Mugshot of Kyara Lewis. Photo Credit: THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT
ST. THOMAS — A woman is facing multiple felony assault charges for her role in a violent altercation with her child’s father.
According to court documents, on August 25, police were dispatched to Patriot Manor to investigate reports of an altercation involving multiple individuals. Responding officers spoke with several people, who told them that the incident in question originated in Frenchtown.
The following Tuesday, a man came to the police station to provide further information. He told officers that on the day of the incident, his son had been christened. After initial hostility, the child’s mother – Kyara Lewis – agreed to meet up in Frenchtown after the ceremony so the man could spend time with the minor child.
When they met, Ms. Lewis transferred the baby and his belongings into his father’s vehicle. She suspected he had been smoking in the vehicle, which the man denied. However, Ms. Lewis retrieved the bag and put it back in her vehicle, and began demanding the return of her son. His father reportedly refused, and that prompted Ms. Lewis to launch an assault, punching the man and pulling his hair.
The man told police that he got pepper-sprayed in the melee, but he was not sure if the culprit was Ms. Lewis or her brother, who was reportedly also present during the incident. After they left, the man reportedly stepped out of the vehicle to wash his face, but received a phone call warning that more people would soon be coming after him.
Shortly thereafter, Ms. Lewis allegedly returned with several men in tow, one who was allegedly wielding a firearm. In the ensuing commotion, her brother reportedly used a mallet to damage the car of the child’s father. Ms. Lewis herself is accused of hitting the sister of her child’s father twice with the red truck she was driving.
A third altercation occurred back at Patriot Manor, where the man had gone to speak to Ms. Lewis’s parents about the earlier incidents. This time, the baby’s mother reportedly began fighting with a witness to the earlier fracas.
Police began interviewing the several witnesses to the various incidents, and learned that the baby’s father had been smoking in the vehicle before his son and the child’s mother arrived. They also learned that the woman that Ms. Lewis had hit twice with her truck suffered injuries serious enough to require hospitalization.
When officers managed to speak with Ms. Lewis herself, she claimed that her child’s father had choked her, which prompted her to pepper spray him during the altercation. She admitted that she may have bumped into someone with her vehicle while trying to leave the scene but denied any malicious intent.
The sequence of events described by the police makes no mention of what ultimately happened to the baby while this violence was presumably unfolding around him.
Ultimately, Ms. Lewis was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree assault and one count of third-degree assault, as well as second and third-degree assault as crimes of domestic violence. She was also charged with reckless endangerment as a crime of domestic violence, and remanded into custody to await her advice of rights hearing.
In court on Wednesday, Magistrate Simone VanHolten-Turnbull tossed all charges except one count of third-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment. She ordered Ms. Lewis released on her own recognizance, provided she report to the probation office twice a week by telephone.
Ms. Lewis must also refrain from using alcohol or any controlled substance while the case is pending, is banned from possessing firearms, ammunition or dangerous weapons, and must stay at least 15 feet away from all other parties involved in the altercations. Her parents will handle custody exchanges with the baby’s father in the meantime.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for September 20.
