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| Thursday, Sep 27 2007 10:24 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Sep 27 2007 10:22 PM
Vincent Brothers' only living child told him Thursday he is no longer her father just before a judge told Brothers he deserves to die for killing his three small children, his wife and mother-in-law.
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Photos:
Overall of the courtroom right before Vincent Brothers, center, is sentenced to death for the murder of five family members.
Prosecutor Lisa Green hugs several in the courtroom hallway before entering the court to hear the sentencing for Vincent Brothers in September. Joanie Harper's close friend Michelle Baptiste, is at right.
Friends and family members in court Thursday were emotional as family members spoke before the judge handed down the death sentence for Vincent Brothers.
Margaret Brothers, center, leaves the courtroom after Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush sentenced her son, convicted murderer Vincent Brothers to death Thursday.
Margaret Kern-Brothers, Vincent's only living child, is hugged by her mother Shann Kern before talking to the media on sixth floor of the Kern County Superior Court.
Vincent Brothers received the death penalty Thursday in Bakersfield for the killing of five family members.
An unidentified women hugs Eddie Harper after he leaves the courtroom after Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush sentenced convicted murderer Vincent Brothers to death Thursday.
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In a tearful and heart-wrenching speech, Margaret Kern told her father she was giving him back his name and resigning as his daughter for his killing of her stepmother, Joanie Harper,; her three young siblings, Marques, Lyndsey and Marshall; and the only woman she saw as a grandmother, Earnestine Harper.
The 18-year-old college freshman stood before her father in a black-and-white polka-dot dress and told the court, "He is no longer my father. He is a man handcuffed to a chair, looking straight ahead."
He did not look her way as she explained the pain of losing her siblings.
"I just think of (Lyndsey) and how cute and small she was and how funny she was," Margaret Kern said. "Now she would be so old. She would be 7 or 6 ... Nine is the best age and I just get so angry at my father sometimes because (Marques) never got to see that."
The deaths of her siblings in July 2003 frightened her.
"I was scared thinking I don't know what happened," Margaret Kern said. "Maybe he would come after me. Maybe he would come after my mom."
The loss overwhelmed her during the Christmas after the killings.
"I tried to kill myself," Margaret Kern told the court. "I was in the hospital for three days and ... my mother told me 'Don't let him dictate what your life is going to be. You can't be one more child that he killed.'"
Brothers looked away from her as five deputies stood guard behind him. Immediately after the hearing, he was shipped to San Quentin State Prison where he will await his fate.
Defense plea
Before the judge sentenced Brothers to death, Brothers' attorney Michael Gardina made an impassioned plea to the court to "do the right thing" and give Brothers a new trial.
"The conviction of Vincent Brothers cannot stand and will not stand," Gardina told the judge. "The question is do we bite the bullet now ... it is guaranteed to be the next chapter of 'Mean Justice.'"
The defense attorney was referring to a book that accused the Kern County District Attorney's office of winning cases at any cost.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush quickly squashed the suggestion that Brothers receive a new trial or that his sentence be reduced.
"The murders were cold, calculated and vicious," Bush said. "There is no lingering doubt."
Four women who served on the jury sat quietly in the audience as the sentence was pronounced.
In the defense motion for a new trial, Gardina blasted the prosecutor for what he believed were unwarranted attacks on witnesses and other areas of what he termed misconduct.
But Bush told Gardina that Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green did not overstep the bounds, noting, "Ms. Green was passionate in her prosecution." But Bush insisted Green did not commit misconduct.
After the hearing, Bush served Gardina with paperwork stating his belief that Gardina and his co-counsel, Anthony Bryan, may be guilty of contempt of court for their own misbehavior during the trial.
Gardina and Bryan left the courtroom without comment. Brothers' family did not speak on his behalf during the hearing.
'The question now is why'
Those close to the victims seemed caught between the closure they sought and the pain and questions that linger.
Three of Earnestine Harper's four remaining children told the judge during the sentencing hearing that they miss the family members Brothers killed, but they look forward to being reunited with them in heaven.
Earnestine Harper's son Eddie L. Harper Sr. hinted to the judge that the sentencing may not offer complete closure.
"The question now is why," Eddie Harper told the court. "While we don't know why it happened we thank God we know who."
Eddie Harper said he has hope that one day all his questions will be answered.
"There is another judge that we are all going to stand before," Eddie Harper said. "All secrets will be revealed."
As Bush announced that Brothers would be sentenced to death, Brothers stared in front of him. His mother sat stony-faced in the packed audience.
Green said little during the hearing, but reiterated her belief that Brothers should face death saying "There is nothing, nothing in this defendant's past that would stand in the way of this man being sentenced to death."
Bush said Brothers had "ample opportunity to change his mind" as he drove across country.
Earnestine Harper's oldest child, Linda Piggee, was the first to speak. Her brother stood behind her with his hand pressed against her back as she tried to express her grief through heavy tears.
"I'm still having problems with it," Piggee told the judge. "She brought us up doing the right thing. Now I can't talk to her. I can't touch her."
She told the judge of the good times.
"My mother and sister, they would get so happy when we would come to visit. They would say, 'Linda, I'm so happy to see you.'"
As she walked away from the podium, she continued to sob, saying "mother, mother, I love my mother and sister."
Earnestine Harper's other daughter, Elain Byrd, also raised lingering questions.
"I will never know why these choices were made to destroy my family, but I am a Christian and my choice is to forgive so I can go on," she said.
She said her family will reunite.
"Mama and Joanie could sing," Byrd said. "We all sing, matter of fact, and when we get together, oh my goodness. But now we don't have that any more. But praise God, because of our faith we will sing again with Mama and Joanie and the children."
Brothers' future
Brothers arrived at San Quentin State Prison -- where all prisoners facing the death sentence in California are held -- at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Thornton said there are 22 prisoners from Kern County in San Quentin and about 660 from throughout the state.
She said new inmates are housed in higher security housing until guards can establish that the prisoner is not a threat to himself or anyone else.
University of Southern California professor Michael Brennan, an expert on the death penalty, said people who face the death sentence in this state typically spend 15 to 20 years on death row before they exhaust their numerous appeals.
California now has a moratorium on the death penalty because an appeals court judge ruled it is cruel and unusual punishment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up this issue as well, but Brennan said it could be a year before this issue is resolved.
But the state and federal government will decide the issue before Brothers could ever exhaust his appeals, the professor said.
Green said she will attend if Brothers is executed. Margaret Kern said she would, too.
Before Margaret Kern was finished speaking with her father, she told him to take a good look at her face.
"He will never see me again until it is time for him to die," she said.
But, she said, "Maybe in time I will be able to forgive him."