As the word “guilty” rang out in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, Sheriff’s Det. Jeffrey Leslie turned toward a woman seated behind him in the audience.

It was a moment the two had awaited for 15 years since 4-year-old Lauren Sarene Key had fallen to her death from a Rancho Palos Verdes cliff.

Leslie’s eyes brimmed with tears as he watched Lauren’s mother, Sarah Key-Marer, gasp and sob with her head tilted up toward the ceiling, tears spilling down her cheeks.

Jurors on Wednesday found the girl’s father, Cameron Brown, 53, guilty of first-degree murder in his daughter’s death. Brown, a former airport baggage handler, was accused of deliberately throwing the girl from the cliff to avoid paying child support.

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