Stepdad who forced kids to sleep in ‘igloo-style doghouse’ in yard before killing 10-year-old boy, burning body, and dumping ashes in drainage system learns his fate

A man in Oklahoma will spend the remainder of his days behind bars for beating, abusing, and torturing his two young stepchildren for years, killing and burning one of the children while leaving the other malnourished and permanently scarred.

Tulsa County District Judge Clifford P. Smith on Thursday ordered John L. Miles III to serve seven consecutive life sentences — one of which was life without parole — in a state correctional facility plus an additional 55 years for the horrific spate of crimes committed against young Orlando Hugger Jr. and his older sister, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

A jury in October 2024 convicted Miles on one count of first-degree murder by child abuse, two counts of child abuse by torture, four counts of child neglect, one count of child abuse without torture, one count of child sexual abuse, and one count of desecration of a human corpse.

Orlando’s mother, Camille Rechae Lewis, last year pleaded guilty to one count each of child abuse and neglect, second-degree murder and desecration of a corpse. As part of her plea deal, Lewis testified against Miles at trial. Smith on Friday ordered her to serve a sentence of life in prison with the possibility for parole after 35 years.

Camille Rechae Lewis (Tulsa County Jail)

Prosecutors with the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office had said the underlying facts in the case were some of the most disturbing they had ever encountered.

“This is the most horrific and gruesome case I have seen in my career as a prosecutor,” Assistant District Attorney Amy Dickens said, according to Tulsa, Oklahoma Fox affiliate KOKI. “The torture, abuse and neglect these children faced day after day is abhorrent. We can’t bring back Orlando Hugger, Jr., but we hope this is one step closer to getting justice for the atrocities he faced.”

As previously reported by Law&Crime, Tulsa Police said the case came to light when the children’s grandmother contacted police on Jan. 27, 2023, to file a report about her grandson, saying that he had been missing for several years and was possibly dead, The grandmother also reported that her granddaughter had been the victim of serious continued sexual abuse.

The grandmother told investigators that Lewis had left her then-13-year-old daughter with her in September 2022, describing the child as “skin and bones from malnourishment,” officials said. The grandmother also said that when Lewis left the girl, she told her mother that the 11-year-old boy was dead.

In an interview with detectives, the then-13-year-old girl said her mother and stepfather “lock her and her brother in separate closets for days at a time, not feed them, and beat them with belts and cords.”

“The girl said at times she had to urinate/defecate in a bag/cup in the closet,” the release stated. “She said sometimes she and her brother would be forced to sleep in an igloo-style doghouse in the backyard and exercise outdoors in very cold weather.”

According to police, the child told investigators that her stepfather “would offer her food in exchange for sexual favors.”

She also said her mom personally told her about her brother’s horrific death.

“The girl said in March of 2021, she heard her mother crying and begging her brother to wake up,” the release stated. “The girl said her mother later told her that her brother had a seizure and died, and they did not take him to the hospital because they did not want to be in trouble.”

Orlando died in August 2021, according to police. Miles and one of his cousins buried the boy’s body in a park, then went back and dug it up, burning the body in a barrel, and discarding the ashes in a drainage system, the child said her mother told her.

When officers took Camille Lewis into custody on Feb. 7, 2023, they said she admitted to abusing her children and causing the scars seen on her daughter’s body but claimed she had not seen her son since he ran away two years earlier. She later admitted the boy died in her arms.

“I’m sorry the jury had to see and hear the evidence presented during this trial,” Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney John Tjeerdsma said after Miles was found guilty. “This crime came from a place of pure evil. We thank the jury and law enforcement detectives for ensuring John Miles was held accountable for his crimes.”