Adrian Salvatore Lewis, left, and Shanitia Mikell Eure-Lewis, right. (Newport News Police Department)
A Virginia man on trial for the death of his long-and-still-missing wife was allegedly cheating on her for years, a witness said in court on Wednesday morning. The day before, jurors heard testimony the defendant believed his wife was cheating on him – and had often threatened to kill her over her suspected infidelity.
Shanitia Eure-Lewis, 35, was last seen by family and friends on July 17, 2022, according to the Newport News Police Department.
On July 18, 2022, she was reported missing and “believed to be in extreme danger” by the Virginia State Police. That same day, her husband, Adrian Lewis, 50, bought a ticket to Jamaica, police allege.
On July 19, 2022, Lewis was charged with one count each of murder in the first degree and using a firearm in commission of a felony in connection with his wife’s disappearance. She is presumed dead – though her body has yet to be found. He was arrested around 4:15 a.m. the day before at Washington Dulles International Airport near the departure gate for a flight headed to Montego Bay.
Newport News Circuit Court Judge Bryant Sugg is overseeing the murder trial that began on Tuesday. Jury selection ended Monday evening, according to Hampton-based ABC affiliate WVEC.
“She was part of our 8 o’clock worship,” Gethsemane Baptist Church Pastor Dwight Riddick told WVEC in the immediate aftermath of the beloved parishioner’s disappearance. “As I understand it, she left to go home to get her two sons and bring them back to the next worship service but did not return to the next worship service.”
On Tuesday, Riddick testified in court about the defendant’s alleged anger toward his wife – even after she was gone.
The pastor told the jury and the court that sometime after Eure-Lewis went missing, he got a phone call from her husband. During that call, Riddick said, Lewis said of his wife: “I just hope she rots in Hell.”
Other witnesses testified about claims the defendant repeatedly made over his wife’s presumed, but never proven, adultery.
Read Related Also: Man who threatened to kill neighbors is sentenced — and sent right back home across the street from his victims
Mitchell Foreman, a church friend of the couple’s, said that around two weeks before Eure-Lewis went missing, she expressed a desire to obtain a divorce, according to a courtroom report by Norfolk-based CBS affiliate WTKR. A few days after that, Lewis rationalized the looming breakup by insisting that she must be cheating on him and allegedly told Foreman: “I can’t let her walk away from this.”
Tiffany Foreman, Mitchell Foreman’s wife, also testified on Tuesday. She said her friend of 30-plus years had told her she was going to get a divorce from Lewis five days before she vanished.
Making his own cheating suspicions a matter of public record was allegedly nothing new for Lewis. In a December 2022 pre-trial hearing, Mitchell Foreman testified that during a 2021 Christmas party, the defendant told several people he would kill his wife if she ever cheated on him, according to Portsmouth-based NBC affiliate WAVY.
Also, at that holiday gathering, Lewis allegedly admitted to his adulterous ways. Mitchell Foreman said he lectured the accused killer.
“You can’t expect her to be faithful if you’re cheating on her,” the mutual friend said he told the defendant. Lewis allegedly replied: “I’m from the street, and I handle things the street way.”
On Wednesday morning, Tomeka Davis testified that she and Lewis had an “on and off again” sexual relationship for years – during the marriage between the defendant and his alleged victim, according to courtroom reporting by WVEC, WTKR, and WAVY.
In early July 2022, Davis told jurors that Lewis told her he would hurt his wife “if he ever caught her cheating.” Davis said Lewis even showed up drunk at her own house that month looking for his wife, with a gun, and after being sent home, texted Davis the next day: “You saved her for a night, but if she don’t act right tonight, she’s done.”
On the day Eure-Lewis disappeared, Lewis called Davis and told her: “I did it,” the defendant’s former lover testified. When Davis asked him what he had done, Lewis allegedly replied: “Nothing. I’m just playing.”
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
