Photos: Heather Lewis and William “Billy” Lewis Jr.
What started last week as a jury trial for one case ended Monday when a Mountain Home man pled guilty to charges against him in 11 open criminal cases during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court.
Thirty-five-year-old William “Billy” Lewis Jr. was sentenced to six years in prison and put on probation for 20 years.
Circuit Judge John Putman accepted the recommendation and pronounced sentence.
If Lewis violates the terms and conditions of his 20-year probation, he could face up to 300 years in prison, in that the judge at his discretion could stack the sentences handed down in each case. They are now set to run concurrently — or at the same time.
It is also expected that Lewis will seek treatment for a drug problem.
Since 2007, 21 criminal cases have been opened on Lewis.
ESTRANGED WIFE TAKES BLAME
Lewis’ estranged wife, Heather Lewis, turned the jury trial in an entirely different direction when she testified Friday. She told the court she was the only one guilty of the Jan. 25, 2020 theft of catalytic converters, a diamond ring and earrings from her parents’ property on County Road 69.
She said she had “tricked and deceived” her husband into participating in the theft.
Heather Lewis told the court she had told her husband she had permission from her father to take the converters, “because money was tight” for her.
Heather Lewis testified there was no reason for her husband to be suspicious, “because my family helped me out all the time.”
Her drug addiction was responsible for the money problem. She admitted on the stand she was a methamphetamine addict at the time, and that she used syringes to ingest the drug.
She described IV drug users “as the lowest of the low.”
Heather Lewis said in mid-May 2020, she had pled guilty to charges in several cases, including the thefts at her parents’ home.
She was sentenced to seven years in prison and is currently an inmate in the Wrightsville Womens’ Unit of the state prison system.
She was shown on surveillance camera footage selling the ring at a local pawnshop, according to the probable cause affidavit.
WHY WAIT TO TELL
Deputy Prosecutor Kerry Chism asked Heather Lewis why she had not told anyone that her husband had been tricked into participating in the theft prior to her testimony Friday.
She claimed she had by writing out a statement, telling one of the Baxter County sheriff’s investigators working the case and giving the same information to her public defender.
Chism pointed out no one had ever seen such a statement, and the investigator testified Heather Lewis had never told him William Lewis had been duped into participating in the theft.
The deputy prosecutor said Heather Lewis and William Lewis “were married and were a team.” He told the jury the thefts “represented a concerted effort between the two of them.”
Chism had told the jury at one point, “If you are going to steal things, you have to be ready to lie, otherwise, you won’t be a very successful thief.”
Mountain Home attorney Paul Bayless, who represented William Lewis, said of Heather Lewis’ testimony prior to her taking the stand, “I don’t know what she is going to say, but I hope she comes in here and tells the truth, because the truth will set my client free.”
Mark Johnson, Heather Lewis’ father, testified the relationship with his daughter had been strained at the time because of her drug use and her marriage to William Lewis.
He said he “had never liked” William Lewis and that his daughter had been told not to bring her husband on his property. In answer to a question, Johnson said William Lewis, “just turned me the wrong way.”
Johnson said he had never given his daughter or her husband permission to cut off catalytic converters from vehicles he owned.
The probable cause affidavit claims Heather Lewis and her husband had gone to her parents’ property located along County Road 69 in the nighttime hours to steal the catalytic converters.
Heather Lewis is alleged to have talked with a relative living next door to her parents’ home while her husband crawled under the vehicles and, working by flashlight, removed the catalytic converters, according to the affidavit.
There was no allegation in the probable cause affidavit that Heather Lewis had actually participated in the removal of the converters.
On the stand Friday, however, she said she had used a hacksaw to cut off one of the converters.
The converters are attractive to thieves because they contain various precious metals, including platinum, palladium and rhodium.
Investigators say a surveillance camera at a nearby residence clearly shows two vehicles pulling into the driveway of Heather Lewis’ parents’ home.
One of the vehicles was described as “a pickup truck with a sling type towing attachment.”
The truck is “relatively unique in appearance” and was recognized by investigators as one Lewis commonly drives, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The truck is often referred to in investigative reports as Lewis’ own “personal tow truck.”
William Lewis, citing irreconcilable differences, filed for divorce from Heather Lewis in April. The divorce case is still open, according to electronic court records.
During one court appearance, William Lewis had said the converter thefts had been his wife’s “idea.”
Through the years, William Lewis has been jailed for theft of property, fleeing, theft by receiving, breaking or entering, being a felon in possession of a firearm, residential burglary, impairing the operation of a vital public facility, criminal mischief and unauthorized use of property.
During a previous appearance in Baxter County Circuit Court, Lewis said many of the latest charges against him were all due to a “misunderstanding.”
He offered no explanation as to what the “his understanding” might be.
Last year alone, new cases were filed against him in January, May, June and September.
In those cases, William Lewis was charged with possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia, theft of property, theft by receiving and unauthorized use of another person’ property to facilitate a crime.
While in jail, he also picked up charges stemming from his alleged involvement in the theft of drugs from a medication cart, including 118 Suboxone strips.
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