Jury Spares Man’s Life in Murder of 13-Month-Old Girl

A Lancaster man convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering a 13-month-old girl has been sentenced to life in prison by a Superior Court jury that could have given him the death penalty.

According to the foreman, jury members were swayed because murderer Robert Brian Patalsky, 26, had no prior convictions. In addition, he said, the jury believed the killing of Brianna Lee Schmidt was not premeditated.

Patalsky showed no emotion as the sentencing recommendation was read. Defense attorney Ezekial Perlo leaned over to Patalsky’s father and whispered with relief, “I thought I was going to break into tears.”

Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen thanked the jury, which heard testimony so gruesome that two members of the panel had asked to be replaced during the trial.

The foreman of the jury, a 53-year-old Encino engineer who asked that his name not be used, said afterward that jury members were especially upset by photographs of the dead baby.

The crime occurred Nov. 30, 1991, when Patalsky was left to care for his girlfriend’s daughter.

Later in the day, Patalsky rushed the baby to a neighbor’s house, saying he had found her in a playpen, covered in vomit and breathing erratically. But medical examiners later determined that the girl had been raped and sodomized and had died after being shaken violently.