A former airline baggage handler will spend the rest of his life behind bars without parole for throwing his 4-year-old daughter to her death from a 120-foot California cliff.
Jurors on Friday sentenced Cameron Brown, 53, for murdering Lauren Sarene Key almost 15 years ago. He was convicted of murder in May after two previous juries couldn't agree on a verdict.
Brown had said that it would be “nice to get rid of Lauren" to avoid paying $1,000 each month in child support, a witness testified.
Prosecutors said that Brown told Sarah Key-Marer, then his girlfriend, that she should abort the pregnancy. He also sought to get her deported to Britain. They broke up while she was pregnant and were locked in a battle over custody and support when Lauren was killed.
Brown had told police that his daughter ran ahead of him and tumbled to her death from Inspiration Point, a bluff south of Los Angeles.
The girl's stepbrother told jurors that she became upset the night before she was killed and eerily told him, “I think I’m going to die tomorrow.”
The case hinged on circumstantial evidence, as police never found an eyewitness to Lauren’s death.
The outcome was a reversal for Brown. In two previous trials, jurors could not agree if he should be convicted of manslaughter or murder. Despite the jurors’ lack of agreement, he’d been incarcerated for 10 years.
His lawyers filed paperwork on Friday for an appeal.