Wednesday, March 17, 2010 2:55 AM
BY BRUCE CADWALLADER
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A woman who obtained a civil protection order against Fred Brooks III for threats he made against her son later learned that he had killed her daughter.
Yesterday, Misty Dawson watched as Brooks was sentenced to prison for 18 years to life for the stabbing death of Christie Lyles in her Near East Side apartment on Sept. 13.
Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Chris Brown said Dawson found her 21-year-old daughter stabbed to death at 544 Lilley Ave. Lyles' car was missing and so was Brooks, the father of Lyles' two small children. The children, ages 3 months and 2 years, were asleep in the apartment.
Two days later, Brooks, of Wendover Drive in Madison Township, turned himself in to police in Michigan. He confessed to the killing and to the attempted carjacking of another man.
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Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to charges of murder, robbery and receiving stolen property in Common Pleas Court.
The sentence by Judge David E. Cain means Brooks will serve at least 18 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
Defense attorney J. Scott Weisman said that Brooks, who broke down and cried during the hearing, was overcome with anger after a drunken brawl with Lyles.
"I can tell you his tears are genuine, and it's not because of what's happening to him today," Weisman said. "He doesn't understand how it got to this."
Dawson, who declined to speak in court, received a protection order against Brooks last March after saying he had threatened to kill her son.
bcadwallader@dispatch.com
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