Jurors deadlocked Monday in the retrial of a man accused of murdering his 4-year-old daughter, who plunged to her death from a 120-foot cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes nearly nine years ago.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury was evenly split, with the jury's foreman telling Judge Michael Pastor that six voted in favor of convicting Cameron John Brown of second-degree murder and the other six for involuntary manslaughter.
Finding that the jury was hopelessly deadlocked, the judge declared a mistrial and ordered both sides to return to the downtown courthouse on Oct. 29.
It was the second panel to hear the case against the 47-year-old former airport baggage handler, who is charged in the Nov. 8, 2000, death of his daughter, Lauren Sarene Key, off Inspiration Point.
Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum told jurors that Brown threw a daughter he never wanted off the cliff to avoid paying child support, while Brown's attorney asserted that the girl slipped and fell to her death.
The first jury to hear the case deadlocked on Aug. 14, 2006, in Torrance Superior Court, with eight jurors favoring a second-degree murder conviction and two each lobbying for first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Outside court, defense attorney Pat Harris said the prosecution's theory that Brown threw his daughter off the cliff has been "shot down" by two juries.
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"We'll be asking that they drop the case," Brown's lawyer told reporters, adding that it's "hard to believe they would try and re-prosecute this young man again."
The jury's foreman, Mark Dreskin, told reporters there was "a lot of disappointment that we came so far, but just weren't able to present the court with a verdict."
He said the primary issue was a "question of intent," and noted there was one juror who felt first-degree murder was a consideration.
Hum did not comment following the jury's deadlock.
The announcement came just a few hours after the judge scolded jurors for considering a dictionary definition of the word "malice" from the Internet -- which was brought in by one of the jurors -- during their deliberations.
The judge told the panel that "there was misconduct in this case," but he ordered deliberations to resume.
After the jury's foreman sent a note indicating the panel unanimously felt that further deliberations would not change their "non-unanimous" decision, the judge questioned jurors individually about whether any further deliberations or assistance from the court would be of help.
All of the panelists said they were hopelessly deadlocked.
Jurors initially got the case against Brown late Sept. 15, but were ordered to begin their deliberations anew Sept. 23 after an alternate juror replaced a juror had an upcoming surgery.
Jury deliberations have been off-and-on since then, with jurors initially indicating on Sept. 25 that they were deadlocked.
The judge instructed the jurors then to return to court to resume deliberations and consider whether there was anything else the court could do.
The murder charge against Brown includes the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait, which could make him eligible for a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole if convicted.
