Babysitter who provided young girls to her boyfriend for sexual assault sentenced to 100 years in prison
A California babysitter is set to spend the rest of her life behind bars after providing her boyfriend with at least four young girls in her care to sexually abuse.
Brittney Lyon, 32, of Escondido, San Diego County, was sentenced inside the Vista Superior Court on Thursday to 100 years to life in state prison for her role in the crimes.
Prosecutors said that the girls ranged in age from three to seven years old, with two of the victims diagnosed with autism, one of whom was nonverbal at the time of the assault.
The victims were abused between 2014 and 2016 in their own homes, as well as at Lyon’s and boyfriend Samuel Cabrera’s residence, prosecutors said.
Deputy District Attorney Jodi Breton dispelled the notion Lyon was forced into participating in the crimes, and said text messages between the defendants showed Lyon “bartering” with Cabrera to provide him with a child in exchange for taking her on dates.
Lyon and Cabrera were arrested in July 2016 following one of the victims, whom Lyon babysat in the community of Carlsbad, informing her mother about the abuse.
Following the arrest, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said that investigators found “hundreds” of videos on six separate hard drives inside a double-locked box inside Cabrera’s car. Prosecutors said that the footage showed Cabrera and Lyon molesting the children, some of whom were at times drugged and bound.
Additional videos taken by Lyon showed women and girls in changing rooms at clothing stores, bathrooms, and locker rooms, according to the DA’s office. Prosecutors said Lyon and Cabrera met in high school, where he persuaded her to videotape women changing in gym locker rooms secretly.
Cabrera, 31, was convicted of 35 felonies, including multiple counts involving child molestation, and was sentenced in 2021 to eight life-without-parole terms, plus more than 300 years to life in state prison, according to the DA’s office.
Lyon pleaded guilty in May to two counts of lewd act upon a child and two counts of a forcible lewd act upon a child. She also admitted the allegations of kidnapping, residential burglary, and sexually assaulting multiple victims.
Three of the victims’ parents said they met Lyon through a babysitting services site, where she “touted her interest in working with special needs children.”
Lyon would regularly take one of the victims outside their home, according to the mother, which she claimed was to help with a research paper for her child development degree.
The perpetrator studied child development at California State University Northridge, according to a review of her Facebook page in 2016 by the San Diego Tribune.
In court on Thursday, the parents of the victims voiced their feelings of betrayal after entrusting Lyon with their children.
“You knew how to win our trust and manipulate to get what you want,” one victim’s mother said, according to NBC San Diego.
Another woman, whose daughter was just three-and-a-half at the time of the assault, added: “You are the most sick and evil monster that society has. What you did to these innocent and most helpless of children, without any conscience, care or concern, or ounce of remorse, is unfathomable.”
The mother of the third victim said her family has suffered a decade of pain and suffering, with Lyon and Cabrera’s abuse creating a “wound that has never healed.”
Lyon’s defense attorney read aloud an apology letter penned by the perpetrator for the victims’ families.
“For nine years, I’ve thought about what I would say today. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are no words that would make any of the harm and trauma I’ve caused any better,” it read.
San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said that Lyon’s sentence marked the end of “a despicable chapter that has destroyed innocence and devastated families.”
