Child-Killer’s Death Sentence Upheld
The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Palmdale man’s death sentence for raping and murdering an 18-month-old child.
The court unanimously rejected arguments by lawyers for Ricky Lee Earp that the trial judge had unfairly undermined defense efforts to show that another man was the killer.
Earp, then 26, lived with his girlfriend at her house in Palmdale in August 1988. Several days after a friend left her daughter, Amanda Doshier, in their care, a firefighter responding to a radio call found the girl unconscious and not breathing at the bottom of a stairway.
She died in a hospital two days later of injuries caused by blows to the head and violent shaking. A medical examiner also found bruises and tears in her genital and rectal areas.
Prosecutors said Earp had been the only other person in the home for many hours.
In various statements to friends and relatives, Earp said Amanda had fallen down the stairs, was knocked down by his dog, was suffering from the heat or was with another baby-sitter.
In trial testimony, he denied guilt and said another man had been in the house and alone with the child while Earp was outside cleaning paintbrushes.
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