Christopher Brandon Lee and the Erin Corwin Murder Case

The Erin Corwin murder case ended with a life sentence for former U.S. Marine Corporal Christopher Brandon Lee, who strangled the 19-year-old wife of a fellow Marine in June 2014 and dumped her body down an abandoned gold mine shaft in the desert outside Joshua Tree National Park. After more than two years of denying any involvement, Lee confessed on the witness stand during his 2016 trial. A San Bernardino County jury convicted him of first-degree murder on November 3, 2016, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Who Erin Corwin Was and Her Connection to Christopher Lee

Erin Renae Heavilin was born on July 15, 1994, and grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Before moving to California she worked at Tractor Supply Co. in Oak Ridge.¹ She married Marine Corporal Jonathan Corwin, and the couple relocated to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, when he was assigned there.

Christopher Brandon Lee was also a corporal at Twentynine Palms. He and his wife Nichole lived next door to the Corwins on base.² The two families became friendly, and Lee and Erin began volunteering together at a local horse ranch.³ An affair began around February 2014.⁴ Friends later told investigators that Corwin believed she was pregnant and that Lee might be the father.⁵

The Day Erin Corwin Disappeared

On the morning of June 28, 2014, Corwin left her home on base and told her husband she was heading to Joshua Tree National Park to scout hiking trails. She had told a friend, Jessica Trentham, something different: that she was going on a trip with Lee. Text messages later recovered from Trentham’s phone showed Corwin excited about a “big dumb surprise” she thought Lee had planned, and she believed he might even propose.⁶

Corwin was last seen between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. Her husband Jonathan reported her missing the next day. On June 30, her blue Toyota sedan turned up abandoned near the base’s back gate. Investigators found a single set of shoe tracks at the vehicle leading to tire impressions consistent with Lee’s Jeep.³

How Investigators Found Her

The search became a massive joint operation between the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Hundreds of searchers combed more than 300 square miles of the Mojave Desert in temperatures reaching 115 degrees, cataloging and checking more than 600 abandoned mines.⁷⁸ Homicide Sergeant Trevis Newport called it “the ultimate needle in a haystack scenario.”⁹

Jonathan Corwin was questioned early, as spouses typically are. He passed a polygraph, and digital records confirmed he had been on base the entire day. He was ruled out.⁷ Attention shifted to Lee after NCIS agents found the text messages on Trentham’s phone revealing the affair. A witness named Isabel Megli told investigators Lee had been asking about mines in the area the weekend before Corwin vanished.

A search of Lee’s Jeep produced spent .40-caliber casings, and a propane tank he had borrowed from the horse ranch was seen in his vehicle the morning Corwin disappeared.³ On July 4, 2014, Lee was arrested on suspicion of possessing a destructive device — a so-called “potato gun” found during the search warrant execution — a charge that gave investigators grounds to hold him briefly while the homicide investigation continued. He posted bail two days later.

On August 16, 2014, nearly two months into the search, the San Bernardino County Cave and Technical Rescue team found Corwin’s body about 140 feet down an abandoned gold mine shaft on Bureau of Land Management land in the Old Dale Mining District, a remote area southeast of Twentynine Palms accessible only by four-wheel drive.¹⁰ The shaft was unmapped, dug in the 1970s and last worked in the 1980s.⁸ Search dogs and cameras lowered into shafts on cables located her. Her remains had come to rest on a “false floor” of debris blocking the passage to a much deeper bottom.

Evidence recovered from the mine included a Sprite bottle carrying DNA from both Corwin and Lee, a makeshift torch wrapped in a Marine Corps T-shirt bearing Lee’s DNA, and spent bullets matching ammunition from Lee’s Jeep.⁷⁸ Because of the condition of the remains, the coroner could not determine whether Corwin had been pregnant.¹¹

Lee’s Arrest in Alaska and the Charges

Lee had received an honorable discharge from the Marines in July 2014 and moved to Alaska with his wife and daughter.¹² The day after Corwin’s body was found, on August 17, 2014, he was arrested in Anchorage during a traffic stop on a California extradition warrant.¹³ A second garrote, similar to the one recovered with Corwin’s body, was found in Lee’s vehicle at the time of the arrest.⁷

San Bernardino County prosecutors charged Lee with first-degree murder and added a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait, which at the time carried potential exposure to the death penalty.¹² On August 21, 2014, he waived extradition and was transported back to California.¹⁴ He pleaded not guilty.¹³

The Courtroom Confession

Lee’s trial began in October 2016 in San Bernardino County Superior Court before Judge David Mazurek, with Deputy District Attorney Sean Daugherty prosecuting.¹⁵ The prosecution’s theory was that Lee had lured Corwin into the desert and killed her to conceal the affair and her pregnancy.¹⁶ Jurors saw the garrote used in the killing, the propane tank, and video from inside the mine shaft. Defense attorney David Kaloyanides argued the killing had not been premeditated.¹⁷

The trial’s turning point came when Lee took the stand. After two years of telling detectives he had “no idea” where Corwin was, he admitted killing her. “I’m no longer scared to tell the truth,” he told the court. “People have to know what I did.”¹⁸

Lee testified that he approached Corwin from behind and strangled her for at least five minutes with a garrote he had fashioned from two pieces of rebar and a cord. After checking for signs of life, he dragged her body to the mine shaft and pushed her in head-first.¹⁶ He also admitted igniting the space inside the shaft.⁵ “I made the decision to kill her,” Lee said. “I was controlled by the anger. The hate I felt that day, it was something I never want to experience again.”¹⁹

His stated motive was new. Lee claimed he killed Corwin not because of the affair or the pregnancy but because she had confessed, near the mine shaft that day, to molesting his daughter. The accusation had never come up in any prior proceeding.¹⁹ Daugherty called it “nonsense” and told the court Lee “crafts lies around the facts of the case.”⁵ He also argued Lee had timed his confession for attention rather than remorse.¹⁶

Verdict, Sentence, and Failed Appeal

On November 3, 2016, the jury convicted Lee of first-degree murder and found the lying-in-wait special allegation true.²⁰ On November 29, 2016, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.²¹ After sentencing, Daugherty said he was “glad the victim’s family was able to get some sense of peace,” adding that Lee’s “cold-blooded actions here were just devastating to that family.”

Lee appealed in 2018. His attorneys argued the trial court had given erroneous jury instructions, claiming clearer instructions on premeditation and deliberation could have produced a second-degree conviction. On August 22, 2018, the California Court of Appeal denied the appeal and affirmed both the conviction and the life sentence.²² The appellate court noted there was no evidence supporting Lee’s claim that Corwin had molested his child.²³

1
Oakridger. Justice for Erin, Mom Says
2
KPBS. Erin Corwin Husband Jon Marine Missing
3
Marine Corps Times. Missing Marine Wife Erin Corwin May Be Voluntarily Missing
4
San Bernardino Sun. Former Twentynine Palms Marine Found Guilty in Slaying of Erin Corwin
5
ABC7. Former Marine Sentenced to Life in 2014 Murder of Pregnant Lover
6
People. Erin Corwin Expected Proposal From Her Accused Killer the Day She Disappeared
7
CBS News. NCIS Search for Missing Marine Wife Erin Corwin
8
USA Today. Erin Corwin Marine Wife Murder Gold Mine
9
San Bernardino Sun. Body of Marines Missing Wife Found, Boyfriend Arrested
10
Desert Sun. Erin Corwin Death High Desert Mine Shaft
11
Oakridger. Guilty of Murder
12
Los Angeles Times. Accused Killer Marine Wife Extradition
13
Local 3 News. Former Marine Pleads Not Guilty in Death of Erin Corwin
14
Desert Sun. Erin Corwin Christopher Lee Alaska Court Extradition
15
Hi-Desert Star. Christopher Lee Murder Trial
16
Desert Sun. Christopher Lee Murder Trial Erin Corwin
17
Marine Corps Times. Former Marine Pleads Not Guilty in Erin Corwins Death
18
CBS News. Erin Corwin Marine Wife Killing Stunning Courtroom Confession
19
NBC San Diego. Shocking Courtroom Confession in Marine Wifes Murder
20
Los Angeles Times. Sentencing Marine
21
CBS News. Ex-Marine Gets Prison in Murder of Fellow Marines Wife
22
Z107.7 FM. State Court Denies Appeal of Christopher Lees Murder Conviction
23
Oxygen. Erin Corwin Pregnant Marine Wife Murdered