NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — Adrian Lewis, 49, was convicted of first-degree murder on Thursday, Sept. 28, in relation to the disappearance of his wife in July 2022. He was found not guilty on a separate charge of use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
Lewis was initially charged in the murder of his wife Shanita Eure-Lewis after she went missing on July 17, 2022. The two were married for 17 years and had two sons. She has yet to be found.
Lewis’ attorney attempted to get the first-degree murder and gun charges thrown out on Sept. 27, but was denied by the judge, who cited “an abundance of circumstantial evidence” brought against Lewis.
The jury got the case just before 2 p.m. on Sept. 28, and delivered a verdict around 4:30 p.m.
Prosecutor Valerie Muth said there were several incriminating pieces of evidence proving Lewis killed Eure-Lewis.
Some of which included prior threats by Lewis saying that he would kill his wife if he ever caught her cheating, a gun that was shown his to his former girlfriend in days prior to his wife’s disappearance and blood found on rags used to clean the defendant’s truck belonging to Eure-Lewis.
Phone calls from Lewis were made from the Newport News jail in the days and weeks following his wife’s disappearance, including a call to the Eure-Lewis’s mother. After demanding to know where her daughter was, and whether she was still alive. Lewis repeated, “I can’t tell you.”
Evidence also showed a series of Google searched asking what happens when you shoot someone in the head, and the penalty for murder in Virginia.
Despite the defense’s attempt to convince the jury of an alternative explanation, such as a tragic accident, the jury came back with a guilty verdict.
10 On Your Side, spoke with some of the alternate jurors who are dismissed and no longer on the case. They said the blood forensic evidence and a conversation Lewis had with another traveler at Dulles Airport, where he talked about his wife in the past tense, were inflection points for them in the entire case.
Following the reading of the verdict, Lewis’ sister, Andrea Lewis, said she hopes that there is some form of closure for everyone after this.
“Adrian’s my brother and Shanita was not just my sister-in-law, but she was a sister to me,” Andrea said, over the phone. “When two people join in marriage, they create one large family, and I want to still proceed as one large family.”
Lewis’ sentencing date has been set for Jan. 19.