Sept. 18--A man convicted of throwing his 4-year-old daughter off a Rancho Palos Verdes cliff in 2000 was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Cameron Brown, 53, was found guilty in May of first-degree murder in the death of Lauren Sarene Key. A former airport baggage handler, Brown was accused of killing his daughter in order to avoid paying child support.
His sentencing marked the end of a lengthy prosecution. In two earlier trials, juries deadlocked over whether Brown intentionally threw his daughter or whether her fall was a tragic accident.
In a third trial, the prosecution described Brown as a coldhearted, vindictive man who never wanted the child and killed her to avoid paying child support and to hurt her mother.
But Brown's attorney argued that his client cared for his daughter and that the girl had been playing near the cliff's edge when she slipped and fell to her death.
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Brown's first trial ended in 2006, with two jurors voting to convict him of first-degree murder, eight voting for second-degree murder and two favoring manslaughter. In 2009, a jury split evenly between second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
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