A Southern California babysitter was sentenced to life in prison this week for using her service — which catered to special needs children — to provide defenseless girls as young as three so her boyfriend could sexually abuse them.
Brittney Mae Lyon, 31, served up the girls for boyfriend Samuel Cabrera, also 31, and sometimes participated in the abuse with him, authorities said. Two of the girls were seven. The other two were just three years of age.
Two of the victims had an autism diagnosis and one was non-verbal.
Lyon was sentenced to 100 years-to-life in prison after pleading guilty in May to two felony counts of lewd act upon a child and two counts of forcible lewd act upon a child, according to a statement released by San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan.
She also admitted to the allegations of kidnapping, residential burglary, and sexually assaulting multiple victims, the statement added.
Her co-defendant, Cabrera, was previously convicted by a jury in 2019 and sentenced to eight life terms without parole in 2021.
Lyon wept as a Superior Court judge pronounced the sentence.
“Today’s just sentence ends a despicable chapter that has destroyed innocence and devastated families in San Diego County,” DA Stephan said. “This defendant was ruthless in posing as a trustworthy babysitter and recruiting autistic children, only to commit the most atrocious acts upon them.”
Described as “the babysitter from hell” by one news outlet, Lyon also obtained drugs and other items to abuse the young girls.
The statement released by the district attorney detailed how the pair were caught:
The abuse came to light when one of the 7-year-old girls told her mother in 2016 that she no longer wanted to go anywhere with Lyon, a family friend who sometimes babysat her. The girls told her mother about the abuse, which led police to Cabrera. After a brief chase, police found a double-locked box in his car containing six computer hard drives with hundreds of videos depicting Lyon and Cabrera sexually abusing the children, and at times, drugging or assaulting them, using extreme cruelty and brutality.
Behind their non-threatening appearance, the couple emerged in the investigation as a pair of insatiable sex fiends.
Police also found dozens of videos that Lyon had taken surreptitiously of women and girls in changing rooms at clothing stores, bathrooms, and locker rooms at various North County businesses.
“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,” Deputy District Attorney Jodi Breton told a San Diego NBC affiliate. “She seemed like the perfect babysitter, the perfect person someone could trust.”
Though boyfriend Cabrera will be serving eight life terms without parole, Lyon’s plea and sentence doesn’t insure a life behind bars.
California parole law allows Lyon to petition for parole when she turns 50, meaning she could potentially serve 28 years in state lockup.
The case has added some momentum for a new law introduced in the California legislature, endorsed by DA Stephan, that would exclude convicted sex offenders from applying for parole as they aged in prison.
After the sentencing, California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a Republican, praised the SoCal DA for obtaining the maximum prison term, but urged more action in the state’s capitol.
“Now, it’s time for the state to do its job and honor that sentence for the sake of the victims,” he said. “Shamefully, a loophole in California law could allow Lyon to walk free after serving less than a third of her sentence.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets , which documents one of the worst cases of child sexual abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
