Shelley Foley holds a sign Thursday, March 14, 2024, during a rally at the Regional Justice Center for Jonathan Lewis, 17, who died on Nov. 7, 2023, almost a week after a group of classmates beat him near Rancho High School.
Friday, March 15, 2024 | 2 a.m.
A group of supporters keeping a close watch on the mob beating death of a local teenager in an alley near his school returned to the courthouse steps Thursday to call for justice for the boy, Jonathan Lewis Jr.
They’ve been here before, and they say they plan to keep coming back.
“The nation is watching/the courts need to do the right thing,” one of their handmade signs read.
“They showed no mercy/the court shouldn’t either,” read another.
Four of the suspects in the case were in Clark County District Court for a hearing as the case against them proceeds toward trial. At the time of the Nov. 1 beating, captured on viral bystander video that made the case a worldwide story, Dontral Beaver and Treavion Randolph were 16, and Damien Hernandez and Gianni Robinson were 17. The four, who are being charged as adults, were allegedly part of a large group that took Lewis, 17, to the ground after school in an alley across from Rancho High, where they were all students.
“They kept stomping on his head,” said Carol Weishaar, who was one of about 10 people who came out on behalf of Lewis and his mother — who was not there, as it was too hard to return after one of the younger suspects was sentenced to a juvenile facility earlier this week, Weishaar said. Nine teens have been charged; the other five are as young as 13 and remain in the juvenile justice system.
“They kept stomping on his head,” she repeated. “He was down. He wasn’t a threat.”
“They knew what they were doing,” she added.
Weishaar said Lewis’ death brings back memories of her own son’s slaying more than 20 years ago. She knows what Lewis’ mother is going through, and what she shouldn’t have to feel. She said her son’s killer did not serve prison time, as the death was deemed self-defense even though he was shot in the back.
“I know a little bit about not getting justice,” she said.
Lewis died Nov. 7 in the hospital from blunt force trauma. Police said it was apparent early on that he had suffered “nonsurvivable head trauma.”
Ashley Anderson, who grew up in Las Vegas, said she was bullied as a teen and also stood up for her friends, as it’s been said Lewis did that day.
She brought her service dog to the hearing. The dog’s vest had patches saying “I stand with Jonathan” and “bullying” with a line through it.
“It hit really close to home,” she said.
The supporters, who know each other through a Facebook group run by Lewis’ mother, offered fliers with the boy’s photo and the years he lived to passersby. Most walked around them silently, but one man who had heard of the case stopped. “Wow,” he said.
The four in the adult system appeared in court Thursday but did not speak while their lawyers challenged the charges against them. They have previously pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit battery and are set for trial in August, according to online court records.
Video from the alley shows that Lewis pushed one person and punched another before he went down. Police have said the conflict started over a stolen vape pen and headphones.
Hernandez’s lawyer Karen Connolly said the group had a spontaneous reaction to Lewis pushing the other boy.
“This was a group of young men who was challenged to fight,” she said.
She said her client appeared to briefly kick Lewis about 13 seconds into the video, then pulled away while others continued.
“They each have different degrees of culpability,” she said.
Randolph’s lawyer Daniel Martinez said the video shows uncoordinated “mayhem.” While his client joined the fray, it isn’t apparent that he made contact.
Jill Hough, another Lewis supporter, said she plans to attend every hearing and every day of the planned trial. She shook her head throughout Thursday’s hearing over the defenses that the boys did not plan the attack, and at one lawyer consistently calling Lewis “Jonathan Smith.”
“Everyone should know that the victim in this case was Jonathan. Lewis. Junior,” she said.
Judge Tierra Jones’ written decision on the suspects’ arguments to drop the case is pending.
