Laudenback Is Found Guilty : Verdict: Newport house painter is convicted of second-degree murder in death of ex-girlfriend’s 22-month-old son.

A Newport Beach house painter was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder for beating his then-girlfriend’s toddler to death while baby-sitting the boy last year.

Brian Laudenback, 33, jerked forward and then hung his head in disbelief when the verdict was announced.

Karey Jaeger, mother of the 22-month-old victim, Tyler, gasped and then cried in relief.

“I’m really pleased with the jury’s verdict, even through my son is still not with me,” Jaeger said outside court as she wiped tears from her eyes.

Surrounded by friends and relatives, Jaeger said she is heartbroken that a man she loved and trusted took the life of her child. And she is angry that Laudenback faces a maximum of only 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced April 20.

“That’s just not enough,” she said, noting that he could be paroled in 10 years. “What he did was sick, sick.”

Several of the Orange County Superior Court jurors also wept when their guilty verdict was read. They later rushed from the courtroom, slipping out a back door.

The weeklong trial was marked by graphic testimony and photographs of the child’s extensive injuries. One juror was so disturbed when the prosecution outlined its case that he asked to be released from service and was replaced by an alternate juror at the start of the trial.

“This was a very difficult case for everyone,” Deputy Dist. Atty. David L. Brent said. “You can’t listen to evidence like this and not be moved.”

The case was every parent’s nightmare. Tyler Jaeger was a friendly, rambunctious youngster who usually attended day care while his 30-year-old mother worked as a special-education teacher. But when the toddler became ill with a contagious eye disease in March, 1994, Laudenback--who was between jobs--agreed to baby-sit the boy until he was well enough to return to day care.

“For a while, it looked like ‘Hey, this will work out perfectly,’ ” Brent said. But at the end of the first week, Tyler was rushed to the hospital with a fractured skull. Laudenback said the boy fell after climbing up on a table.

A week later, Tyler was dead. The boy had suffered two broken ribs, cuts to his face and head and body blows so severe that his pancreas was nearly split in two, Brent said.

Laudenback denied harming the child. He also denied ever striking the child but later acknowledged spanking him. Authorities said that beating left a hand-shaped bruise on the boy’s buttock.

Deputy Public Defender Sharon Petrosino argued to jurors that Tyler died of head injuries suffered in the earlier fall. The other injuries came about when Tyler fell unconscious and Laudenback tried desperately to revive him with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, she argued.

Many of Laudenback’s friends and relatives expressed shock at the charges, saying he would never harm a defenseless child. Many of the parents in the Newport Beach neighborhood where Laudenback lived with Jaeger often relied on him to baby-sit for brief periods.

But Brent said Laudenback may have been unable to handle the pressure of caring for a sick toddler full time. The prosecutor said he believes Laudenback never intended to fatally injure the boy but used excessive force that ultimately killed Tyler.

“I stressed to the jury that Mr. Laudenback might not fit the stereotype of what a child abuser looks like, but I guess the lesson here is that child abusers look like everybody else,” Brent said.

Jaeger agreed. “There was another side to him,” she said.