A California court has denied Christopher Lee’s appeal of his conviction of murdering his former lover, Erin Corwin of Twentynine Palms, in June 2014. Two years later, Lee admitted during his murder trial that he killed Corwin and threw her body down a mine shaft. Lee claimed he killed her during the heat of passion, saying that he snapped after she confessed to molesting his young daughter, a charge that is not supported by any evidence. Lee’s attorney argued before the California Court of Appeals that the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury. He said that had the jury received more explicit instructions, it could have found that Lee did not premeditate her killing and the jury could have convicted him of second degree murder, rather than first degree murder. The Appeals Court disagreed, and upheld his original conviction of first degree murder and his sentence of life in prison.
