John Jefferson
Van Henry Brisbon and Lauren Juma (Harris County District Attorney’s Office).
A Texas man was sentenced Thursday to an automatic punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his then-girlfriend’s teenage daughter after a rape attempt.
Van Henry Brisbon, 62, will never see freedom after killing Lauren Juma, 16.
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At the time of the murder in late April 2022, the teenager’s mother voiced shock and anger.
“He treated Lauren like she was his baby,” Lauren’s mother, Laurie Young, said, according to CBS affiliate KHOU. “I don’t understand. He can rot in jail. He had no reason to take my baby’s life.”
Brisbon began acting strangely the night of the crime, worrying young Lauren so much that she FaceTimed her mother and sister from their home in the Houston-area city of Humble. The mother, who was out of town for work, had the teenager’s older sister show up to the home.”She just wanted to get away, that’s all she wanted,” Keryca Harmon, Lauren’s sister, said in 2022, according to KHOU.
“She just said he was being really weird and wanted me to pick her up.”
She showed up, but it turned out that Brisbon was using a gun to hold Lauren against her will. Harris County deputies arrived but heard gunshots coming from inside the home, according to the prosecution’s new press statement.
Brisbon stepped outside.
“Do what you have to do,” he reportedly told the arresting deputies.
Lauren was inside, dead from the 9mm handgun. Investigators found evidence that Brisbon had tried to rape her.
Jurors convicted the defendant of capital murder after a 9-day trial.
“Our jury heard bodycam recordings of the victim’s screams, cries for help and then gunshots, which were not easy to listen to,” said Assistant District Attorney Katie Warren, who prosecuted the case with ADA Gina Gilmore. “We are thankful to the jurors for their service and their verdict because they were able to do what needed to be done: They gave this victim and her family justice.”
“This defendant was a predator with a gun, and his choice to hurt a young girl and take her life was senseless and horrific,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “He not only took a promising young woman’s life, his actions have destroyed a family.”
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