Part II
Part III
- At the top of the cliff, there was no evidence of slipping, sliding or disturbance in the dirt.
- During Brown's interview with Leslie, he never used Lauren's name.
- When Leslie asked him about his lack of emotion, he noted how he cried during the 911 call.
- Brown's friend, Jon Hans (who had contacted prosecutors after he tried to get a letter of support he had written for Brown's Web site taken down), testified he called Brown a week later to offer his condolences. Brown got on the phone and said, "Hey dude, what's up?" He told Hans, "I can't dwell on it, I have to move on, I can't let this ruin my life." Hum said: "It's as if nothing happened."
- A former girlfriend said Brown called her and cried about getting someone else pregnant. Hum said this shows that Brown is, indeed, capable of showing emotion.
- Friends and co-workers testified he got angry (more emotion) over "nothing."
- Another former girlfriend (the one who he had the abortion) said Brown was very emotional over the pregnancy and abortion. She said he "stalked" her, he got mad about her going out with her friends and threw her belongings over a cliff. He smashed her parked car with his, and his mother paid for the damages. She said he broke into her apartment and wrote "bitch" all over the place. Hum said Brown was retaliating because he was angry.
- In response to the defense assertion that those acts were a long time ago, 1987, Hum noted that it was only 13 years before Lauren's death and eight or nine years before his negative treatment of Key-Marer.
Brown tried to explain his not talking to Key-Marer after Lauren's death on the advice of his lawyers.
Two days after Lauren's death, Brown spent time on the computer looking up surf spots on the Internet.
Patti Brown was the "driving force" behind taking Lauren from Key-Marer. Detectives took a note she wrote to Brown in which she directed Brown to take Lauren from Key-Marer.
A Brown friend recalled a discussion where Patti talked about getting custody and Brown just "looked off in space."
There were "creepy" photos of Lauren found at Brown's home. Hum said she does not look happy and is clenching her fists - which her teacher said she did when she was upset.
More evidence of Brown's hatred for Key-Marer were the two photos of Key-Marer that police found inside a cigar box inside a suitcase under the bed, along with black candles and black figurines. "That's creepy. That shows how the defendant feels about Sarah." (The defense suggested the photos were "scrap.")
Child support was a motive, but Brown wanted his life back. "Lauren was an inconvenience."
The note from Patti to Brown said "just go for it."
Brown told friends he married Patti "for her money."
Brown would have to pay $150,000 in child support for Lauren until she turned 18. That money would go to "a woman he hates, detests, who he feels ruined his life by refusing to get an abortion."
That amount was roughly 40 percent of his take-home pay.
Brown told friends he had to sell his truck to make the payments.
He lied to collect worker' compensation.
Patti had money, but it was mostly in retirement accounts. She had about $60,000 in her bank account.
Brown had $96.21 to his name on Nov. 8, 2000.
"That $1,000 a month in child support hurt."
Dr. Ogbonna Chinwah from the LA County Coroner's Office, who conducted Lauren's autopsy, said Lauren's injuries were not consistent with a slip, trip or accidental fall. Chinwah has done more than 8,000 autopsies.
Chinwah's opinion is corroborated by the scene.
If she had slipped or fallen, she would have numerous abrasions, but they were minimal.
Lauren died from a single massive impact with the face of the cliff. "She didn't slip off, she was thrown"
There was no evidence of Lauren walking or running in the area where Brown said she fell from - no child-size foot prints, no slip marks. This is consistent with what we know about Lauren.
"All the physical evidence contradicts the defendant's claim that Lauren was running around throwing rocks when she slipped and fell." "Because he's lying." "Because Lauren didn't fall accidentally from the top of the cliff because he threw her." (I should probably be using exclamation points here to show the anger/passion with which these statements were made. But I use those sparingly in general, and will do so here.)
Wilson Hayes, the biomechanics expert, was the victim of a "cheap shot" by a defense expert who criticized Hayes for being dismissed from Harvard for "academic fraud." Hum said that was an "absolute lie and if there was any evidence to support that we would have heard it." That comment shows how "devastating" Hayes' testimony was to the defense and the lengths they'd go to discredit it.
Hayes had two conclusions: Lauren could not have accidentally fallen from Inspiration Point and received those injures and the only explanation for Lauren's injuries is being thrown from the cliff.
A defense video that shows girls throwing golf balls over the cliff (in order to show that the forward motion of the thrown would've launched Brown over). Hum said the video was "misleading."
"The only reason the defendant took her out there was to kill her."
Hum then went into some of the defense witnesses. Beginning with Brown's mother, he said it is expected that she would say nice things about her son, she has a bias toward helping him. "It slants her testimony." Hum said he doesn't believe that she does not talk about the trial with Brown and the rest of the family.
While many friends had nice things to say about Brown, some of his friends did not. One friend said he wanted to 'reveal the truth" testified that Brown told him Lauren fell from a narrow path and Brown reached out to help her but couldn't, then had a woman in a silver car call 911.
Hum criticized the defense medical expert for her lack of experience, reports and credentials.
Hum also criticized the defense pediatric expert for the same (calling him an expert in SIDS, kidney stones and birth defects).
Hum then criticized the defense biomechanics expert for having no expertise in the area of falls from cliffs, but in car crashes, whiplashes and falls in stores and such.
"It's not just one piece of evidence. It's everything, together."
"It all leads to one horrifying, inescapable conclusion: This man threw his 4-year-old daughter off the cliff at Inspriation Point to her death. He did it. Find him guilty."
Tomorrow, Part V, which will begin defense attorney Pat Harris' argument.
Wow. Thanks so much for taking the time to type all this out, Denise. It's definitely appreciated! I look forward to the verdict, which will hopefully bring justice for Lauren and her mother.
Denise, thank you for taking the time to do this.
Have you slept????