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Discussion Boards => Off-Topic => Topic started by: kylahsmom on July 29, 2009, 06:19:29 pm
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A father who had no interest in his 4-year-old daughter did the unimaginable — hurling her off a 120-foot cliff to avoid paying child support, a prosecutor said Monday during the man's murder retrial.
Cameron Brown, 47, was charged with one count of murder and the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and murder for financial gain in the death of Lauren Sarene Key in November 2000. Brown, a former American Airlines baggage handler, has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum said during his opening statement that Brown killed Lauren because he didn't want to pay about $1,000 a month in child support.
Defense attorney Pat Harris countered that it was an accident when the girl fell from Inspiration Point in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Hum portrayed Brown as an uncaring father who tried to shirk his parental responsibility at nearly every turn. After Brown learned the girl's mother, Sarah Key-Marer, was pregnant with Lauren, he first wanted her to have an abortion and then sought a paternity test that eventually proved he was the father, Hum said.
"Does he show any interest in the child he fathered?" Hum asked. "Absolutely not."
Only when he was forced to pay child support did Brown finally see his daughter — about three years after she was born, Hum said, adding that the total number of hours Brown spent with his daughter during her life amounted to about two weeks.
Hum argued that Brown and Lauren went out to the cliff where nobody could see them, and he "hurled" her into the Pacific Ocean.
"This man picked up Lauren, whom he fathered but was never a father to, and threw her off a cliff into the water below," Hum said.
Brown, wearing a dark suit and a red tie, stared at Hum during his opening statement and showed no reaction.
Harris gave a different account of his client's relationship with his daughter, insisting the case was nothing more than "character assassination." He dismissed the prosecution's contention that it was a "good-versus-evil" struggle between Brown and Key-Marer.
"It was two parents trying to work out arrangements so they could have a happy child," Harris said.
Harris said Brown carried a picture of Lauren in his wallet, gave her gifts and toasted with his friends when he learned he would get visitation rights. Two weeks before her death, Brown filed court documents seeking more visits with Lauren, Harris said.
"It doesn't make sense," he said.
The prosecution's first witness was Key-Marer, a British immigrant, who described her relationship with Brown as amicable but deteriorated during the child custody dispute after she said in court documents that he was showing little interest in Lauren's life.
Key-Marer testified that her daughter wouldn't share what she did with Brown and Lauren was upset the day she died once she learned Brown would pick her up at school.
"She said, 'No, no I don't want to see him today,'" Key-Marer said. "She was crying and I had trouble getting her out of the car seat."
In a wrenching moment, Key-Marer said after talking to her daughter on the phone she decided to leave work early and pick up Lauren. But she soon learned that Brown had arrived early and she wouldn't be able to get there in time.
She described waiting for Lauren that night, looking out her window for her daughter and Brown to return. Distraught, she and her husband decided to notify authorities because they thought Brown may have kidnapped Lauren.
"We knew something really bad had happened," she said.
Key-Marer broke into tears when she recounted how a female police detective told her that her daughter had died.
"I remember hearing the words 'cliff' and 'Lauren was dead,'" Key-Marer said before court recessed for the day. "I just couldn't believe it."
Brown was tried three years ago, but a mistrial was declared after a jury deadlocked on the severity of the crime. Some jurors favored a first-degree murder conviction, while others voted for second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Both sides intend to call experts to give their opinions on how Lauren died. Jurors will also take a trip to the cliff to see where the alleged crime occurred.
(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with afternoon testimony, details. corrects reference to number of times Brown visited daughter from 12 times to two weeks.)
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Why is this man just now being tried if this happened 9 years ago???? I have a suggestion to all the dads-to-be: If you do not want to marry or stay married to the potential mother of your children you should either wear a raincoat or keep the barn door closed! This way theres no worry about child support. What a sick individual!
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Is it just me or is the general populous losing their minds?! I swear to god when I was a kid, you never heard about things like this...but now it is like every time you turn around husbands are killing their wives (or vice versa)...kids...neighbors...random people out on the street because they were in the wrong place while someone else was having the "worst day of my life"...its shameful. Makes you almost afraid to do anything...at times.
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AMEN! I think that these things have always happened, but due to our society becoming more lax the media is now honing in on these types of stories. Before it was just rumors in small towns, now it is in print nationwide...and worldwide in some cases.
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This is crazy. If people don't want to be responsible for children they should learn to use a condom or something. That child did nothing to him.
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they need to hurl him off the cliff next !
that is insane !
hes a dirtbag from hell :-X
leah
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Well, I think the punishment should fit the crime. If it was proven that he thre the child off the cliff...His punishment should be that He should be thrown off the cliff. Forget feeding these prisoners and costing us tons for their inconciderate unlawful actions. Do to them what they did. Public executions would sure slow down crime.
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why would someone want to hurt anyone over money?? There are many more things that are important in our lives and the father must have had mental issues that caused him not to think of how bad it was to do it/
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A father who had no interest in his 4-year-old daughter did the unimaginable — hurling her off a 120-foot cliff to avoid paying child support, a prosecutor said Monday during the man's murder retrial.
Cameron Brown, 47, was charged with one count of murder and the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and murder for financial gain in the death of Lauren Sarene Key in November 2000. Brown, a former American Airlines baggage handler, has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum said during his opening statement that Brown killed Lauren because he didn't want to pay about $1,000 a month in child support.
Defense attorney Pat Harris countered that it was an accident when the girl fell from Inspiration Point in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Hum portrayed Brown as an uncaring father who tried to shirk his parental responsibility at nearly every turn. After Brown learned the girl's mother, Sarah Key-Marer, was pregnant with Lauren, he first wanted her to have an abortion and then sought a paternity test that eventually proved he was the father, Hum said.
"Does he show any interest in the child he fathered?" Hum asked. "Absolutely not."
Only when he was forced to pay child support did Brown finally see his daughter — about three years after she was born, Hum said, adding that the total number of hours Brown spent with his daughter during her life amounted to about two weeks.
Hum argued that Brown and Lauren went out to the cliff where nobody could see them, and he "hurled" her into the Pacific Ocean.
"This man picked up Lauren, whom he fathered but was never a father to, and threw her off a cliff into the water below," Hum said.
Brown, wearing a dark suit and a red tie, stared at Hum during his opening statement and showed no reaction.
Harris gave a different account of his client's relationship with his daughter, insisting the case was nothing more than "character assassination." He dismissed the prosecution's contention that it was a "good-versus-evil" struggle between Brown and Key-Marer.
"It was two parents trying to work out arrangements so they could have a happy child," Harris said.
Harris said Brown carried a picture of Lauren in his wallet, gave her gifts and toasted with his friends when he learned he would get visitation rights. Two weeks before her death, Brown filed court documents seeking more visits with Lauren, Harris said.
"It doesn't make sense," he said.
The prosecution's first witness was Key-Marer, a British immigrant, who described her relationship with Brown as amicable but deteriorated during the child custody dispute after she said in court documents that he was showing little interest in Lauren's life.
Key-Marer testified that her daughter wouldn't share what she did with Brown and Lauren was upset the day she died once she learned Brown would pick her up at school.
"She said, 'No, no I don't want to see him today,'" Key-Marer said. "She was crying and I had trouble getting her out of the car seat."
In a wrenching moment, Key-Marer said after talking to her daughter on the phone she decided to leave work early and pick up Lauren. But she soon learned that Brown had arrived early and she wouldn't be able to get there in time.
She described waiting for Lauren that night, looking out her window for her daughter and Brown to return. Distraught, she and her husband decided to notify authorities because they thought Brown may have kidnapped Lauren.
"We knew something really bad had happened," she said.
Key-Marer broke into tears when she recounted how a female police detective told her that her daughter had died.
"I remember hearing the words 'cliff' and 'Lauren was dead,'" Key-Marer said before court recessed for the day. "I just couldn't believe it."
Brown was tried three years ago, but a mistrial was declared after a jury deadlocked on the severity of the crime. Some jurors favored a first-degree murder conviction, while others voted for second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Both sides intend to call experts to give their opinions on how Lauren died. Jurors will also take a trip to the cliff to see where the alleged crime occurred.
(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with afternoon testimony, details. corrects reference to number of times Brown visited daughter from 12 times to two weeks.)
:crybaby2:
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This reminds me of the case several years ago where a father purposely injected his baby son with the AIDS virus so he wouldn't pay child support. He was hoping he would die from AIDS. Just awful.
PEOPLE IF YOU DO NOT WANT CHILDREN AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THEM DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT HAVE SEX!!!!! IT'S THAT SIMPLE! OR BETTER YET GET YOURSELF STERILIZED
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wow...
was there any 911 call made by him, saying she'd fallen?
what happened between the time it happened and the
mother finding out? what was his demeanor when
the father saw the mom for the first time after it happened?
did he come back to the mother that night, or did he flee?
too many questions. i can't really believe someone could do that.
i mean, i try to picture it in my head but it feels so unrealistic... :dontknow:
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they should burn him or make him suffers dying slowly
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He should be drawn and quartered.
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That is so completely sad and unfair to that poor child. How can someone takes someone else's life??? It's just unfathomable!! :crybaby2:
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If he didn't want to pay childsupprort, he should have thrown himself off the cliff instead. Even if he is convicted, he is going to get life in prison. With the Xbox to play, and the internet to get a nice degree in psychology so he can make a living when he finally gets paroled in 4 years.
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:'(
I hate hearing things like that... that poor child!!
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My husbands first wife was killed by her second husband for $100,000 ins money. He'd already killed someone in a bar fight but was supposed to be a " born again Christian". He still only got life no death. He shot her in the head and in the heart and claimed she committed suicide.
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Tht's Heartless :(
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So many people have such a huge and ever-increasing sense of sense of entitlement. You see it in the way they treat waiters/waitresses, the way they shove right past you in the supermarket, all the while yakking on their cell phones, the constant lawsuits... This vile act is the ultimate expression of that me-first attitude.
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When psychopaths do horrific things like this, do they ever wonder what God may have in store for them. What evilness must possess this individual.
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When these people commit the profound acts of evil I do not think God even crosses their minds. They may claim to be Christians, but going to church on Sundays and living the rest of the days doing as you please doesn't qualify as Christian in my mind. Believe me, I am not perfect, but I could never intentionally harm another human being, especially not my own flesh and blood! The only circumstance where I would harm someone is if they were trying to hurt me or my child. Even then I don't think I could take their life! I guess it would all depend on the situation. I do own a gun for protection, but I doubt the darn thing even works since I haven't had it out in 5 or more years lol.
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These things do happen every day believe it! It is far too common and about
the most horrible tragedy in the world! They are going to pay dearly one day,
but that will not bring the one they did it to back .... way too sad.... :(
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He deserves to get whatever the law throws at him. If that means life in prison or death... that's what he deserves. And pleading insanity... not so sure that's gonna fly. Anybody who kills another person (especially for no reason) deserves to have the heavy hand on the law crash down on their head.
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As a mom it crushes me to hear things like that. Many many men and women have simply just not paid child support the dead beats could have just requested to give up there parental rights but no. Those are very sick individuals who would hurt or kill a child. Children are innoncent and i hoe he gets his butt handed to him if he goes to jail that man is sick!!!
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OMG :o
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:'(
I hate hearing things like that... that poor child!!
Me too :crybaby2:
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I cant believe a father would actually do this to his own daughter...i guess to him money was everything!!! However, in our world today i guess anything can happen...there are a lot of bad people!!!
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What a retard...he didnt want to give up $1,000 a month, and now he is sitting in jail with NO money, probably facing the death penalty. Good decision.