'I Heard My Son Die:' 2 Sentenced for Killing Man on Phone with His Mom

Two men -- at least one of whom apparently posed as a police officer -- were sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting death of a man at his Sherman Oaks apartment during an attempted robbery while he was talking on the telephone with his mother.

Family members of 31-year-old Brian Caufield had called on Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta to impose the maximum sentence on Kenyon Aikens, 31, and Daryl Sconiers Jr., 32, convicted in January 2014 of first-degree murder, attempted robbery and first-degree burglary with a person present.

Jurors found true the special circumstance allegations of murder during a first-degree burglary and murder during an attempted robbery.

Prosecutors had opted earlier not to seek the death penalty against Aikens and Sconiers, so life behind bars without the chance of parole was the longest term they could each face.

“I heard my son die! I heard my son screaming out to me while Kenyon and Daryl carried out their calculated plan to rob and murder my son. I heard everything you said,” the victim’s mother, Kathy Caufield, told the two defendants. “I heard the three shots that you fired that ended my son’s life and all of his dreams. Your voice and those three shots are forever burned into my memory.”

She noted that a mother hears her child’s cries when the child is born and is “not supposed to hear my son’s last cries before he was shot dead and silenced by the two of you.”

The victim’s sister, Ashley Collins-Hann, said in a videotaped statement played in court that her brother -- whom she called her best friend -- had headed to Los Angeles in an effort to become a music producer.

She said the family flew to Los Angeles in silence and went to her brother’s apartment, where she saw her brother’s body brought down in a body bag and taken to a county coroner’s van.

Authorities believe the two men went to the victim’s apartment on March 26, 2009, to rob him of marijuana and any cash that he had. At least one of the men apparently posed as a police officer, and one of the victim’s hands was handcuffed and both of his roommate’s hands were handcuffed, according to Deputy District Attorney Philip Marshall.

The judge noted that a fake law enforcement badge was found at the crime scene.

Ohta -- who offered his condolences to the victim’s relatives after they spoke -- denied requests by the defendants for a new trial, rejecting their claims that there was insufficient evidence to support their convictions.

A third man was tried earlier and acquitted of charges stemming from Caufield’s killing.

City News Service