Heartbreaking moment little boy, 7,
A seven-year-old boy weeped as he told a courtroom how he watched his mother drown his sister in their garden.
Amanda Lewis was convicted of drowning her daughter Adrianna Hutto, in their outdoor paddling pool in Esto, Florida in 2007. While the seven-year-old’s death was initially treated as a devastating tragedy, her half-brother, AJ Hutto, later told a more sinister story.
Following Adrianna’s passing, Lewis claimed that her daughter had slipped into the pool and subsequently drowned. She said that AJ had raised the alarm, so she dashed over to the pool where she found her daughter face down. Hauling her out, Lewis started giving Adrianna CPR and rang 911 for help.
“Send an ambulance please. My daughter fell in the pool and she’s not breathing,” she said in a recording of the 911 call, ABC reports. “Her lips are purple, what do I do? Water’s just coming out of her nose.”
Multiple emergency first responders arrived at the scene within minutes and Adrianna was airlifted to hospital. Sadly, she died that same afternoon and was pronounced dead at 5.05pm.
Adrianna Hutto was just seven years old when she died
Amanda Lewis has maintained her innocence
While Lewis attended hospital as doctors battled to save her daughter’s life, AJ was in the care of his grandparents. During this time, the youngster told them he had seen his mother push Adrianna under the water and hold her there.
AJ was interviewed twice that day – on August 8, 2008 – and his story remained broadly the same. In interviews with investigators and a child expert, the youngster said that Adrianna had been “dunked” by her mother as a punishment. He claimed his sibling had sprayed window cleaner in the living room over the TV, something which had made “momma mad”.
Speaking to police, AJ said: “Mama dunked my sister.” He added: “She done some stuff that she ain’t suppose so my mama got mad, so she throwed her in the pool.”
Lewis was interviewed by officials over the following days and denied the allegations. She also took a polygraph test, which she later passed. However, one month after Adrianna’s death, she was charged with murder.
During the trial, AJ who was seven-years-old at this point, was given the gut-wrenching task of testifying against his mother in court. In 2016, a clip of his testimony was shown on the show Piers Morgan’s Killer Woman and she could be seen telling court that he saw “my mama killing my sister”.
AJ told the court he saw “my mama killing my sister”
In the clip, AJ could be seen being lifted onto a chair where he described a drawing he’d done which showed the murder. The sketch showed a stick figure in a paddling pool, with another stick figure standing over it with its arms over the other’s face. The caption read: “she died…to bad”.
When asked “who is this”, AJ replied: “My mama…killing my sister”. He then pointed at the arm of the stick figure representing his mum and said: “by putting her hand over her face”.
In another snippet, the youngster could be seen realising his mother was in the courtroom, having not seen her for six months. At first he didn’t recognise her and he told the court that “my mama is in jail” before noticing that she was sitting in the dock – leading him to sob and cover his face with his hands.
In February 2008, Lewis was sentenced to life in jail and was given an extra sentence for child abuse of 30 years. However, speaking to Piers Morgan in 2016, Lewis maintained her innocence and denied “dunking” her daughter under the water until she drowned.
“Did you kill Adrianna?,” Piers asked. Shaking her head, Lewis replied: “No I did not.” The host then asked: “Did you dunk her in that pool until she drowned?” Lewis responded: “No” before telling Piers that she was “proving that I’m innocent. Proving what he said I didn’t do.”
She added that she “couldn’t believe they were doing this” as her son testified against her and revealed that her son had waved at her as he was led out of the courtroom, though she has not seen him since.
She continued: “I love him no matter what, I will always love him. He is in no way blame him for what happened.”
Following the show, viewers took to Twitter, now known as X, to voice their opinions. “Wish I never watched this ‘Killer Women with Piers Morgan’ now. My heart is absolutely breaking for that little boy. So sad,” wrote one. “Feel so sorry for that little boy on Killer Women.”