Day Nine - Christopher Brandon Lee Confesses To Murdering Erin Corwin

Erin Corwin/Facebook

Sorry it took me so long to write and post this. I'm battling a Migraine that came on during Christopher Lee's chilling and horrifying testimony. Yes, the defendant's words literally made me ill. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

It's not exactly common for the defendant to testify on his own behalf in a murder trial. So I was shocked when defense attorney David Kaloyanides called Christopher Brandon Lee as his first witness. A fellow courtroom reporter mused it must be to make Lee seem more human for the jury, and I agreed. Boy, were we wrong.

Kaloyanides started with questions of Lee that allowed him to wax poetic on his idyllic childhood in Alaska. Lee said was fond of thing most kids like to do, like play with throwing stars and swords (???). Anyway, soon the questioning moved on to his relationship with Erin. Some key points:

• Lee admitted he and Erin had a sexual relationship.
• Lee admitted Erin told him she was pregnant, and that she was upset because she didn't know if Lee or husband Jon Corwin was the father.
• Lee said he was in love with Erin Corwin, and admitted it was he who wrote the love note that prosecutor Sean Daugherty showed the jury the day before. Lee said he gave it to Erin after Nichole had discovered the affair by looking at the texts he wrote to Erin. 

Then Kaloyanides asked Lee about the day Erin disappeared: June 28, 2014:

• Lee admitted he picked up Erin at the spot where her car was found off base in Twentynine Palms
• Lee claimed he was planning to build a tire fire in a remote mine, but didn't tell Erin this little nugget. Instead Lee testified he told Erin he was taking her out "for a surprise" while on a hunting trip.
• Lee testified he threw down the mine shaft the propane tank, the tires, the water jugs filled with gasoline, and the torch made of his t-shirt and a stick, all to start a mine fire. While doing this, Erin was supposedly just sitting in his Jeep, listening to music.
• Lee said was so upset he could not start the mine tire fire that he decided to play Russian Roulette in his jeep. This upset Erin, said Lee, so she walked away into an adjacent mine shaft.
• Lee testified was unable to kill himself with the gun, so he called Erin to come back out of the mine shaft. 

This is where things get dicey. Writing down the excuse Lee gave for murdering Erin - putting down it in black and white - somehow feels like I am giving it legitimacy. I AM NOT. It is such a ludicrous assertion that I believe it will turn any juror against Lee who wasn't already convinced he is a soulless, cruel, lying, cold-blooded murderer.

Lee testified that out in the desert, after his unsuccessful game of Russian Roulette, Erin admitted to him that she had molested his daughter, Liberty. (Lee testified earlier that Nichole saw "suspicious" irritation on Liberty's genitals, and automatically assumed she was molested, and by Erin Corwin, although neither parent called law enforcement or a pediatrician - in fact, both parents continued to let Erin babysit Liberty.)

Lee testified that a "red hot knife went through his heart" upon hearing Erin's "confession" and he lost it. As luck would have it, he just happened to have a garrote in his hand when Erin "confessed" and he got so angry he strangled Erin to death, then dumped her body down the mine shaft.

Lee was calm during his testimony. He looked scared. He appeared to try and express some true emotion, even making crying sounds at one point. But there were no tears, and no tissues were used. His vocal affect was flat, and much of what he said sounded rehearsed to me. We heard him used that same flat, vocal affect during the videotaped interrogation with Det. Hanke, when everything he said was a lie. But now, because he's under oath, he is somehow supposed to be believable?

After this revolting testimony, the court took a lunch break. I'll write about what happened after the lunch break in the next post...

Day Three - The Prosecution's Case Continues

The first witness today was Joseph Hollifield, the civilian friend of defendant Christopher Lee who took the photographs that ended up being critical in the discovery of Erin Corwin's body. On June 22, 2014, less than a week before Erin disappeared, Lee and Hollifield went out to the same remote mining district that was home to Mine #108 - where searchers found Erin's body in August.

Hollifield dressed in baggy jeans and a brown t-shirt for his court appearance. He admitted when asked by Deputy District Attorney Sean Daugherty that he still considered Chris Lee - and wife Nichole Lee - to be good friends. Key point in his testimony was how Hollifield denied knowing Lee planned to visit the same mining area the week after their June 22nd trip. Daugherty even confronted Hollifield with the undeniable fact he had texted Lee on the day Erin disappeared with the question, "How are the mines?" Hollifield said he didn't know if Lee planned to visit the mines or not. It was just a random text.

Right.

Jon and Erin Corwin/Facebook

The next two witnesses were the San Bernardino Sheriff's deputies who questioned Chris Lee the day after Erin went missing. Both Dep. Danny Millan and Dep. Cathy Tabor described how at first Lee denied knowing Erin as anything more than an acquaintance. Later in in the parking lot of a Vons supermarket, Lee admitted he had a romantic relationship with Erin that involved kissing but not sex. That conversation was tape recorded and played in open court. It was difficult to understand much of what was being said, but one thing that was audible to me was when Chris Lee said with very little emotion that Erin was "a pathological liar." My jaw dropped when I heard that. Both Millan and Tabor reminded Lee many times that he was the one who had lied to them the very first time they interviewed him.

The final two witnesses were involved in the discovery and recovery of Erin's body in the mine shaft. They were Cpl. Robert Whiteside, the program coordinator of the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department's Search and Rescue Unit; and Brenton Baum, an Engineer Paramedic for San Bernardino County.

This was the toughest part of the trial so far, because it involved playing video that showed Erin Corwin's body at the bottom of the mine shaft. I won't go into detail. I will say that from my vantage point in the courtroom, it appeared the defendant never took his eyes off the screen. By his own admission, he was romantically involved with Erin at one point. It was horrifying for pretty much everyone in the courtroom to see what had happened to Erin - but not to the man who once kissed and held her. I suppose a guilty man does not know how an innocent man acts.