Carson man gets 51 years for child rape
TAOS — A 66-year-old Carson man convicted in November of four counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor may spend the rest of his life incarcerated in a New Mexico prison.
State District Judge Emilio Chavez in Taos imposed the maximum possible sentence on all four counts against David Lewis, a total of 51 years.
Lewis, sentenced in mid-February, is seeking a new trial in the case. He maintains the charges he had faced are based on false allegations by a teen girl he said he had been close with for years but never abused.
The girl, who appeared in court for Lewis’ sentencing, had told authorities he abused her when she was between the ages of 6 and 14. She came forward with her claims of abuse in 2015, and a grand jury indicted Lewis on charges that year.
After Lewis’ three-day trial, which began Oct. 31, the teen said during an interview that she had become friends with his children as she grew up in Carson, a small, rural community on the mesa west of Taos.
The outcome of the trial was a victory, she said — not only for her, but for the wider Taos County community, because “everybody knows who [Lewis] is.”
Deputy District Attorney Ron Olsen said this week that “the state and victim are satisfied with the outcome and sentence, removing this sexual predator from the streets of our community.”
Olsen said his office believed the trial “gave the victim a voice, and she is to be commended for her strength and courage throughout the criminal prosecution.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Aarons, Lewis’ defense attorney, is seeking a retrial. During the November jury trial, he stated that several character witnesses living in California were unable to testify, creating a hole in the evidence presented to the jury.
He is expected to cite that, and possibly other evidence, during a retrial hearing in Raton before Judge Chavez.