North County babysitter sentenced to prison for role in molestations

 A  North County babysitter who took part with her boyfriend in the molestations of multiple girls she was tasked with caring for was sentenced Thursday to 100 years to life in state prison.

Brittney Mae Lyon, 31, who advertised her babysitting services online and expressed her interest to parents in working with special needs children, sexually abused the victims and provided them to her boyfriend, Samuel Cabrera Jr..

Prosecutors said the girls ranged in age from 3 to 7 years old. Two of the victims were diagnosed with autism and one was nonverbal, according to prosecutors.

The couple were arrested in 2016 after one of the victims told her mother about the abuse.

Following Cabrera’s arrest, investigators found video recordings of the crimes on computer hard drives inside his car. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said “hundreds” of videos on six separate hard drives showed Cabrera and Lyon molesting the children, some of whom were drugged or bound during the assaults.

Cabrera, now 31, was convicted by a Vista jury of nearly three dozen counts and was sentenced in 2021 to eight life-without-parole terms, plus more than 300 years to life in state prison.

Lyon pleaded guilty earlier this year to four felony sex crime counts and stipulated to the 100-year-to-life prison term.

Deputy District Attorney Jodi Breton said, “What made her the perfect vehicle for these crimes was the benign and harmless nature of her appearance, her background, the way she presented herself to these victims’ parents. She seemed like the perfect babysitter, the perfect person someone could trust.”

Several of the victims’ parents present at Thursday morning’s sentencing hearing described the trust they had in Lyon and their shock upon learning of the crimes.

One woman said Lyon had asked to take her autistic daughter on outings that were intended to assist Lyon in her studies and pursuit of a degree related to child development.

“You knew how to win our trust and manipulate to get what you want,” the woman said.

Another woman, whose daughter was 3-and-a-half at the time of the abuse, told Lyon, “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.”

Her statement continued, “You lied and betrayed the trust of numerous parents over and over again for years. …You offered them up to your disgusting partner and participated in this unspeakable abuse. … and for what? What I can only imagine is your sick and evil boyfriend’s attention, admiration and acceptance.”

The mother of a then 7-year-old girl, the victim who ultimately sparked the couple’s capture by telling her mother she no longer wanted to go anywhere with Lyon, told Lyon she was previously a trusted friend.

“We let you into our home and into our lives. Because of that, my family has endured almost 10 years of suffering and pain. The betrayal is a wound that has never healed,” she said.

Both the woman and the prosecutor pushed back on any notion that Lyon was forced in some way by Cabrera to participate in the crimes. Breton said text messages between the defendants showed Lyon “bartering” with Cabrera to provide him with a child in exchange for going on dates.

The then-7-year-old’s mother said, “Your boyfriend did not make you do this and you know it.”

Lyon’s defense attorney, Sloan Ostbye, read a letter penned by Lyon in which she apologized to 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,” Lyon wrote. “The words `I’m sorry’ are far too simple for the amount of trauma I’ve cause and the amount of regret I feel. … You trusted me to keep your children safe and instead I placed them in harm’s way. My actions were selfish, inconsiderate and thoughtless to everyone involved.”

Many of the parents expressed anger over the guilty plea and said they wished the case had gone to trial in order for Lyon to face a sentence similar to Cabrera’s, which lacks the possibility of parole.

The parents said that due to elder parole laws — which allow prisoners to petition for parole beginning at age 50 — they feared Lyon could be released early.

Breton echoed those concerns and said she hoped legislators would re- examine elder parole laws when applied to sex offenders.

“Nothing about turning 50 makes you no longer a danger to children,” the prosecutor said.

The District Attorney’s Office said in a statement released after the hearing that it was also throwing its support behind legislation that would exclude sex offenders from elder parole.

Superior Court Judge Daniel Link said he would not have signed off on the plea deal reached between the parties if he felt there was any potential Lyon would ever be released.

Link said information he received from the defense — which he did not elaborate on — “made it very clear that Ms. Lyon will never get out of prison. And if she did, it’d be a travesty.”

Link later concurred with the families’ descriptions of Lyon as “a monster” and called her conduct “deplorable” and “disgusting.”

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Summer Stephan said in a statement, “Today’s just sentence ends a despicable chapter that has destroyed innocence and devastated families in San Diego County. This defendant was ruthless in posing as a trustworthy babysitter and recruiting autistic children, only to commit the most atrocious acts upon them.”