Inset: Robert Brians appearing in court. Background: Brians’ car after he intentionally drove it off a cliff with his twin daughters inside (KSDN).
A California father learned his fate after admitting to abducting his twin 2-year-old girls and intentionally driving his pickup truck off a cliff and into the water below after an argument with the girls’ mother in a terrifying case in which all three miraculously survived despite the truck landing upside down in the water.
Robert Brians, 51, was sentenced on Friday to 31 years in a state correctional facility. He was also ordered to stay away from his daughters for 10 years and fined $20,000. He pleaded guilty last month to two counts each of attempted murder and kidnapping, as well as one count each of child abuse, burglary, and domestic violence.
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The girls’ mother, Jenna Brians reacted to the sentence, local NBC affiliate KNSD reported.
“Knowing that this day was coming has been haunting us for four years,” she said. “But it’s nice to finally have closure today, not just for myself, but for my daughters most of all, to know that their dad is taking responsibility for the horrific acts that he made that day, the choices that he’s made.”