Convicted murderer Christopher Lees appeal is denied …

RIVERSIDE The California Court of Appeal has denied the appeal of Christopher Lee, a former Twentynine Palms Marine who was convicted of first-degree murder for killing his ex-girlfriend, Erin Corwin.

Lee was found guilty in a San Bernardino County courthouse in October 2016 after confessing to the 2014 murder on the stand. Investigators said Lee killed Corwin, who was 19, on June 28, 2014, and left her body in a mine shaft, where it was found Aug. 16, 2014. A garrote made of rebar and rope was still dangling from her neck when her body was found.

Lee, now 28, was Corwins neighbor when he was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms. Corwins husband, Jonathan, was also a Marine at the combat center and the families were friends until their affair was discovered in April 2014.

Corwin also discovered that she was pregnant in April of 2014.

Lee was arrested in Alaska, his home state, where he and his wife, Nicole, had returned after he left the Marine Corps. During the initial trial he confessed to the murder but said he did it because Corwin admitted to him that she had molested his young daughter.

(Another neighbor) and Erin sometimes watched Lee and N.s daughter for them, the court of appeals noted in its ruling. No one ever raised a concern about Erins interaction with the child.

Lees attorney, Richard De La Slota, claimed that because Lee thought Corwin had molested his daughter, the murder was not premeditated and was done in the heat of the moment. Slota also claimed that the judge did not properly explain to the jury that this distinction could be made in the initial trial.

He claims that the instructions are confusing, misleading and incomplete, the court noted.

Lee argued that the judges inaccurate and misleading instructions affected his rights, so his first-degree murder conviction should be overturned.

If jurors believed Lee killed Corwin in the heat of passion, without planning, and understood the judges instructions correctly, they could have found him guilty of a lesser charge.

The court of appeals, however, found that the judge did clearly state this point to the jury and that the jury accepted this information by not asking for any more clarification.

Lees appeal was denied and he will continue to serve his sentence for first-degree murder a sentence of life in prison.

He claims that had the jury been more fully instructed it could have found that he did not premeditate and deliberate the killing and convicted him of second degree murder, rather than first degree murder, the court of appeal judgment reads. We disagree and affirm the judgment.

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