FINALLY JUSTICE FOR KARLA BRADA!
Clarita Valley man found guilty in murder of girlfriend
September 18 2014 Jim Holt
A Santa Clarita Valley man whose girlfriend was found dead in their shared condominium in Saugus three years ago was found guilty of first-degree murder today, a San Fernando Superior Court jury found.
Eric Earle, whose defense included a claim that his girlfriend, Karla Brada, was on drugs and fell down the stairs the night of Aug. 31, 2011, was found guilty of her murder after a trial that took about a week.
The jury passed a note to the judge at 11:40 a.m. saying it had reached a verdict after a little more than two hours of deliberation.
Saugus Man Convicted of Girlfriend’s Murder
Uploaded: 6:50 pm, Thursday, Sep 18, 2014
[District Attorney] – A 43-year-old Saugus man with a history of domestic violence was found guilty Thursday of murdering his girlfriend, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.
The jury deliberated for about two hours before finding Eric Allen Earle (dob 5/27/71) guilty of killing his 31-year-old girlfriend, Karla Brada, two days before her birthday.
Sentencing for case PA072411 has been scheduled for Oct. 27 in Department N of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, San Fernando Branch.
Earle faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison.
On Sept. 1, 2011, the victim was found dead inside her condo, which she shared with Earle. Evidence presented at trial showed she was asphyxiated after being beaten by the defendant during a violent argument.
Earle had assaulted the victim on prior occasions and had also beaten his ex-wife, according to trial testimony.
The assigned prosecutor is Deputy District Attorney Elena Abramson.
The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
From a previous KHTS story:
In the opening statements, Deputy District Attorney Elena Abramson described Earle as an abusive, controlling boyfriend who beat his girlfriend in an argument ending with Brada’s death Sept. 1, 2011.
Earle’s attorney, David Arredondo, said the pair engaged in their “bad conduct” – methadone, amphetamines and alcohol were found in Brada’s system at the time of her death — and Brada’s death was caused by a lethal amount of methadone in her system.
Abramson opened with a picture of Brada, noting the victim would have turned 35 on Sept. 3, the day before jurors were to get their notice for service.
In early 2011, Brada and Earle met in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where both were struggling with alcohol and drug addiction. Within a few months, the two were living together in Brada’s two-bedroom condo in Saugus.
The relationship quickly turned violent, Abramson contended, explaining in her opening remarks how Earle allegedly isolated Brada from her friends, while manipulating her and physically abusing her.
Arredondo declined to say whether Earle would testify on his own behalf during the trial.
He said his client had no reason to kill Brada and that he loved her, Arredondo said.
“Much of the case here will depend upon expert testimony,” Arredondo said, but adding if the justice system relied on experts alone, there would be no need for the jury.
“The conclusion here is death by asphyxiation,” Arredondo said. “The problem here is that, there’s also methadone.”
http://scvnews.com/2014/09/18/saugus-man-convicted-of-girlfriends-murder/
http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/127895/
San Fernando Superior Court jurors considered Earle’s guilt for about two and a half hours before they delivered a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder in the trial of the 43-year-old Saugus man.
Brada, 32, was found dead inside the couple’s Saugus condominium on the morning of Sept. 1, 2011. A medical examiner determined she died of asphyxiation.
Earle, who has been in custody on $1 million bail since his arrest on Jan. 25, 2012, faces a possible sentence of 25 years to life in prison, according to the District Attorney’s office.
Earle was arrested the same day Brada was found not breathing on the couple’s bed. However, deputies released him a few days later, saying they needed additional evidence to present the case to the District Attorney.
Deputies in Lomita re-arrested Earle in January 2012. In May 2012 a judge ruled there was enough evidence to hold him for trial.
Following eight days of testimony, jurors began deliberating at 9:15 a.m. Thursday. At 11:40 a.m., less than two and a half hours later, jurors handed a note to the judge saying they had reached a verdict, the court clerk said.
“We were so excited,” Brada’s mother, Jaroslava Mendez, told The Signal.
“We applauded the prosecutor (Deputy District Attorney Elena Abramson) and the jurors,” she said. “The jury was crying. I couldn’t believe it.”
For more than three years the Brada family has been waiting for the day Earle would be held accountable for taking Karla Brada’s life.
“I am so exhausted,” her mother said.
“I feel relieved. There was constant tension listening to all those lies,” she said, referring to Earle’s claim that Brada suffered her fatal injuries in a fall down the stairs.
“I actually walked out of the courtroom Wednesday because I couldn’t listen to any more,” she said. “We’ve been waiting three years and two weeks for this.”
Jurors herd testimony describing how Brada and Earle met at a Alcoholics Anonymous as each struggled with addiction.
They heard from Brada’s friends how Earle quickly moved to control his new girlfriend’s life and how the “charming man” she had fallen in love with transformed into an aggressive and abusive man when he was drunk.
In her closing address to the jury Wednesday, Abramson said: “He had to hold her neck and a pillow over her face for three to four minutes before she died.”
“Three to four minutes is a long time,” she said, noting “premeditation means you decided to kill before completing the act.”
“When you’re talking three to four minutes of mouth and neck compression, there is plenty of time to think about what you’re doing.”
Brada’s mother said the most painful part of the trial was looking at the battered body of her daughter in poster-sized photographs prepared by prosecutors.
“It was horrible,” she said. “It was the first time I had seen those photos. I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, but it was exceptionally painful.”
Sentencing is set for Oct. 27.
jholt@signalscv.com
661-287-5527
on Twitter @jamesarthurholt
http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/127895/
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I think justice is served by his life sentence. He did it and must suffer the consequences.
That being said, AA cannot be blamed for this. Let’s just say a violent, emotionally disturbed man goes to church because he’s hoping for his life to get better. While attending church, he meets a woman and then ends up killing her.
Is that the church’s fault? After all, don’t churches, just like AA, welcome all who seek spiritual help? And isn’t it imaginable that not everyone inside a church has lived exemplary lives? Does the church issue warnings to all its attendees that at least some of its members may have spotted pasts, emotional and mental issues, and may not always be very nice people? No, they do not.
The fact is, it’s a dangerous world, and we all have accountability for taking reasonable precautions to protect ourselves. Those that would harm us are out there living there lives and coming and going through businesses and institutions where we may encounter them, but those places can’t be expected to protect us from everyone we may come in contact with. It’s ludicrous to blame AA. Face it, Earl is one messed up individual, and he, and he alone, is responsible for Brada’s death, not AA or anyone or anything else…period.
Actually most churches have safety policies in place.Also our courts are not mandating violent felons and 3rd level sex predators to churches, accept indirectly by AA meetings being in many church basements. In that case I think the churches do have liability.
Churches would not let a sex offender be baby sitting children in the churches nursery, in AA that does and can happen.
all the anonymous groups (AA, NA, OA, etc.) have helped hundreds of thousands but the risk of tragedy is almost built in to the preamble ….. allowing people who have dangerous and violent pasts to remain anonymous and intermingle with a largely innocent population (who, while having substance abuse or other addiction issues, are not criminals or people with violent pasts), is the ultimate form of “denial’ …. AA and the 12 steps promote honesty, integrity, and above all, coming to terms with ‘denial’ …. “Denial” is what these anonymous organizations, as a whole, urgently need to address in themselves ….. regarding their sad but true practice of putting their innocent members at risk of harm or worse ………
and how many criminals do you think she associated with buying drugs and drinking at the bars? to demonize a program designed to help people is wrong. Guess what? there are sick people everywhere, not just in AA. This is obviously a tragedy, but AA cannot be held responsible.
I’ve been criticized for my stance on AA. It is amazing to see I am not alone.
After seeing the absolute criminals and disgusting BS my alcoholic father was subjected to(and because of AA sponsored family parties and events, me and MANY other children were also subjected to).
Sadly, Karla is NOT the first woman to be murder by someone they met in AA.
And one of the THOUSANDS victimized by someone they met in AA.
Her family is suing AA and bless them for that!
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
I am watching 48hours. Such a sad story. I hope anyone that goes to these meeting does some research on that group. what happened to Karla could happen to anyone. Man or women.
True. And the staunch defenders, unless it happens to them or a loved one, will not see the need to address safety concerns.
I agree Julie, it is terrible what is happening to women and children at these meetings. Forced mandating to AA meetings needs to stop.
Face it, she wasn’t killed in an AA meeting, she was killed at home. A horrible tragedy, yes, but not AA’s fault. This wasn’t the first time he’d been violent toward her, but she stayed with him nonetheless. AA is no more responsible for that than any other organization that multitudes visit.
I’ve attended literally thousands of AA meetings. I’ve met good and bad people there, just as anywhere else on this planet, and I’ve used my instincts and common sense to distance myself from the one’s I’ve discovered are violent, just as I would if I met a nut case at work or school or church or the library. And when I meet such a messed up person, I don’t blame the place where I met them. Further, I don’t continue to nurture a relationship with someone who’s that messed up. Fool me once, shame on you…fool me twice, shame on me. Again I ask, why didn’t she get the hell away from him the first time he hit her?
No one in AA forces any member to stay at a particular meeting or hang around any other member. One is free to associate or not with whomever they please.
And if she or Earle was ordered by the courts to attend AA, then blame the courts, not AA. AA has no affiliation with the justice system and has absolutely no control over who the courts send to them, nor do they have any information about any member other than what that person chooses to reveal.
Folks who attend AA know it’s an anonymous program. There are no records of who attends or their background. Guess what. There are no records of who attends many public places or the backgrounds of those attending. Yet, we know that there are dangers everywhere. And there are other options for treating drug and alcohol problems.
Let’s say Brada had opted to go to a hospital for treatment rather than AA. Well, my dear, there are scary people in hospitals, too. Any place that deals with a large number of the public regularly is bound to get some bad ones in the mix…common sense. And the hospital has no control, or responsibility, over who patients associate with, especially once outside their doors. If she’d met him there and then chose to shack up with him, would you blame the hospital?
I’m not defending Earl at all. I knew the man. I lived with him for a few months. I found out what a nut job he was, so I got the hell away from him.
Eric Earle is responsible for her death, not AA. He killed her and has been tried and sentenced. I understand you want justice. Well, you’ve got it…he’s in prison. Grow up, this is the real world, and it’s immature and unrealistic, in this case, to blame AA. I’ve seen no one blaming his parents or the courts, and certainly they have more accountability in this than AA. Why? Again, because Eric is responsible, no one else.
Mandated meetings by the court is something the courts came up with, not AA. If you think that’s unsafe for AA’s members, take it up with the courts, because it’s something that AA has no control over.
This is a common argument by AA members that AA does not have anything to do with the people being mandated to AA.
This is just completely and totally false! AA is in bed with the courts completely. Go to AA.org and search courts, and you will see a plethora of literature for prison and court professionals. There is also AA literature teaching AA members how to go to the courts to promote AA. How to go to the jails and even schools to get new blood.
If you have really been in AA, tell the truth and stop spreading stepper propaganda, it wont fly here.
AA does not teach “AA members how to go to the courts to promote AA. How to go to the jails and even schools to get new blood.” People in AA volunteer their time to take meetings to jails and institutions. People in jails and institutions do not HAVE to go to these meetings, they must request it and are screened before they are allowed to attend due to the high numbers of people who wish to go.
What does AA stand to gain from all this “new blood”? It’s not money, since (7th Tradition) “There are no dues or fees. AA is self supporting through our own contributions (which means you don’t HAVE to throw any money into the basket if you don’t want to.) Unless you are court mandated, you don’t HAVE to go to meetings and, even if you are court mandated, you can just sit there, drink the free coffee and eat the free cookies and just ignore what is being said. Happens all the time. But, if one person hears their story being told, they may identify and think “If this person was able to live without having to drink, maybe I can!” That doesn’t guarantee that they’ll stay sober, it just means that, even if they do start drinking again, they will always know that they don’t have to because they saw other people at meetings that were able to stop. Like they say, “There’s nothing worse than a head full of AA and a belly full of beer.” meaning that after a meeting, you can no longer say that you HAVE TO drink, because you know that it is possible to get sober because other have with the help of AA. You can’t say “I can’t afford to go to rehab so I can’t afford to get sober because AA is a free program. With AA, there are no more excuses because there’s a good chance that someone at a meeting had it worse than you did and they got sober so, the only good excuse is that you just didn’t want to get sober. No matter if your family is leaving you, you’ve lost the car, house, job, everything, and you still choose to drink or drug, it’s because you WANT to, not because you HAVE to.
Often, many people bash AA because they, or a loved one, didn’t get sober while attending meetings and they need to blame someone. That’s fine, blame AA, the people, the sponsor, what a bad person Bill W. was beyond his drinking, whatever. The truth is, the program has worked for millions without them becoming brainwashed by a cult. Those that it didn’t work for was because they weren’t willing to change everything about them.
If an alcoholic is also a liar, cheat, thief, or whatever when they drink, they will still be a liar, cheat, thief or whatever when they get sober unless they are willing to work on those character defects too. Alcohol is only a symptom to a larger problem that needs to be worked on.
People say AA is a cult because they say the Lord’s Prayer at meetings. They think they’re being converted by the whole “Higher Power” thing. The point of finding a Higher Power is for the alcoholic to find something greater than themselves because the best that they did was get themselves drunk. I can be a great accountant, mother, wife, whatever but my answer to solving life’s problems is to drink them away. I go to meetings to learn how other people solve their problems without drinking. I model other peoples behaviors until I learn how to solve problems on my own. I have, since I got sober 7 years ago, had to deal with my sister dying of a drug overdose, a horrible breakup of a relationship, and (having started back to college when I was 7 months sober) deal with the stress of undergrad and now grad school without taking a drink. I may go to meetings and complain but, in the end, I listen to others tell me how they have endured life’s difficulties without taking a drink. So far, it’s worked for me.
That relationship was with a chronically relapsing heroin addict who lied and manipulated me until I was crazy! My friends in the program kept telling me to leave him; I chose to stay with him until it nearly made me insane and left me with bad trust issues. It was MY choice to stay with him. I was warned repeatedly and I chose to ignore it every time because “I thought my love would change him”. I know better now but I had to learn on my own to make my own mistakes and not drink over them. No one would have judged me if I relapsed over it but I have learned that alcohol never made a bad problem better. And I learned from people who had gone through the same thing that I didn’t have to drink over it.
Long story long, if AA doesn’t work for you, you might want to see what you’re doing wrong because, since the program has helped millions to stay sober, the problem might be you. Or not. It’s up to you. Like they say, “AA is a simple program for difficult people,” so, suit up, shut up, and listen and stop trying to find fault in the program and think about the fault in you. Or not. It’s all up to you. But, if your life is crap and you have to drink just to get up, get out of bed, and do the things that others do without the help of alcohol, you may have a drinking problem.
http://cougarblogger.com/2014/10/27/aa-harbors-murderers/
Man Gets 25 Years To Life In Prison For Girlfriend’s Murder In 2011
October 27, 2014 3:44 PM
SAN FERNANDO (CBSLA.com) — The family of a woman who was smothered to death in her home watched Monday as her killer was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in prison.
Jurors had found Eric Allen Earle, 43, guilty of first-degree murder last month for the Sept. 1, 2011 asphyxiation death of Karla Brada, according to Deputy District Attorney Elena Abramson.
“Mr. Earle, the jury has spoken and the buck stops here. And you’re done. You’re not going to be able to victimize anybody else as the result of your act, because you will be locked up for the rest of your life,” the judge told him before sentencing him.
Brada, who was killed two days before her 32nd birthday, was found dead inside the condominium unit she shared with Earle.
Earle’s attorney said she had fallen down the stairs, but a medical examiner determined Brada had been smothered to death.
According to trial testimony, Earle had assaulted Brada on other occasions and had also beaten his ex-wife. Prosecutors said Brada had refused to cooperate in a domestic violence case against Earle a month before her death.
Brada’s body was covered in bruises, according to a forensic expert who testified during the trial.
The two met at a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in Canyon Country.
Earle will be eligible to go before a parole board in 25 years, and the judge encouraged Brada’s family to attend that hearing. Brada’s parents may not be able to go, but her sister says she will be there.
“I think I kind of owe it to them. That once they pass, that I’ll be here to be sure that they don’t let him go, they don’t give him any leniency,” Sasha Mendez said.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/10/27/man-gets-26-years-to-life-in-prison-for-girlfriends-murder-in-2011/
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I don’t know how Jaro did it. All the lies about falling down the stairs and thinking of her daughter suffering for 3-4 minutes before finally dying, seeing those enormous photos of her battered daughter for the very first time, just seeing that piece of shit who abused and killed her daughter … I would have tried to lunge at him and strangled him with everything I am.
She deserves justice for her daughter. I am so impressed she did not scream bloody fucking murder every time the defense attorney opened his obvious stepper mouth.
AA is complicit in Karla’s death and they should be sued for millions for harboring this sick fuck criminal. He was mandated FIFTY-TWO times, had a history of extreme abuse with his family, he beat the shit out of Karla a few weeks before he killed her and his AA sponsor talked her out of pressing charges. He controlled everything she did and said and to whom, and was with her wherever she went for four months.
If anyone reading this is saying, “yeah, but the courts mandated him to AA, it’s the state’s fault, not Eric Earles’s!” Or, this could happen anywhere so you can’t blame AA.” Or any other BILLshit excuse, you are dead wrong.
AA brings panels of members into prisons. What this means is that groups of steppers go to prisons with literature (only AA approved of course) and make their ‘pitch’ disguise as the innocent LIE called ‘sharing our experience, strength and hope’ and actively RECRUIT CRIMINALS TO AA.
Women are raped in AA frequently and every time, when they report it to the group they are told to forgive him and to ‘find their part’ in the incident. I am NOT fucking exaggerating.
This is a dangerous cult religion we are talking about here. Without this cult, Karla would not have died in this way.
He should get life without the possibility of parole. He should rot in hell.
AA should be sued for millions (they always have a prudent reserve of at least $10 million dollars) and the media should finally start telling the truth about AA. From the ‘powerless-diseased’ dogma to the attraction of criminals, convicted or otherwise, this is not a safe place for anyone to be, ever. Fucking Scientology is more honest.
Finally, this illegal mandating needs to STOP. It’s sickening.
I totally agree with you counselorchick. Karla Brada’s family is remarkable for there strength through all of this. AA needs to be held responsible for this murder as they create a perfect storm for emotional abuse and physical abuse by it’s members.
I look forward to AA being held accountable.
If you, as a member of an anonymous group like AA, are willing to break your own anonymity by taking a meeting, by request, to a jail or prison, you have to go through a background check (felons cannot visit other felons who are incarcerated). Of course you have to bring AA literature, since you are representing AA. Otherwise, imagine what could be discussed if it were not an open meeting of AA but an open meeting, free to discuss anything! You go there to talk about your Experience with the disease of alcohol (all the bad things that happened to you when you were drinking, what happened when you hit bottom, and what brought you to AA) Strength (people who, faced with the negative consequences of drinking don’t feel strong. They feel weak, so people share how they got sober and staid that way), and Hope (that anyone can get and stay sober too).
The court had him go to meetings, her sponsor “talked her out of pressing charges” which I can’t believe but, if he did, why didn’t she tell him where to go? It was her choice to listen to him! “We are not doctors” the Big Book says, so why would anyone take someone’s advice unless they have the authority to give that advice? At least, that was what I was taught in AA; if I want legal advice, I go to a lawyer. If I want to learn how to stay sober, I go to a member of AA. That’s all they’re capable of helping me with, unless they are also accountants, lawyers, etc. in which case, you hire them to do whatever it is that they do, if you wish to.
“Women are raped in AA frequently and every time, when they report it to the group they are told to forgive him and to ‘find their part’ in the incident. I am NOT fucking exaggerating.”
Where are these statistics? Why would you report something like that to “the group”??? Again, a legal problem. Who would you report it to in a group, anyway? At the meetings I go to, and I go to many different ones, the person who chairs the meeting that night just chooses to chair THAT night. They don’t run the group. As a matter of fact, the only constant for a group is the person who has the key to the church and makes the coffee every week.
I have a lot of friends in the program and we all hang out, so you can be sure, if something happened to me, they would all find out. But I guess I would tell a woman friend, everyone would tell me to call the police. Especially the friends who are police!
I am glad that justice has been done. Trials are so stressful for the families of the victim.
Yes they are lovinglife52, and this had taken over 3 years. I hope he gets life.
Great wonderful awesome news!!!!!!!!!!