jury also found true the special circumstances of lying in wait and murder for financial gain. The prosecution argued that Brown hated Lauren's mother, Sarah Key-Marer, and killed his daughter to avoid paying over $1,000 a month in child support. At trial, Brown's defense claimed Lauren slipped and fell off the 120 ft cliff.
Brown was arrested three years after Lauren's death. Because of the special circumstances allegations, Brown was denied bail and remained in LA County Sheriff's custody ever since.
Almost fifteen years after Lauren's death and three trials, Brown will be sentenced today by Judge Lomeli in Dept. 107. The sentencing hearing is basically a formality since the sentence, life without the possibility of parole, is written into California's sentencing laws.
T&T started covering the Brown case in May 2008, attending most of the second trial and all of the third. I will try to have a report up on the sentencing later tonight.
In the afternoon, there is another pretrial hearing in the Lonnie Franklin, Jr. case. I hope to have my notes up on the Franklin September 14 hearing, and today's hearing, over the weekend. On September 14, DDA Beth Silverman informed the court they would be filing a 1050 [motion to continue] based on the large amount of discovery the defense turned over, just one month before the scheduled start of the trial on October 14.
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3 comments:
I am so glad that Judge Lomeli sentenced CB to life in prison. In the following article Lauren's step brother states that the night prior to her murder that she told him "I'm going to die tomorrow". I don't remember ever hearing that before - do you remember hearing that Sprocket?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dad-convicted-hurling-child-off-cliff-faces-life-33852741
Like I said in my post, the Judge did not have discretion on the sentence. He could not have sentenced Brown to anything more or less. His sentence was written into law.
The information that Josh gave came out in his victim impact statement. This information has never been presented to the public before. This is the first time anyone is hearing about what Josh experienced when he was 10 years old. Imagine the trauma he felt, and the burden that was on him, when Lauren was murdered the next day.
Thank-you for clarification regarding the sentence. Absolutely chilling to know the depth of Josh's trauma - who was just a little boy himself. My heart breaks for this man. The facts of this case have never left me. CB is proof that pure evil does exist. It is beyond disturbing knowing how Lauren sobbed and begged not to have to leave school and go with CB. Knowing now her prescient and accurate premonition of her own death is beyond disturbing - how tortuous her last 24 hours of life were and I can't fathom the terror she felt when CB hurled her off that cliff.
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