Ex-Marine gets prison in murder of fellow Marine’s wife
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — A former Marine who killed another serviceman’s wife in the Mojave Desert while they were having an affair has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
A San Bernardino County judge sentenced 27-year-old Christopher Brandon Lee on Tuesday in the killing of 19-year-old Erin Corwin.
Earlier this month Lee was found guilty of murder and the jury found true a sentencing enhancement that the killing involved lying in wait.
Corwin’s body was found in an abandoned mineshaft outside of Twentynine Palms on Aug. 16, 2014.
Lee had pleaded not guilty but at trial he said he strangled Corwin in a fit of anger and threw her body down the 140-foot-deep mineshaft.
Lee testified that he was angry because he suspected Corwin had molested a family member.