thedrifter
02-20-09, 03:53 PM
Friday, February 20, 2009
Mother at murder sentencing: Remember family's pain
2 men sentenced in killing that followed 'Army vs. Marines' bar argument.
By LARRY WELBORN
The Orange County Register
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SANTA ANA A grieving woman stood up in court Friday and asked a judge, "How can a mother be asked to bury her son?"
Erin White, whose son Brandon Alexander White, 21, was stabbed to death on Jan. 1, 2007, when a bar argument over which was the better branch of service – the Army or the Marines – escalated into a parking lot brawl, said she misses her son every day.
"I miss his beautiful red hair, his deep infectious laugh, his gorgeous smile and his wonderful voice," she said during her victim-impact statement at the sentencing hearing for Lorne Paul Kelley, 28, of Big Bear, and Ricky Lee Nelson, 29, of Hesperia, who were convicted of murdering her son.
"I hope that the defendants remember every day the pain they have caused our family (and) the pain they have caused their family," Erin White told Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel. "A kind of pain there is no cure for and no relief from."
She asked for the maximum penalty.
Moments later, while friends and relatives of Kelley and Nelson wept in the courtroom gallery, Fasel handed down harsh prison terms.
Kelley, who has a prior felony strike, was sentenced to 71 years to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Brandon White, who had been a bouncer at the Time Out Tavern in Aliso Viejo, and the attempted murder of fellow bouncer Stephen Cirillo, 21.
Witnesses testified that Kelley stashed White in the neck during the parking lot brawl after the argument inside the popular bar spilled over into the parking lot.
Nelson, who had formerly been in the Army and who ignited the argument when he made disparaging remarks inside the tavern about Marines, got 31-years to life in prison. Several of the bouncers and patrons at the Time Out Tavern were active or former Marines.
Witnesses said that Nelson later agitated for a fight with bouncers in the parking lot after he was told to leave the bar.
Nearly 50 relatives and friends of White and Cirillo watched the verdicts from the courtroom gallery, including many who wore black t-shirts that read "In loving memory…Brandon "Whitey" White."
Contact the writer: lwelborn@oregister.com or (714) 834-3784
Ellie
Mother at murder sentencing: Remember family's pain
2 men sentenced in killing that followed 'Army vs. Marines' bar argument.
By LARRY WELBORN
The Orange County Register
Comments | Recommend
SANTA ANA A grieving woman stood up in court Friday and asked a judge, "How can a mother be asked to bury her son?"
Erin White, whose son Brandon Alexander White, 21, was stabbed to death on Jan. 1, 2007, when a bar argument over which was the better branch of service – the Army or the Marines – escalated into a parking lot brawl, said she misses her son every day.
"I miss his beautiful red hair, his deep infectious laugh, his gorgeous smile and his wonderful voice," she said during her victim-impact statement at the sentencing hearing for Lorne Paul Kelley, 28, of Big Bear, and Ricky Lee Nelson, 29, of Hesperia, who were convicted of murdering her son.
"I hope that the defendants remember every day the pain they have caused our family (and) the pain they have caused their family," Erin White told Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel. "A kind of pain there is no cure for and no relief from."
She asked for the maximum penalty.
Moments later, while friends and relatives of Kelley and Nelson wept in the courtroom gallery, Fasel handed down harsh prison terms.
Kelley, who has a prior felony strike, was sentenced to 71 years to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Brandon White, who had been a bouncer at the Time Out Tavern in Aliso Viejo, and the attempted murder of fellow bouncer Stephen Cirillo, 21.
Witnesses testified that Kelley stashed White in the neck during the parking lot brawl after the argument inside the popular bar spilled over into the parking lot.
Nelson, who had formerly been in the Army and who ignited the argument when he made disparaging remarks inside the tavern about Marines, got 31-years to life in prison. Several of the bouncers and patrons at the Time Out Tavern were active or former Marines.
Witnesses said that Nelson later agitated for a fight with bouncers in the parking lot after he was told to leave the bar.
Nearly 50 relatives and friends of White and Cirillo watched the verdicts from the courtroom gallery, including many who wore black t-shirts that read "In loving memory…Brandon "Whitey" White."
Contact the writer: lwelborn@oregister.com or (714) 834-3784
Ellie