SAN DIEGO — The mothers of several young girls allegedly molested by a Carlsbad man whose girlfriend was hired to watch the children testified in court Thursday, with the man facing life imprisonment if convicted of more than 30 felonies related to sexual assault.
Testimony began Thursday in the trial of Samuel Cabrera Jr., 25, accused of molesting four unrelated, underage girls, as well as recording video footage of the assaults, between 2014 and 2016.
His girlfriend, Brittney Mae Lyon, 26, also faces life imprisonment on the same charges for allegedly molesting the girls and videotaping Cabrera during the alleged molestations, but she will be tried separately. Her trial date is currently set for late October.
The pair -- arrested in July 2016 -- allegedly molested the girls in the victims' homes, Lyon's home or Cabrera's residence on various occasions.
They face charges that include multiple counts of forcible child molestation, kidnapping for child molestation, conspiracy and burglary.
The victims' mothers testified that they hired Lyon to babysit their daughters after finding her on child care websites.
The mother of one of the victims testified that her daughter is on the autism spectrum and was nonverbal at the time of the molestations, when the victim was 6 and 7 years old. Lyon would watch the girl at the victim's house during the week, while the girl's older brothers were home.
However, on occasional weekends, Lyon would take the girl on her own for excursions she was not paid for and were unrelated to babysitting. Lyon allegedly told the mother that these outings would help her with a research paper she was writing as part of her degree, which she allegedly said was related to child development.
The mother testified that she was aware Lyon had a boyfriend, but had never met him and never consented to have him participate in any activities with her daughter.
Another woman testified that she hired Lyon to babysit her 3-and-a- half year-old daughter on two separate occasions. After the second occasion, the girl informed her mother that Lyon had brought her boyfriend over to the house, and that the defendants had changed her underwear, the mother testified.
Lyon explained to her that she alone had changed the girl's underwear because it was torn, and that her boyfriend had only come over to bring her cold medicine. A subsequent doctor's examination did not reveal anything untoward, but the mother said she later read a news article detailing Cabrera and Lyon's arrests and contacted police.
The couple were initially only charged regarding two of the victims. After police publicly disseminated information regarding their arrests, charges were added regarding the two other girls.
