John Jefferson
Jaylin Jevon Lewis and King Dewey (Port Arthur Police Department).
The boyfriend of a dead 3-year-old’s sister has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for fatally neglecting the child so badly that the victim, 3-year-old King Dewey, weighed just 19 pounds and had a “skeletal appearance,” according to ABC/NBC Beaumont affiliate KBMT. He is eligible for parole after 30 years.
The defendant, Jaylin Jevon Lewis, 26, reportedly took the stand on his own behalf during the penalty phase of his trial after jurors convicted him of two counts of injury to a child with intent to cause serious bodily injury, but when his defense lawyer Tom Burbank asked if he respected the jury’s decision, the defendant said, “Not really.”
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Prosecutor Tommy Coleman threw this back at him later during cross-examination in the courtroom in Jefferson County, Texas.
“Even as you sit there, it seems a little remorseless,” Coleman said.
Local deputies and police said that King was found starved to death on May 31, 2022, in a closet that was locked with a padlock. The sheriff’s office called the child’s death “horrific.” His sister, Kristen Louis, 21, pleaded guilty earlier in this week to injury to a child and got 30 years behind bars. The case against their mother, Tina Louise Louis, 43 — who had left the child in Louis and Lewis’ care — is ongoing.
Lewis was convicted on Wednesday and sentenced on Thursday. On the stand, he tried to shift blame toward Tina Louis.
“If I could turn back the hands of time to take matters to my own hands, I would have took it upon myself to give him a better opportunity than what his mother was giving him,” Lewis said.
“You are asking for consideration,” Coleman later told him. “Did you show consideration to King?”
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