Jury selection begins for man accused in toddler’s death

Kim Smith

Tuesday, April 18, 2000 | 10:39 a.m.

The trial of a Las Vegas man accused of killing his girlfriend's toddler while she was engaging in prostitution was to begin today with jury selection.

Kevin Linear Camp, 28, is accused of beating 2-year-old Lamar Brooks Jr. so severely in January 1998 that the child's bowel ruptured.

According to police, authorities were called to a Las Vegas hotel about a child who had stopped breathing. The boy, who was observed with bruises on him, was taken to University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

At a pretrial hearing Monday, the child's mother, Brook Lain, 28, testified that she left her son with Camp when she went to work at a local casino about 10 p.m. Jan. 26. When she returned the next day at 3 p.m., Lain said, Camp made her leave so that she could make up $300 she had gambled away at the Luxor.

She came home at 10 p.m. to change, and during the 30 minutes she was home, she said she noticed her son was unusually quiet. He also vomited after she gave him a soft drink.

Lain said Camp made her leave again but that she slept in Camp's car in the parking lot. She never saw her son alive again.

Lain also testified about coming home several times in the weeks leading up to her son's death and finding bruises on him. In each instance Camp explained away the bruises as being caused by typical toddler rambunctiousness, she said.

In one instance, Lain said, Camp explained that a black eye the boy received was caused by his jumping into a Christmas tree. In another instance, Camp said two bruises on the boy's cheeks occurred when he fell while jumping from one bed to another.

Under cross-examination from Special Public Defender Dayvid Figler at Monday's hearing, Lain admitted to using methamphetamine and selling her body while pregnant. She also said that while it was true her son was placed in Child Protective Services at one time, she said it was because his father, her former pimp, was jailed while she was in the hospital recovering from a tubal pregnancy.

Lain denied Figler's suggestion that she was a neglectful, drugged-out mother.

Also testifying Monday were Lain's mother, Connie, and friend April Michelle Peterson, who also confirmed that the boy had bruises before his death.

District Judge Mark Gibbons agreed to allow into evidence the testimony of most of the prior bruises.

Kim Smith covers courts for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2321 or by e-mail at kimberly@lasvegassun.com

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