UPDATE: Cameron Brown RPV cliff death trial
While on the 9th Floor of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center downtown today for closing arguments in the Miguel Magallon death penalty trial, I popped into the Cameron Brown murder retrial to see what's been going on.
I had apparently just missed a bit of drama. According to Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum, proceedings were postponed for about an hour because Brown, 47, refused to come out of his jail cell. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor was set to sign an extraction order that would give deputies permission to physically extract him when Brown came out on his own.
Then, defense attorney Pat Harris asked that 4-year-old victim Lauren Sarene Key's mother, Sarah Key-Marer, who has watched the entire trial, be excluded from the courtroom because her presence was jeopardizing his client's right to a fair trial. Hum argued against it, and Key-Marer addressed the judge, asking that she be allowed to remain - as she's been looking for answers for nine years. In the end, Pastor allowed her to stay.
In the two weeks since the trial began, jurors have heard from Key-Marer, witnesses who were around Inspiration Point on Nov. 8, 2000, the first emergency responders to the scene, Lauren's pre-school teachers, a pediatrician and direct questioning of the investigating officer, Jeff Leslie, who is expected to undergo cross examination for much of the remainder of the week.
4 Comments
Leave a comment
About the Blogger
Larry Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. He's seen it all - the missing model who turned up dead in the desert, the wives found dead in trunks, the high-school coaches who get a little too close to their players. He drives his young colleagues nuts with his "I remember when" stories. He welcomes your tips and observations about the present, and you can mix in a little Lakers basketball talk if you like.
E-mail Larry at larry.altman@dailybreeze.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
Thank you for this update. I've been trying to keep up with this case over the years. I recall seeing little Lauren just before her death once or twice while I was visiting my family in the same condo complex where Mr. Brown's future wife lived in .. or perhaps they had just become married. I was saddened and shocked. Please continue to keep us updated, Larry. Thanks.
Lots of info about this case at sprocket-trials.blogspot.com
If you are interested in Brown's wife's takes -- her brother is just flat-out crazy! -- go to the family's blog ( http://cameronbrowncase.blogspot.com/ ), where she posts regularly as "anony" ( http://www.haloscan.com/comments/caseinsider/6350908546922578330/ ). As no one apart from the Kaldis Twins attends on behalf of Brown on a regular basis, and she has complained angrily about veteran trial blogger Sprocket's ( http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/ ) purportedly strategic absences (a transgression they also accuse Denise of committing), she has effectively lifted her skirt and exposed herself as the intrepid Mrs. Brown.
I will warn you: the Terrible Twins hurl epithets from their own sty at everyone from witnesses to reporters to the city fathers of Rancho Palos Verdes. I'm not even sure any Angelinos are left who haven't been accused at some point of being part of The Grand Nefarious Conspiracy To Frame A Nobody Stevedore Named Cameron Brown™, ostensibly orchestrated by Vladimir Putin himself.
One thing I would like to see from the reporting is a physical description of Patty Brown. In the last trial, she was described as a "large" woman who was slovenly in appearance; compared to the procession of younger and more nubile Baywatch Babes Cameron John Brown had been dating prior to their marriage, she looked like his mother. Ted Kaldis, with shoulder-length dishwater-gray hair. (Think of this ( http://home.earthlink.net/~19ranger57/TED_AUS.jpg ) with shoulder-length, dishwater-gray hair, but don't do it just after lunch.) The jury knows who is who, and it might have a significant impact on their deliberations.
Sprocket does what Denise can't do this time, due to other duties. Her work is superb in its thoroughness; her observations are generally quite insightful.
Thank you, Acquaintance.