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| Thursday, Sep 27 2007 11:37 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Sep 27 2007 11:34 PM
Vincent Brothers' only surviving child, Margaret Kern, said in court Thursday that she was no longer a Brothers and would not use that name anymore.
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Photos:
Shann Kern, left, former girlfriend of Vincent Brothers, comforts her 15-year-old daughter Margaret Kern-Brothers as they visit the gravesites of the Harper slaying victims at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Bakersfield in 2004.
Margaret Kern-Brothers, Vincent's only living child, is hugged by her mother Shann Kern before talking to the media on sixth floor of the Kern County Superior Court.
Poll
Do you agree with the judge's decision to sentence Vincent Brothers to death?
"He (Vincent Brothers) wouldn't look at me. He looked straight ahead the whole time," she said immediately after the hearing in Kern County Superior Court.
THE MEDIA ALSO ASKED:
Q.: Would you respond to Vincent Brothers if he reached out to you from prison?
A.: "Probably not. No."
Q.: Why not?
A.: "It's just not worth the hassle. I can't believe anything he says."
Q.: How does it feel being detached from feelings associated with the case, including your father?
A.: "It feels a lot better. It just makes everything easier because now I don't get my sadness for the Harpers mixed up with my anger towards my father."
Q.: How do you feel about the Harpers?
A.: "I love the Harpers. I mean, even the first time I met them I thought, 'Oh, maybe they're not going to like me because my dad killed his family.' But they told me the first day 'No, you're not guilty by association. We accept you. We love you.' And that's more than what his family has done."
Q.: Will you attend the execution?
A.: "Seeing him die, not in a morbid way, would just close it officially and make it a lot easier for me to go on."
Margaret's mother, Shann Kern, also spoke out.
Q.: What do you think of your daughter attending the execution?
A.: "Like I said, this is my baby. She's been through a lot. I support her 100 percent. I had to switch from, especially when she turned 18 and went to college and stuff, I had to really separate 'me the mom in the protective mode' versus 'Margaret the young woman that is coming out and standing on her own.' So I'm here for her. I'm here for her and I will continue to work with her on forgiveness. That's really, really important."
Q.: What did you think of what your daughter said in court?
A.: "Well, I was, I didn't know what Margaret had to say. I knew she was going to say something. She made me wait just like everybody else had to wait to see what she had to say. I'm very proud of my baby. Very proud.
"I told her, one of the main things I would really say was that when she voiced her opinions about the suicide attempt, that when I went to go see her when the ambulance took her to the hospital and I seen her in there she was telling me how sad she was. She was somewhere -- a really deep, dark sadness place -- and all I could do was just tell her to find the light. Just find the light, find the light.
"And she was just, 'Mom it's just so sad, it's just so sad.' And she's like, 'Mom I should have went. I'm angry 'cause I didn't go. I fought so hard not to go.' And ultimately her fighting me of not to go ended up saving her life.
"And just in the courtroom today when she had her little breakdown crying inside the courtroom I reminded her of that. And I reminded her of the fact that she was saved. She was saved to do just what she did today on behalf of her family, on behalf of her siblings in relation to her father. And I'm so glad that she had that strength."