Vincent Brothers

Brothers first gained national attention after the July 6, 2003, deaths of his wife, Joanie (née Harper), his sons, Marques (four) and Marshall (six weeks), his daughter, Lyndsey (two), and his mother-in-law, Earnestine Harper. Earnestine (70) was a mother of five children and was a division one basketball official. Vincent and Joanie married in 2000 but had the marriage annulled in September 2001 Joanie, her mother and the children were last seen at church on July 6, 2003, and their bodies were discovered shot to death on Tuesday, July 8 Brothers had turned himself in to authorities in North Carolina where he was visiting his mother, but was released after a few hours due to lack of evidence at that time. Brothers returned to Los Angeles on July 11, 2003. He did not attend the memorial service for his wife, children, and mother-in-law, but attended their funeral on Wednesday, July 16. Although considered the only suspect from the beginning, he was not arrested until April 2004. ==Trial==

During the trial in 2007, the "biggest criminal trial in Bakersfield in decades", prosecutors emphasized Brothers' past marriage difficulties. Joanie Harper previously divorced him in 2000, but the couple remarried in Las Vegas in 2003. Brothers was also known to have extramarital affairs, and further compromised his case by lying while on the witness stand. According to Lisa Green, a Kern County deputy district attorney, Brothers killed his family because they were a financial burden and he lied on the stand 41 or more times. On May 15, 2007, Brothers was convicted of the first-degree murders of his five family members after jurors heard testimony from 137 witnesses. Brothers is believed to have used a .22-caliber gun and "a stabbing weapon". His conviction carried the special circumstance of multiple murder. On May 29, 2007, the jury returned a sentence of death. According to sheriff's department spokesman Sgt. Ed Komin, detention deputies found that Brothers had hid handmade handcuff keys in his hair and had placed his leg restraints on one leg, which rendered them ineffective. He was returned to Lerdo Jail under additional security measures. ==Sentence==

On September 27, 2007, the Superior Court Judge Michael Bush sentenced Brothers to death based upon the jury's verdict and ordered Brothers to pay restitution. He was later placed into the custody of the California Department of Corrections and placed on death row at San Quentin State Prison. ==Relationship history==

Brothers had been married four times, was briefly incarcerated for spousal abuse, and has a surviving daughter, Margaret Kern Brothers, ==Wrongful death settlement==

Harper family members received an undisclosed amount in a wrongful death suit to recoup the costs of funeral expenses and ensure that any monies of King Ross Brothers went to the only surviving child of Vincent Brothers and Joanie's stepdaughter. Margaret Kern Brothers disowned her father and changed her surname following the mass murder. ==See also==