Sacramento murder suspect Camron Lee makes first court appearance after Mexico arrest
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Camron Lee was arraigned Friday afternoon in Sacramento Superior Court.
- Lee is accused of killing Angelica Marie Bravo, the mother of his two children.
- Lee was captured Sunday in Mexico. The two missing children were also found.
A man accused of murder in the 2024 death of the mother of their two children made his first appearance Friday in Sacramento Superior Court after he was captured Sunday in Mexico with the children.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office charged Camron Lee, 40, with murder in the death of 28-year-old Angelica Marie Bravo who was found dead in a North Sacramento home. In a separate case, prosecutors charged Lee with four counts of possessing an assault weapon.
Lee appeared for his arraignment Friday afternoon in Judge David W. Bonilla’s courtroom. Bonilla denied media requests to photograph or record Friday’s arraignment hearing.
Lee, wearing an orange jail uniform, stood inside a holding cell in the courtroom during the hearing. He only spoke twice during the hearing, when he confirmed his name to the judge and agreed to the court appointing the Sacramento County Public Defender’s Office to represent him.
Along with a sheriff’s deputy who is normally in the courtroom near the judge’s bench, another deputy stood near Lee in the holding cell, and another deputy stood near the entrance to the courtroom.
Bonilla scheduled Lee to return to court July 23 for further proceedings in his criminal case. Lee remains in custody and is ineligible for bail.
Family grateful to reunite with children
Several members of Bravo’s family attended Lee’s arraignment hearing. Among them was Gil Bravo, Bravo’s younger brother. He spoke briefly to reporters after Friday’s hearing, explaining how grateful his family was to have his niece and nephew back home with them.
“It’s God’s gift, honestly, reuniting with them,” Gil Bravo said. “We’ve all been through too much this past two years.”
He said his family wants “justice” for his sister’s death and hopes Lee “gets what he deserves” through the justice system. He said it was “rough” for him to see Lee in the courtroom, saying he almost didn’t recognize Lee.
“It’s a sigh of relief for us. It feels good knowing he’s behind bars,” Gil Bravo said about Lee.
North Sacramento home
On the evening of July 8, 2024, authorities found Bravo dead in the home in the 3700 block of Didcot Circle in the Oak Knoll neighborhood in North Sacramento. She once shared the home with Camron Lee, she and the children had since moved out to a south Sacramento apartment.
The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office later concluded that homicide could not be ruled out in Bravo’s death. Her body had multiple injuries, and toxicology testing detected MDMA in her system.
Bravo’s family has said she was trying to leave a violent relationship with Lee before she died.
As detectives investigated Bravo’s death in those first 24 hours, they were unable to find Athena and her younger brother Mateo. They also couldn’t find their father.
On evening of July 9, the Sacramento Police Department announced the woman’s two children were missing and believed they were with their father, Camron Lee, in a gray Honda Passport.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection notified Sacramento police that surveillance video captured the gray Honda Passport driving south into Mexico. Police said the vehicle was found abandoned on July 16, 2024, in Ensenada, a beach town along the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
In April 2025, Sacramento police obtained an arrest warrant for Lee on the murder charge in Bravo’s death. In December, the FBI announced a $25,000 reward for information that led to Lee’s capture and conviction. Federal authorities were also offering a separate $25,000 reward for information that led authorities to find the missing children.
A tip two weeks ago led FBI investigators, with help from Mexican authorities and military personnel, to Primo Tapia, the Baja California town where Lee was captured without incident. The children, Athena Lee, 5, and Mateo Lee, 4, were also found there. They have since been returned to Bravo’s family in Elk Grove.
Lee was booked at the San Diego Central Jail by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. On Wednesday, he was booked at the Sacramento County Main Jail. Lee is ineligible for bail.
