Wausau woman gets eight years in prison for her part in 2019 drive-by shooting
WAUSAU – A 37-year-old Wausau woman was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison for her part in a drive-by shooting in downtown Wausau.
Amanda J. Lewis pleaded no contest in January to being a party to the crime of two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, one count maintaining a drug trafficking place, one count contributing to the delinquency of a minor and one count obstructing an officer. The recklessly endangering safety charges were reduced from charges of attempted first-degree homicide.
Marathon County Circuit Judge Michael Moran gave Lewis credit for 1,062 days Lewis already spent in jail. He also gave her five years of extended supervision to follow her prison sentence.
According to a criminal complaint, police said the July 3, 2019, drive-by shooting was connected with the assault of a 15-year-old boy that happened July 1, 2019, in the 600 block of Chicago Avenue. The boy was beaten with a baseball bat and underwent brain surgery, the boy's mother told the Wausau Daily Herald.
The 15-year-old boy is friends with Lewis's son and had been hanging around with her son and another juvenile before the assault, according to the complaint.
Cellphone records show Lewis texted Maurice "JB" Bell, 35, shortly after her son's friend was beaten, according to the complaint. Bell and Lewis previously had been in a relationship. Lewis told Bell what happened, and Bell replied he would bring two of his nephews to "shoot up" the town, according to the complaint.
The 17-year-old boy and 18-year-old man who were shot at told police they were walking down North First Street, near McIndoe Avenue, the afternoon of July 3, 2019, when a white four-door sedan pulled up to them. They said they heard one of the passengers in the car say, "That is the guy that punched my nephew," according to the complaint. The male driver then took out a pistol and fired between four and six times at the teens. No one was hurt.
Police later interviewed a juvenile and learned he was in Lewis's car with Bell and Lewis at the time of the shooting. The juvenile told police Lewis was in the passenger seat and Bell was driving, according to the complaint. The juvenile told police Bell was the shooter.
Lewis told police she was in the car during the shooting, according to the complaint. She said she was in the front passenger seat and ducked when Bell started firing. Lewis's car, a white Ford Fusion, matches the description of the car given to police by the two teens, according to the complaint.
Bell is scheduled for a trial in November.
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Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KMadden715, Instagram at @kmadden715 or Facebook at facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Wausau woman gets eight years in prison for 2019 drive-by shooting
