SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A Marine vet 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 on Tuesday in the killing of 19-year-old Erin .
Earlier this month was found guilty of murder and the jury found true a sentencing enhancement that the killing involved lying in wait.
body was found in an abandoned mineshaft outside of Twentynine Palms on Aug. 16, 2014.
had pleaded not guilty but at trial he said he strangled in a fit of anger and threw her body down the 140-foot-deep mineshaft.
testified that he was angry because he suspected had molested a family member.