Kenton County Jury Sends Heroin Dealer to Prison for 60 Years
COVINGTON, Ky. — On March 14, 2019, at the conclusion of a two-day jury trial, a Kenton County jury recommended 60 years in prison for Michael Jamal Lewis, 38 of Covington, after convicting Lewis of three counts of Trafficking in a Controlled Substance 1st Degree (heroin) – Second or Subsequent Offender. The jury found Lewis not guilty of a fourth count of the same offense. Each count was punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison. The jury took less than twenty minutes to find Lewis guilty, and less than an hour to return the maximum sentence for each offense, run consecutively for a 60 year total. Lewis will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years.
In August 2018, Covington Police Detective Chris Dees employed a confidential informant to make recorded phone calls to Lewis arranging purchases of heroin. The informant was the equipped with a covert recording device which captured the actual heroin sales on video. Three of the four sales took place in the kitchen of Lewis’ apartment in the 1500 block of Greenup Street. The fourth sale was made out the window of the same apartment but the seller’s face was not captured on the video recording. The jury’s one not guilty verdict was for the count pertaining to the sale out the window. During the other three transactions, Lewis was shirtless which allowed the video to capture numerous unique and distinctive tattoos on his arms, back, chest, and abdomen. The substances Lewis sold was tested by the Kentucky State Police Crime Lab and found to contain a mixture of heroin and Fentanyl. Lewis was also seen wearing a surgical mask in the videos showing he was apparently aware of the dangers of inhaling the Fentanyl mixed with his heroin.
During the sentencing phase of the trial, Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders introduced Lewis’ criminal history which showed Lewis was sentenced to 6 years in state prison for drug trafficking, only to be convicted of trafficking again upon release. Lewis served 10 years in federal prison for the second offense. “Obviously this jury was sick and tired of heroin dealers spreading death and destruction across our community,” Sanders said. Although lengthy, Sanders said the jury’s sentence was warranted given Lewis’ “lifetime career of preying upon addicts for his own personal gain,” Sanders said “Obviously, his six-year sentence and his 10-year sentence weren’t enough to teach him a lesson so the jury wanted him out of Kenton County for as long as possible.” Sanders also said the sentence will serve as a loud warning for anyone else dealing heroin, saying “Northern Kentucky is fed up with the overdoses and death heroin has wreaked on our neighbors! Stop dealing now or else our police and jurors and prison will stop you!”
Posted on Thursday, March 14th, 2019 @ 11:28AM
Categories: Press Room
