John Jefferson
Kenneth Lewis (Butte County Sheriff’s Office).
A California judge on Tuesday sentenced a man to 25 years to life in prison for beating his grandmother and then placing her naked body in a bathtub where she died as he tried to cover up his crime.
Kenneth Lewis pleaded no contest to first-degree murder in the slaying of 80-year-old Violet MacGregor. According to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, cops on Jan. 21, 2024, found MacGregor’s naked body in the bathtub of her home in Forbestown, about 80 miles northeast of Sacramento.
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Detectives arrested Lewis, who lived with his grandmother at the home, after he admitted to killing her. He had swollen knuckles and hands and injuries to his feet. In a post-Miranda interview, he said he killed MacGregor by punching her and kicking her while she was on the floor of her bedroom. An autopsy determined the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and neck. She had a broken bone in her neck and busted ribs, cops said.
The scene was bloody. There were stains on the bed, the carpet next to the bed and on the walls and furniture of the bedroom.
Lewis’ motive? He claimed when he went to go kiss her goodnight, she bit his tongue. This set him off and the beating ensued.
When he was done, he pulled his grandmother who was still “breathing heavily” in the bathtub, prosecutors said. He told detectives he went to sleep and awoke the next morning to find MacGregor dead. But evidence showed he actually was trying to clean up the scene throughout the night until he called 911 the next morning after his grandmother had perished. Investigators found bloody paper towels and cleaning wipes strewed throughout the home, including the bathroom, laundry room and second bedroom.
According to prosecutors, Lewis at his sentencing said he was “sorry for what he had done and he would have to live with the shame he brought upon himself and his family forever.”
The state asked for the maximum punishment of 25 years to life for the brutality of the murder and the fact that MacGregor was vulnerable as she had just suffered a stroke about a week before the attack.
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