Lancaster man sentenced to life in mother-daughter slayings
A Lancaster man will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his live-in girlfriend and her adult daughter, whom the mother had just met after abandoning her as a baby, a judge ruled this week.
Christopher Anthony Brown, 44, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge after he was convicted last month of two counts of murder and using a handgun in the killings.
During the 2006 Thanksgiving Day weekend, Crystal Dawkins, 18, arrived in Southern California from South Carolina to meet her mother, Christine Bacon, 41, for the first time. Bacon had abandoned Dawkins as a baby and the girl grew up with her biological father, prosecutors said.
During the visit, prosecutors said, Bacon and Brown got into a days-long argument that left Brown thinking they were going to break up and that Bacon would try to keep the home they shared.
The argument ended with Brown shooting the reunited mother and daughter to death. Their bodies were found in the apartment nearly a month later when Dawkins’ family in South Carolina flew to Southern California to find her.
Twitter: @josephserna
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