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Related Story: Identities of non-White teens charged for the ‘lynching’ of Jonathan Lewis revealed
Las Vegas, Nevada – Four of nine non-White suspects charged with the savage murder of White teenager Jonathan Lewis were offered a sweetheart plea deal that will see them convicted on far lesser charges, courts revealed.
Additionally, lawyers close to the matter say the sentencing won’t even appear on their client’s criminal records once they become adults.
The plea deal, announced on Thursday in a court presided by Black District Judge Tierra Jones, has reignited outrage in a community that previously demanded harsher laws against violent “youth offenders.” The news has also stunned the mother of the victim, who claims she was kept completely in the dark until notified by local reporters seeking comment.
“I’m just so dumbfounded and hurt and confused,” said Mellisa Ready, Jonathan Lewis’ mother, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I don’t even know what’s going on, and I should know.”
After months of deliberation, 16-year-old Treavion Randolph, 16-year-old Dontral Beaver, 18-year-old Damien Hernandez, and 17-year-old Gianni Robinson are set to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Juvenile Court.
Originally, the non-White suspects were arrested and faced far more appropriate charges of second-degree murder and conspiracy in the killing of Jonathan Lewis.
Attorneys for the defense announced the plea on Thursday, however, ensuring that their clients would skirt accountability as adults. Instead, they would face a slap-on-the-wrist rehabilitative stay inside a Nevada “juvenile detention center.”
Five other suspects had also been arrested, some as young as 13 years old. One suspect remains unidentified and has never been charged.
According to Brigid Duffy, the director of the juvenile division of the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, sentences doled out to those adjudicated guilty in Juvenile Court typically amount to a series of “rehabilitation programs” that offenders must complete before quietly being released back into polite society.
This means that the alleged killers of Jonathan Lewis, if they accept the plea, will likely walk free from their horrific crimes in short order, only to re-endanger the community.
“If for any reason it does not work out down in juvenile court or someone backs out, the offer is contingent on everyone’s acceptance,” explained Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani, adding that the non-White suspects would once again face charges as adults if they rescind the plea.
The plea deal was said to be so favorable towards the defense that a lawyer representing 17-year-old Gianni Robinson—who is Black—said that he didn’t “anticipate” Lewis’ killing being placed on his criminal record as an adult, which would likely be sealed or expunged.
17-year-old Jonathan Lewis was a promising young student at Las Vegas’ Rancho High, a school listed as only 7% White. In November of last year, Lewis was brutally beaten on film by a gang of up to 15 non-White classmates in an alleyway outside of school property. He eventually died from his injuries at an area hospital days later.
His murder sparked outrage from the local community, with some even hailing it as a “modern-day lynching.” Despite the obvious racial element at play, law enforcement only exacerbated the issue by brazenly assuring the public that there was “no evidence” of a hate crime before any arrests were made.
Lawyers for the defense attempted to shift blame onto Lewis, claiming that the young White teenager had initiated the fight which resulted in his death, after he confronted them as “bullies” who had stolen personal objects from his friend.
Mellisa Ready said that her son had been the target of such bullies at the minority White school for some time. She, along with local activists, had previously demanded justice for her son, up to and including harsher punishments for those involved.
“If the laws are harsher, maybe they might consider their actions,” said Ready at a rally outside the Regional Justice Center in February. “Being able to walk free at 21 after committing such a heinous crime is unimaginable.”
Ready would not stand alone in the fight to preserve the memory and dignity of her son. Online outrage quickly spread on social media, with many attacking the plea deal and the subsequent light sentencing as another failure of the American criminal justice system.
“You’ve gotta be kidding,” read one comment posted to /r/Vegas on the left-leaning social media platform Reddit. “One kid is 17 and another is 18. They should no question be tried as adults. This was cold blooded murder.”
“This must be part of that privilege thing people keep talking about,” read another.
The Clark County DA that gave sweetheart deals to 4 of the killers of White teenager Johnathan Lewis is a Jew named Steve Wolfson. He works with an organization called Hope For Prisoners, whose founder was given a plaque by President Trump at their “graduation” ceremony. pic.twitter.com/Ign7nIvYsR
— ThunderStruck ⚡ (@StrukkThunder) August 2, 2024
“If a group of white boys killed a black boy, it’d be called a ‘lynching’ and there would be protests/riots for months. A white boy got killed by a group of black boys and they get a deal bargain,” read another comment. “…Europe has already fallen to criminal third-worlders destroying their civilization. America will be next…”
The heartbreaking murder and subsequent injustice of Jonathan Lewis would closely mirror that of other prominent killings of White youngsters in recent years.
In July, a Dominican police officer in Philadelphia received only 8-20 years—likely only serving half—for the gunshot execution of White 12-year-old Thomas “TJ” Siderio. The killer, named 28-year-old Detective Edsaul Mendoza, was said to have frantically searched for plane tickets to flee the country prior to his arrest weeks after the shooting.
In November—just days after the death of Jonathan Lewis—White 18-year-old Julian Ludwig was shot dead by a stray bullet fired from the gun of a Black career criminal, police say. In that case, the suspect, 29-year-old Shaquille Taylor, was already walking free from a different gun crime after three court-appointed doctors confirmed he was “incompetent” to stand trial.
No case closely resembles the Lewis murder more than the savage 2022 beating death of Akron, Ohio’s Ethan Liming. Liming, a talented athlete and son of a local preacher, had been plucked from his friends’ car by a group of Black men playing basketball. He was pummeled, kicked, and stomped to death after they had taken offense to a harmless water gun prank.
Despite Liming’s murder, a Republican Judge was instrumental in lowering charges, where the Black suspects would eventually be found guilty and issued sentences that many would consider a slap on the wrist.
Update 8/14/24: Nevada Judge Linda Marquis—who is presiding over the case of slain 17-year-old Jonathan Lewis—has boldly rejected the plea deal.
According to reports, Judge Marquis “expressed concerns” over transferring the high-profile case to the juvenile system, where sentencing and criminal records are far less severe.
In response, lawyers representing the defense say that “convicting these young men of murder would be a second tragedy.”
The plea deal was now believed to have been hatched by Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson—who is Jewish—and would have allowed four of Lewis’ ten non-White killers to have their records wiped clean as adults.
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