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| Tuesday, May 15 2007 6:00 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 16 2007 7:23 AM
Vincent Brothers’ only surviving child, Margaret Kern-Brothers, does not know if she will testify in the penalty phase of her father’s trial.
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Margaret Marie Kern-Brothers
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Her mother, Shann Kern, encouraged her to ask the jury to spare her father’s life.
“I am encouraging her not to have her hands wrapped in Vincent Brothers’ blood,” Kern said.
Her daughter is just at the beginning of her life, and Kern said she wants to ensure she makes the right choices for her future and that of the husband and children she will someday have.
“I don’t want that dark cloud over her family that doesn’t even exist yet,” Kern said.
As for the verdict, she said “justice was served, he got what he deserved.”
But her daughter is conflicted about the death penalty.
“I’m stuck on both sides,” Kern-Brothers said.
Kern and her daughter have fought to ensure the case does not consume them.
“Even when he was arrested, we decided we are not going to let this take up a huge part of our lives,” Kern-Brothers said.
She said her high school years began with her father’s arrest in April 2004 and are now ending with his conviction.
The 18-year-old will soon graduate from high school and wants to make the most of these good times.
Will she testify at the penalty phase of the trial?
“If it fits into my schedule, but I’m not going to miss my last dance show so that I can go and plead for my father’s life,” Kern-Brothers said.
She is counting down the weeks until she starts as a freshman in the fall at San Diego State University, where she will study business and learn Japanese.
“All she ever wanted (from Brothers) was for him to show her some love, and he missed out on a beautiful thing,” Kern said.
Kern-Brothers was hurt when her father would make plans and break plans with her when she was younger. And she was hurt again when he included her in his alibi.
Vincent Brothers testified that on the day his family was killed, he waved to a girl in Ohio who he thought looked like his daughter.
“That is disrespectful to me,” Kern-Brothers said.
Despite the sorrow of the deaths, Kern said she thinks often of the good times with the Harper family. She and her daughter went to lunch and shopping with Joanie Harper and Brothers and their two older children in the months before the deaths.
Kern said 2-year-old Lyndsey reminded her of her own daughter and Joanie Harper even remarked at the shoe store about the “Brothers’ feet,” the feature the children and Brothers shared.
Kern said she trusted Joanie Harper to take care of her daughter and that whenever she would pick up Margaret from a visit at the Harper house, oldest son Marques would cry.
“I would tell him, I promise I’ll bring her back, I promise, I promise,” Kern said.