It was a horror story no child should have to go through and no parent should have to live through.
Brodie Aschenbrenner, a young boy only two years old, would bruise mysteriously, according to his mother, Arica Foster. She first started to notice this mysterious bruising in April 2011, specifically after he was left with her boyfriend at the time, Michael Alan Lee, 29, according to prosecutors. Two-year-old Brodie was dead within two months. The cause of death was as a result of severe injuries to his head and body — blunt force abdominal injuries, according to the Clark County coroner’s office, and “acute mild traumatic brain injury due to a blunt force injury of the head.”
A Clark County, Nevada jury took less than two hours to find Lee guilty of first-degree murder and child abuse with substantial bodily harm. District Court Judge Stefany Miley sentenced Lee to life in prison without parole. Lee was out of prison when he murdered Brodie — on parole for a 2004 conviction for a number of robberies, which included 11 banks, restaurants, and other businesses; he was always armed with a weapon, and drugs played a factor in the crimes.
After his conviction and Miley’s sentencing, Lee filed an appeal to the State Supreme Court of Nevada. The supreme court reversed the conviction based on jury instructions, and Lee was tried again for the crime. Once again, a second jury and judge affirmed the earlier result when they found Lee guilty of the same charges. The presiding judge gave Lee a life sentence without parole — the same as Miley’s sentence years previously.