A Newport News man responsible for the death of his estranged wife will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Newport Circuit Court Judge Bryant L. Sugg handed Adrian Salvatore Lewis, 51, a life term in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of his wife Shanita Eure-Lewis. Within an hour of deliberation and despite the absence of a body, Lewis was found guilty and convicted of first-degree murder, according to 13 News Now.
On July 17, 2022, Eure-Lewis was reported missing in the area of Gethsemane Baptist Church on Roanoke Avenue. According to prosecutors’ contention, Lewis shot Eure-Lewis to death in his pickup as the couple drove down Jefferson Avenue shortly after 9:35 a.m. on that faithful day. Next, the defendant took off the victim’s jewelry and pawned it off at a Chesapeake pawn shop.
During the trial, prosecutors showed Lewis had hired someone to clean blood from his truck. In addition, the defendant’s internet search indicated his desire to flee to Jamaica as he researched if the country had an extradition treaty with the United States. As a result, Lewis booked a flight to Jamaica the next day but was sighted at a Dulles Airport boarding gate by a Homeland Security Agent, where he was arrested. Authorities found his wife’s passport and credit cards in his luggage.
Friends and family also testified that Eure-Lewis had asked the defendant for a divorce a week earlier. As a result, Lewis believed his wife was cheating on him. Even though Lewis was involved in an extra-marital affair himself, he became angry and jealous. Then, he told a friend, “I can’t let her walk away from this.”
Authorities still don’t know the whereabouts of the victim’s body. The murder case without a body was one in two dozen instances in the history of Virginia since the 1800s.
“What he did with her after that, only he knows. Where is Shanita? Where is her body?… Not knowing that is eating at everyone sitting behind me today,” said Newport News Prosecutor Travis White, reported The Virginia Pilot.
The judge ordered the defendant not to have contact with his children until they were 18 years old. After that, visitation will be prohibited without an invitation.
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