Defendant convicted in child’s death

Kim Smith

Friday, May 5, 2000 | 11:03 a.m.

After six hours of deliberations, a Clark County jury Thursday convicted a Las Vegas man of beating a toddler to death, ignoring his claims that the child's mother was responsible.

After jurors were led from the courtroom, Kevin Camp hugged family members and participated in a group prayer led by a police chaplain from Henderson. Jurors were to return this morning to decide Camp's fate. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Camp, 28, was arrested by Metro Police in January 1998 on a murder charge in connection with the death of Lamar Brooks Jr., 2. An autopsy revealed the boy died after he was beaten so viciously a kidney was displaced and massive damage was done to his intestines.

The toddler was living with his mother, Brook Lain, and Camp in a weekly motel.

Camp and his attorneys contended that Lain, at that time a methamphetamine user and prostitute, beat the boy to death in a rage after Camp told her he was leaving for California. Special Deputy Public Defender Dayvid Figler said Lain knowingly exposed her child, who was fathered by a pimp, to prostitution, drugs and abusive pimps.

"She's living in a fantasy," Figler said during closing arguments. "She's living in a fantasy about who she is and what she does."