From the cutting room floor: Cameron Brown murder retrial closing arguments - Part VI
Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Picking up where I left off with Pat Harris' closing argument:
- The prosecution argued Brown "premeditated" Lauren's murder. Harris said the evidence showed Brown was supposed to go to his mother's with Lauren that day, but his mother canceled at the last minute. Instead, he took her to Inspiration Point. Is that a "plan?" Harris asked. "Use common sense here."
- If Lauren didn't want to go on a hike, or do anything, she wouldn't do it, her former babysitter testified.
- Inspiration Point is visible from the road - not a secluded place to committ murder.
- Why would he go there? He's got a boat - he could've taken her sailing and killed her with no chance of being seen. "It would've been easier."
- Why would he hurt Lauren? If he's so angry at Key-Marer, why not hurt Key-Marer?
- The most "bizarre" thing in the trial was the prosecution's theory that Brown "didn't care" after Lauren fell. Would he go to the trouble to "do all this and not take the next step to make it look real?" "How absurd is it? It makes no sense. It's like doing a bank robbery and not having a get-away car."
- There are so many possible places where she could have been thrown from, but the prosecution picked the point of departure to coincide with the trajectory that could have caused the injuries found on Lauren.
- Who didn't the jury see? Detective Smith (now retired, partner of Detective Jeff Leslie). He's a major witness but they can't get him here? Maybe it has something to do with the phonebook comment "assholes?" (There was some notation Smith made about "phonebook assholes," but I'm not sure where or what it meant).
- One of the most telling points of the trial was the prosecution's assertion that it is a 50 minute walk from the Abalone Cove parking lot to Inspiration Point if you follow the path Brown said he and Lauren took. It was not treacherous. Smith had a video in which he walked it in 28 minutes.
- Leslie is trying to make you believe Brown didn't care and was "lollygagging around" (after Lauren went over the cliff). "Except I showed actual evidence when the phone call came in" when it was over and when the paramedics arrived. "Worst case scenario" was about eight minutes until Brown got to Lauren (not 15, which prosecution contends). Leslie said the time wasn't a big deal, but it was "superhuman" of Brown to get all that done in six to eight minutes. Brown was "running like crazy."
- The authorities originally didn't ask for Patti Brown's financials.
- Detectives put Brown under surveillance (after), but nothing came of it.
- There was no evidence to refute Brown suffered from "disassociation."
- There was a witness who said Lauren was in front.
- Regarding the defense expert witness' remark about Dr. Hayes being fired from Harvard for academic fraud, it wasn't the defense intention to bring that up (it came out during cross examination). The prosecution never brought anybody to rebut the claim, though.
- The prosecution ignored scrapes documented on Lauren's body. "Wow. We showed you the pictues. The pictures don't lie. Pictures don't create bruises."
- (Showing the photo of the big red splotch on Lauren's back that the coroner said was levity) "Those injuries are exactly reminiscent of someone falling." Then there are cuts, bruises on her shin and back. "They just ignore these and they ignore the thing on her back." "The prosecution is willing to say anything to bolster it's story."
- One of the most "damning" pieces of evidence in this trial is the "U-shaped" protrusion at the end of Inspiration Point. (Brown noted such an area as where he was sitting when Lauren went over). Harris contends that the area is not the outcropping at the end of the point that the prosecution says it is, but the path that circles the entire U-shaped point.
- Deputy Brothers was told by Brown where he was, everybody chose to ignore it. "He said he was seated at the end of Inspiration Point in a level area." That is consistent with the bottom of the U path, not the protrusion that slopes down. "They chose to ignore it."
- At the site visit (the day before closing arguments), no one ever actually said exactly where Brown was standing.
- The prosecution's technique is to make you hate Brown instead of using the evidence.
- The prosecution was "scripted." "If you're telling the truth, you don't have to have a script." For example, when Leslie was testifying, he almost "went off the script" and said "Cameron Brown" instead of "the defendant." "He actually caught himself."
- The prosecution uses "gimmicks."
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.
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