Dad sentenced to life in prison for hurling 4-year-old child off seaside cliff
LOS ANGELES -- A 53-year-old man was sentenced to prison on Friday for hurling his daughter to her death from a seaside cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes, reports CBS Los Angeles.
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, Cameron Brown was ordered to spend a life sentence in prison without parole for the murder of 4-year-old Lauren Sarene Key, who fell from a 120-foot cliff nearly 15 years ago.
Jurors found the former airline baggage handler, guilty of hurling the girl from Inspiration Point in November 2000 amid a bitter custody dispute with her mother.
The first-degree murder conviction in May came about a dozen years after Brown was arrested and followed two previous trials when jurors decided the death was a crime, but they couldn't agree whether it was murder or manslaughter.
Brown told police the girl tripped and fell as she ran toward the cliff.
Defense lawyer Aron Laub said Brown was a bad father, but not a murderer. Laub disputed testimony by a prosecution expert that showed a girl her age wouldn't have been able to run fast enough to land where she did in the rocky ocean below, reports the station.
According to the station, Brown and the girl's mother, Sarah Key-Marer, had a short-lived romance that soured when she got pregnant.
Brown wanted Key-Marer to get an abortion, and he even tried to get her deported to her British homeland, Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum said, according to the station.
Hatred toward his ex-girlfriend was the key motive, though there was evidence that Brown was also trying to get out of costly child support payments, Hum said.
According to the station, a witness came forward at the third trial who testified that Brown said it would be "nice to get rid of Lauren" to avoid $1,000-a-month payments.
Jurors also found Brown killed the girl for financial gain, says the station.
Key-Marer is expected to show up for the sentencing.
"All I ever wanted was that he would take responsibility for that day," she said after the verdict was announced.
After she left the courtroom that day weeping, however, Brown told the judge he was innocent, reports the station.