LEWD ACTS RULING UPHELD CONVICTION STANDS FOR LAKE L.A. MAN.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - An appellate court has upheld the conviction of a Lake Los Angeles man sentenced to 25 years to life in prison - for climbing through windows to enter the bedrooms of five girls, ages 9 to 15.

Maycio Brown admitted breaking into homes in Lake Los Angeles and Palmdale in July 2001 while each girl was asleep, but he claimed his intent was to rob the homes, not molest girls.

Brown objected to his conviction for lewd acts upon a child, and in his appeal said the trial judge had failed to properly instruct the jurors against basing their decision simply on the number of prosecution witnesses compared with the number of witnesses for the defense. The trial had one defense witness - the defendant - and 14 prosecution witnesses.

A three-judge state appellate panel ruled the judge's omission was a harmless error and affirmed the conviction.

``Far from being burglaries founded on larceny, the overwhelming evidence was that these were crimes with a sexual motive,'' Associate Justice Laurence Rubin wrote. ``In light of all the testimony, it is inconceivable that if the jury had been instructed (against simply comparing numbers of witnesses) it would have come to any result other than the verdict it reached.''

One 13-year-old girl said she had awakened to find Brown's hand on her thigh, another 13-year-old said an intruder later identified as Brown told her he wanted to rape her and an 11-year-old said she woke up with Brown's head under her pajama top.

In each case the intruder fled back out the window: three times when the girl awoke, once when a girl's father started banging on her bedroom door and once when a girl punched him in the face.

The only item stolen was a can of beer.

Brown's fingerprints were found on a window frame at one house and on a flower pot at another. After his arrest he pointed out the five homes to a deputy and during the trial admitted entering them.

Brown, who was 24 at the time of the break-ins, was convicted of committing lewd acts upon a child and residential burglary. He was acquitted of attempted rape.

The break-ins occurred during the morning hours on four different days. In each instance Brown entered the home through a window in a room where a girl was sleeping, the ruling said.

Brown was arrested three days after the last break-in, at which home his fingerprints were found on the window frame.

During the trial, Brown admitted to the jury he had entered the homes and denied only that he had a sexual purpose or that he lewdly touched any of the girls, the appellate justices said.

The appellate justices called his testimony ``inherently implausible.''

Brown testified that he had six convictions between 1995 and 2000 for theft, unauthorized use of a vehicle, vehicle theft and receiving stolen property, the justices noted. They said he also bragged to jurors that he had participated in a series of home invasion robberies targeting drug dealers and police officers, who were forced to strip naked.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com