AVEION MALIK LEWIS - 2 yo (2010) - Roanoke VA

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Witness: Morgan Lockett vague about details
A neighbor said Morgan Lockett was reluctant to answer her questions about Aveion Lewis' fate

It was the night of Jan. 26, 2010, one day before the body of 2-year-old Aveion Lewis was found buried in a landfill.

The boy's stepfather, Brandon Lockett, was locked up in Roanoke City Jail. No longer believing Lockett's story that armed intruders kidnapped his stepson, police had charged him with child neglect, obstruction of justice and improper disposal of a body they were still frantically searching for.

Aveion's mother, Morgan Lockett, showed up at the jail that night to visit her husband.

Afterward, she caught a ride home with Aurelia Allen, a neighbor who lived in her Jamestown public housing complex.

Allen was brimming with the same questions many people had. "I kept bringing it up," she told a jury in Roanoke Circuit Court on Friday.

"What do you think happened? What's going on? Where is he? Did he tell you anything?"

Morgan Lockett was reluctant to talk, Allen said, but eventually offered this observation:

"She just said only Brandon and God know what happened," Allen told the jury.

Allen's testimony came on the fourth day of a trial for Morgan Lockett, 24, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of killing her son. A former elementary school assistant, Lockett is charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and neglect of Aveion, who suffered burns, a broken arm and severe malnutrition in the weeks before his death.

Brandon Lockett, 25, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, child abuse and neglect of Aveion in August and could be a witness in a trial that is scheduled to resume Monday.

In testimony Friday, Detective April McCadden of the Roanoke Police Department said authorities do not know just when Aveion was killed, or where.

Isn't it also true, defense attorney Thomas Strelka asked, that police don't know how the toddler died?

Judge Clifford Weckstein sustained the prosecution's objection to that line of inquiry.

Although a cause of death is murky — in part because the body was found badly decomposed with half the head missing — prosecutors have said it will be up to the jury to decide that question.

A medical examiner who conducted an autopsy is expected to testify Monday.

Prosecutors had hoped to use the testimony of a forensic anthropologist, who worked with the medical examiner's office on the case, to establish that a fracture to Aveion's left arm had happened from one to four weeks before his death.

But after defense attorneys questioned Donna Boyd's credentials to testify as an expert witness, Weckstein ruled that she could not give an opinion on the age of the fracture.

When Aveion first went missing, nearly two years ago, authorities did not know they had a homicide on their hands.

Brandon Lockett claimed the boy had been taken for a $10,000 ransom by kidnappers, setting off a highly publicized hunt. Lockett later told police his stepson had choked on a honey bun and said the body had been disposed of by a friend he knew only as "Jose."

After a lengthy search, Aveion's body was found two weeks later, wrapped in plastic and badly damaged in a Roanoke County landfill.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/299743

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Morgan Lockett's charge now second-degree murder
The reduction in the charge followed testimony that could not establish how Aveion Lewis died.

The judge in Morgan Lockett's murder and child abuse trial dropped the first-degree murder charge late Monday and ruled the case will proceed with a second-degree murder charge.

The decision means Lockett, 24, no longer faces the possibility of life imprisonment in the death of her son, 2-year-old Aveion Lewis. The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is 40 years in prison.

Roanoke Circuit Court jurors during the trial's fifth day heard testimony from a half-dozen witnesses, including Dr. Christena Roberts, former assistant chief medical examiner, who examined Aveion's body and said the amount of weight he lost in the last months of his life "could potentially be fatal."

But after hearing arguments from defense lawyers and prosecutors, Judge Clifford Weckstein said Roberts "could not exclude other causes of death."

Because Aveion's body was missing part of the head when recovered by investigators in a Roanoke County landfill in January 2010, the cause of death was never determined.

"Were the jury to return a verdict of guilt of first-degree murder, it would be based on Dr. Roberts' testimony," Weckstein said.

The judge cited the Supreme Court of Virginia, which said: "A medical opinion based on a probability is purely speculation."

As a result, the judge said, jurors shouldn't be asked to decide the first-degree murder charge.

Roberts, in her testimony Monday, told jurors that Aveion's remains, damaged by heavy equipment while being processed into the landfill, weighed about 15 pounds. She estimated the toddler's total weight was 18 pounds to 20 pounds.

When Aveion had been returned to his home after a stint in foster care, in April 2009, he weighed 30 pounds to 40 pounds, suggesting a loss of approximately half his body weight in the last nine months of his life.

Roberts told jurors an external examination of the remains showed severe malnutrition, including a sunken abdomen and wasted muscles in his extremities.

An internal exam showed so little subcutaneous fat -- fat beneath the skin -- she said she didn't bother to measure it.

"It was so thin, I think less than a millimeter," Roberts said. "There wouldn't be any point."

Art Strickland, one of Morgan Lockett's defense attorneys, objected to Roberts' testimony midway through on the grounds that the cause of death could not be determined. Even Aveion's final body weight was an estimate by investigators, he said.

The jury was sent out of the courtroom and defense and prosecutors argued the parameters of Roberts' questioning for more than an hour before she resumed testimony.

Roberts also walked jurors through forensic photographs that depicted injuries she said Aveion suffered, images that led at least one juror to tears.

The injuries included an untreated spiral fracture of his arm; a long, linear scar across his buttocks; small "starburst" scars on the back of his hand and wrist; "a collection of scars" on his right thigh; scarring behind the right knee Roberts said was "consistent with second-degree burns"; and bruises on his right ankle.

Aveion's stepfather and Morgan Lockett's husband, Brandon Lockett, initially claimed the child had been kidnapped by home invaders. He later changed his story, saying Aveion choked to death on a honey bun and his body had been disposed of by an acquaintance.

But Roberts testified that Aveion had no food at all in either his esophagus or stomach, indicating he hadn't eaten anything on the day he died.

Jurors also heard testimony from Aveion's gastroenterologist, Dr. Michael Hart, who testified he began treating the toddler in May 2007 because of Aveion's apparent inability to gain weight.

Hart told the court he screened the child for health problems.

"He gained weight very nicely when hospitalized," said Hart, who diagnosed him with "failure to thrive of a nonorganic means."

When social services seized Aveion from Brandon and Morgan Lockett in May 2008, Hart testified he called 911 when the drastically emaciated boy was brought to his office.

"I thought he was going to die," Hart said.

Forensic scientist Nicole Harold presented testimony indicating blood found on laundry in the home and on the floor of Aveion's bedroom was likely Aveion's blood. On cross-examination by defense attorney Thomas Strelka, Harold testified that blood found on the inside of a pair of Brandon Lockett's shorts was not analyzed because prosecutors hadn't requested it.

Strelka's questioning also revealed investigators didn't know how much blood had been spilled, or when it had happened.

Police Deputy Chief Curtis Davis, commander of the investigating team, described for the jury how searchers coordinated efforts to find Aveion's body after it was processed into the Smith Gap landfill in Roanoke County.

Landfill employee James Connor testified police academy recruits had to sort through nearly 280 tons of garbage in their search.

The defense is scheduled to begin its case today, when the trial resumes.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/299830

It's too bad the mother won't be charged with first degree murder. I hope she still gets a lot of years for abusing this poor child.

Mom pleads no contest in Aveion murder
By Neil Harvey | The Roanoke Times

Morgan Lockett, tears streaming down her cheeks, pleaded no contest today to second-degree murder and felony child abuse in the killing of her 2-year-old son, Aveion Lewis.

The 24-year-old mom of four other children struck a deal with prosecutors as her murder trial before a Roanoke Circuit Court jury entered its sixth day. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped a child endangerment charge.

She faces a maximum of 40 years imprisonment on the murder charge and 10 years on the child abuse charge when she is sentenced in January. If the jury had convicted her on all charges, she could have been sentenced to a maximum of 55 years.

Lockett's weeping was her most overt display of emotion in the six days the trial. She told Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein she has been taking Buspar, an anti-anxiety drug. The judge declared her guilty after she entered the plea.

The plea came a day after Weckstein dropped the first-degree murder charge, saying the prosecution failed to prove that starvation killed Aveion. The medical examiner told jurors the child’s dramatic weight loss in the last months of his life “could potentially be fatal,” but she couldn’t exclude other causes of death. Aveion's body, found in a Roanoke County landfill, showed evidence of untreated burns and a broken arm, the medical examiner said.

Juror Mike Payne of Roanoke said afterward he didn’t believe the prosecution presented enough evidence to prove murder.

“I guess what I believe and a lot of other people believe are two different things,” Payne said outside the courthouse. “There wasn’t enough evidence to justify that charge. I didn’t see enough to justify that for myself.”

Payne said he was disappointed in the outcome.

“I wanted to follow it to the end,” he said.

Lockett’s husband, Brandon Lockett, who was Aveion’s stepfather, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and child abuse in August.

Weckstein said Brandon Lockett yesterday asked to withdraw his plea.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/299841

Judge denies Brandon Lockett's request to have his plea rescinded
Brandon Lockett was charged in the death of his 2-year-old stepson


Chris Hurst
Anchor/Reporter
4:42 p.m. EST, November 29, 2011

ROANOKE, Va.—
The man charged with starving his 2-year-old stepson to death won't be allowed to take back a plea deal.
Brandon Lockett made the request earlier this month. On Tuesday a judge denied Lockett's request to have his plea rescinded.
He said his lawyers coerced him into the deal and that he didn't know the rights he was giving up.
A judge referred to a court date in August when he made the deal to drop his first degree murder charge to second degree.

"When I took the plea, yes I did feel pressured as I filed in my motion," Lockett said Tuesday. "No I wasn't threatened but I felt coerced afterwards. I felt coerced into taking the plea."
The judge said if Lockett didn't understand what he was doing -- that was the time to speak up.
Lockett also wanted to drop his court-appointed lawyers. It was possible Lockett could have defended himself and he said his defense would have been to refute expert testimony and cite a lack of evidence in the case. The judge disagreed.

"Mr. Lockett's concept that a defense exists is not based in reality," he said.
The child's foster father says all that's left is sentencing and then this saga may finally be over.
"I don't know if they ever will own up to what they've done or didn't do," said Jeff Yopp, Aveion Lewis' foster father. "It's between them and God now. It is frustrating but at least the court system has given them every chance they could possibly get, and they're still found guilty."

Both Brandon and the boy's mother Morgan Lockett will be sentenced in January.

They were found guilty of killing Aveion Lewis in 2010.
His remains were found in a landfill.

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-man-accused-of-starving-child-to-death-in-roanoke-courtroom-tuesday-20111129,0,3724256.story

ROANOKE, Va----

UPDATED 1:49 p.m.: Morgan Lockett, the mother
convicted of killing her 2-year-old son, sentenced to 10 years for
felony child abuse, and 30 years for 2nd degree murder.

Lockett will serve a total of 40 years in prison.
Lockett faced up to 50 years in prison for the murder of the child in
2010. Lockett pleaded no contest and was convicted of second degree
murder and child neglect in October.

Her husband, Brandon Lockett, pleaded no contest to similar charges and will be sentenced later this month.
http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-mother-of-murdered-twoyearold-to-be-sentenced-today-20120104,0,7016698.story

UPDATE: Mother of murdered two-year-old sentenced to 40 years

Morgan Lockett sentenced in 2010 death of her son, Aveion Lewis

January 04, 2012|Susan Bahorich | News 7 Reporter

Nearly two-years after little Aveion Lewis went missing, his mother was sentenced for his death.
Wednesday, a judge gave Morgan Lockett 40-years in connection with the toddler's death in 2010.
Morgan Lockett could have gotten 50-years for 2nd degree murder and child abuse.

Instead, the 25-year-old will go to prison for four-decades.

When she comes out she'll have 15-years probation and is not allowed to live, work or be near young children.

Her defense claimed Morgan was a woman who was manipulated and controlled by her husband, Brandon Lockett.

They say he was the one responsible for Aveion Lewis' death.

Unlike in her trial, Morgan Lockett took the stand.

For the first time she apologized, but maintained her innocence. "I'm sorry for not properly being a mother, even though there's not a handbook, nothing telling you how to be a mother," cried Morgan Lockett on the stand.

Morgan's defense team was disappointed in the sentence, but the prosecution said it was glad the judge held Morgan accountable for the abuse that started before Brandon Lockett entered the picture.

In a surprise Wednesday morning, we learned Morgan Lockett submitted a letter to the court similar to one that her husband submitted in October.

The difference, Morgan's letter said she was having second thoughts about her plea. It did NOT ask to withdrawal her plea, which is what Brandon has requested.

He's due to be sentenced for Aveion's death later this month.

http://articles.wdbj7.com/2012-01-04/brandon-lockett_30591143

Good! 40 years for that loser who called herself a mother. Thank God she won't be able to bear any more children to abuse. I hope she enjoys her time in jail.