Third Trial Underway for Dad Accused of Throwing Daughter Off Cliff to Avoid Child Support

About five dozen prospective jurors were asked today to fill out questionnaires as a third trial got under way for a former airport baggage handler charged with killing his 4-year-old daughter, who plunged to her death from a 120-foot cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes nearly 15 years ago.

Cameron John Brown, 53, is charged with murder in the Nov. 8, 2000, death of his daughter, Lauren Sarene Key, off the isolated tip of Inspiration Point.

Brown faces a potential life prison sentence without the possibility of parole if he is convicted of first-degree murder and jurors find true the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait.

The first jury to hear the case deadlocked in August 2006 at the Torrance courthouse, with eight panelists favoring a second-degree murder conviction and two each lobbying for first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

The case was subsequently moved to the downtown Los Angeles criminal courthouse, where jurors deadlocked in Brown’s second trial in October 2009. The jury foreman said six jurors voted in favor of convicting Brown of second- degree murder, while the other six favored involuntary manslaughter.

The judge gave jurors a brief synopsis of the case before asking them to fill out a questionnaire with 20 questions, including whether:

-- they have heard or seen anything about the case in the news or online;

-- they are familiar with Inspiration Point and other Rancho Palos Verdes landmarks;

-- they or anyone close to them goes hiking with young children; and

-- they or anyone close to them has ever had a dispute regarding child support.

The potential panelists were also asked whether they had a fear of heights or any physical disabilities that would make them unable to view the scene in light of a planned jury field trip to Inspiration Point.

Another group of prospective jurors is due in court Thursday to fill out questionnaires.

Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum and defense attorney Aron Laub are expected to begin questioning potential panelists on Monday after reviewing the questionnaires.

During Brown’s second trial, the prosecutor argued that the defendant threw a daughter he never wanted off the cliff to avoid paying $1,000 a month in child support -- which he had recently been order to begin paying -- and to retaliate against the girl’s mother, who became pregnant soon after they began dating and refused to give up the child.

“There was no relationship (between Brown and his daughter), and that’s how the defendant could do this,” the prosecutor told jurors in the second trial.

The defense has long asserted that the girl slipped and fell to her death.

Attorney Pat Harris, who represented Brown in his second trial, told jurors that his client was a “warm, loving father” who “loved her very much.”

Brown has been jailed without bail since his Nov. 16, 2003, arrest.

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Third Trial Underway for Dad Accused of Throwing Daughter Off Cliff to Avoid Child Support

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