Parents of USC student from Eagle stabbed to death in 2008 spoke at sentencing Thursday

Travion Terret Ford will spend at least 16 years years in prison for stabbing to death Bryan Frost, a 23-year-old from Eagle who was a student at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. Ford was sentenced to up to life in prison in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday.

Frost's parents and step-parents were at the sentencing Thursday, and they made sure Ford understood the impact that his actions have had in their lives.

"I read a very long impact statement, and he looked me in the eye and listened. I was grateful for that," said Frost's mother, Eagle resident Paige Lee, who spoke by phone from Los Angeles Thursday.

"He was my only child," Lee said of her personal loss. "What do I do now if not be Bryan's mom? How do I live the rest of my life? To this day, I don't know how to answer that question.

Frost's parents brought a three-ring binder filled with victim impact statements from family and friends, including hundreds of messages from a memorial page on Facebook.

"It will be part of the record, in case he comes up for parole again," Lee said. She said she doesn't plan to return to Los Angeles again unless he does come up for parole.

Lee said Ford spoke at the sentencing, but she could not hear him because he spoke softly and they were sitting behind him.

"I was straining my ears to hear. That was disappointing," Lee said.

Ford, 25, of Los Angeles, was convicted on Aug. 31 of second-degree murder.

He was accused of stabbing to death Frost in the early morning hours of Sept. 18, 2008, near the USC campus. Frost was walking with friends and slammed an apartment gate shut; an altercation ensued with a Ford, who got a kitchen knife from inside a nearby apartment and used it to stab Frost in the heart, prosecutors said. Frost died at a hospital.

Frost's family, fellow students and faculty at USC were devastated.

"He was a very promising young man," USC School of Cinematic Arts Dean Elizabeth Daley told the Idaho Statesman in the immediate aftermath of Frost's death in 2008.

The school admits about 5 percent of undergraduate applicants.

Frost was in the division of film and television production, where students learn to be professional directors, cinematographers, sound designers and editors. He was in the school's most advanced undergraduate production class.

In the summer 2008, Frost was in Pakistan with friends making a film about the Iraq war, his dad, Jere Frost, said.

Lee said she has been encouraging the person that her son was collaborating with on the film to finish the project, so it can be screened.

"It will get done. That's my mission," she said.

Frost's family created the Bryan Frost Memorial Scholarship. They raised $4,000, which was awarded to a college-bound Eagle High School student.

Katy Moeller: 377-6413