A Florida man will spend life in prison after molesting his girlfriend’s 10-year-old daughter before trying to get rid of the evidence.
In April 2019, Lewis Matthews was at his girlfriend’s home in Tampa, when he began sexually battering her minor daughter. At 3 a.m. one early morning, the child’s mother walked in on Lewis and caught him in the act. The mother immediately dialed 911, but Mathews grabbed the child and two other children in the home and drove to a convenience store.
According to court documents, Matthews bought a bottle of bleach at the store, then took the victim into a public bathroom where he told her to remove her clothes. Lewis then poured bleach on the child and on her genitals in an attempt to get his DNA off of her body. He then threw the victim’s underwear away in a dumpster.
It didn’t work. Despite dousing the young child in bleach, investigators still found Lewis’ DNA on the victim’s body. The child also told investigators that she was sleeping when Lewis approached her and started molesting her.
Fox 13 reports that Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Fernandez found Lewis guilty earlier this year, followed by sentencing on Monday, where she gave him the maximum sentence possible: life without parole.
“Parents who are sexually abusing kids in their custody — it makes your blood boil,” Andrew Warren, state attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit, said. “That’s why we’re aggressively prosecuting cases like these. And that’s why these people deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison.”
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Lewis reportedly smiled and laughed with his lawyer as he was led out of the courtroom.
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