Court affirms mother’s 99-year sentence

TEXARKANA, Texas — An appellate court in Texarkana has affirmed the 99-year sentence of a mother convicted last year by a Bowie County jury of failing to protect her children from a violent father.

Khadijah Wright, 27, violated a Child Protective Services safety plan that prohibited Benearl Lewis from being alone with the couple’s children, including 4-year-old D’Money Lewis. D’Money suffered fatal injuries March 6, 2018.

Lewis is serving a life term for murder. His sentence was affirmed by the 6th District Court of Appeals in Texarkana last year. On July 6, the higher court affirmed the 99-year term Wright received for injury to a child by omission, rejecting arguments that the lawyer who defended her at trial was ineffective.

“Khadijah Wright and her co-defendant Benearl Lewis, were fairly tried in Bowie County in two separate jury trials; their sentences, each the maximum allowed under Texas law, were upheld and affirmed by the Sixth Court of Appeals in Texarkana. Although procedurally, these cases have come to their legal conclusion, the devastating evidence of prolific and prolonged child abuse inflicted upon their victim, their own child D’Money Lewis, will not soon be forgotten by all of us in law enforcement who worked on the investigation and prosecution of these cases,” First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said.

Testimony during the trial revealed that child-welfare agencies in three states had investigated allegations of abuse and neglect for D’Money and his three siblings 19 times beginning in 2013. The couple often moved from one state to another so that investigations would be closed, according to records.