Hahn chides vote on child killers

Length: 30 seconds

Images: Karey Jaeger speaks directly into the camera, wearing a button with a photo of her son, Tyler. A hand with a red pen circles Antonio Villaraigosa’s last name on a tally sheet that shows he was the only assemblyman to vote against AB 2258, the Tyler Jaeger Act.

Karey Jaeger: In March of 1994, my beautiful son, Tyler, was murdered by a person that I trusted to care for him ...

Announcer: Karey Jaeger then worked to change state law to increase penalties on child abusers who kill a child so they serve at least 25 years in prison.

Karey Jaeger: Antonio Villaraigosa was the only no vote in the Assembly against the Tyler Jaeger Act. It is very difficult for me to understand how anyone could not support a law aimed at keeping child killers behind bars.

Analysis: The beating death of Karey Jaeger’s 22-month-old son by her then-boyfriend, Brian Laudenback, led to his conviction on a second-degree murder charge in 1995, and a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

Jaeger lobbied to change state law for child abuse.

In 1996, the Legislature passed the Tyler Jaeger Act, named for her son. The bill increased the penalty for people found guilty of child abuse that results in death from 15 years to 25 years to life.

Antonio Villaraigosa, who then was a state assemblyman, was the only member to vote against the bill May 23, 1996. It passed the Assembly, 62 to 1, and the state Senate, 29 to 1.

Villaraigosa defended his actions this week, saying, “I voted for another bill the next week that was better written. It was a bill that was more comprehensive, would cover more people.”

The bill Villaraigosa voted for May 31, 1996, would have increased the sentence for anyone convicted of second-degree murder in California from 15 years to life to 25 years to life. That bill, AB 2658, never became law. It died in a Senate committee.

Peter Arenella, a professor at UCLA Law School, said the bill that Villaraigosa voted for would not have been as tough on some child killers as the Tyler Jaeger Act. The Tyler Jaeger Act lets prosecutors seek a 25 years-to-life sentence for child killers without having to prove they acted with “recklessness” -- something that has to be proved to win a second-degree murder conviction, Arenella said.

Villaraigosa spokesman Nathan James argued that the bill Villaraigosa backed was actually tougher on crime because it would have increased the sentence for all second-degree murderers to 25 years to life. In doing that, James said, “it would have applied to many more people.”

The campaign also says Villaraigosa voted in favor of more than 60 bills that addressed child abuse and child-safety issues in his six years in the Assembly.