LEWIS WAVES RIGHT TO PRELIMINARY HEARING; CASE DELAYED

NILES – The court case against John Benton Lewis has been delayed. Lewis allegedly killed his wife at their Niles Township home Aug. 13 and had been scheduled to be in court this week.
Lewis waived his right to have a preliminary hearing within 14 days of his arraignment last week. His new court dates are Sept. 6 for a pre-exam conference and Sept. 12 for a preliminary hearing. The case will be heard in St. Joseph before Berrien County Trial Judge Donna Howard. Judge Angela Pasula recused herself because she knew the victim.
Court documents show that John Benton Lewis had made plans to kill his wife in the past. An unidentified confidential informant told police detectives that she had been having an affair with Lewis and that he told her about how he planned to kill his wife.
The complaint and warrant filed in the Lewis case give more details about what police found Aug. 13 when they responded to a southern Niles Township home as well as the investigation afterwards. Police arrived at the Lawndale Avenue home around 6 p.m. Aug. 13 and found the body of Carla Lewis in the basement of the home.
Police reported that Carla Lewis was discovered in a crouched position with her head resting on a planter containing a marijuana plant. John Lewis maintained a marijuana growing operation in the home. She had a gunshot wound to her head. John Lewis was laying nearby uninjured and “had made no attempt to provide care/first aid to his wife.”
An autopsy conducted a few days later found that Carla Lewis had multiple gunshot wounds. John Lewis was originally arrested on a charge of violating medical marijuana rules and then for first-degree premeditated murder.
Police described John Lewis as making inconsistent statements in interviews. They also talked to an acquaintance named Justin Hicks who did construction work for Lewis, the confidential informant as well as Carla Lewis’ father and daughter.
Hicks told police that Lewis had texted him that day and asked him to bring ammunition from Lewis’ business to the Lewis home. Ammunition Hicks said he delivered to Lewis matched spent cases found at the scene. Lewis denied contacting or meeting with Hicks that day.
The informant told police that she had been with Lewis at his home the day of the murder but left quickly when Lewis received a text from his wife saying she was coming home from a trip out of town. She said they had been having an affair for six years and that Lewis had told his wife about it. He told the woman that his wife was planning to move out.
She said Lewis had previously told him that he planned to kill his wife by drugging her with Xanax and other drugs.
The daughter told police that her mother had showed her surveillance cameras recently installed in their home, cameras which police found were disconnected the day of the murder.
Police reported that they had interviewed neighbors and none of them had seen the two black males John Lewis said had broken into the home and shot his wife.