FAMILY: DRUGS DAMAGED LIVES

19-Year-Old Son Charged In Mother's Stabbing

LAFAYETTE - The "magic mushrooms" changed a family's life, perhaps forever,
the people closest to Kevin Lewis said this week. By all accounts, the
19-year-old was a good son, student and friend. He was raised in an Ozzie
and Harriet-like family with his mother, Jeannine Lewis, father, Mark Lewis
and older brother, Daniel Lewis.

Today, he stands accused of stabbing his mother on Feb. 19, behind a strip
mall on West Congress Street, nearly killing her. Daniel Lewis said his
mother was begging her youngest son to get help for a drug habit, when his
brother allegedly attacked her.

Kevin Lewis was charged with attempted murder, while his mother struggled
for life in a local hospital, following surgery for a punctured lung. Her
wounds were so severe that the police initially reported her dead.

She had been stabbed three times in the neck, twice in the chest, twice in
the back and once on her wrist. The stab wounds appeared to have been made
with a Swiss Army-type of knife.

"The cuts are so small," Daniel Lewis said, but still enough to cause
paralysis on the left side of her body.

"I am just back from seeing her, and it hit me so hard. I am living in
shock," Daniel Lewis said. But his mother had been responsive, even
squeezing her older son's hand when he asked her a question.

It all began falling apart about a year ago, after Kevin Lewis' best friend
was killed in an auto accident. He began using drugs to numb the grief,
Daniel Lewis said, smoking marijuana and ingesting a drug known as magic
mushrooms.

Mushrooms, the most common being psilocybin, can cause severe
hallucinations, and, depending on the dosage, the high can last for hours,
according to the North American Mycological Association, mushroom poisoning
case registry. Kevin Lewis was a good child who came from a very good
family, said longtime family friend Brenda Menard.

The younger Lewis graduated from Teurlings High School, where he was an
average student an and a member of the cross-country track team, his
brother said.

"He was fine until he got on these mushrooms," Daniel Lewis said.

Added Menard: "If it could happen to that family, it could happen to me,
and it could happen to you."

Daniel Lewis described his parents' marriage as a strong one. He called his
mother a caring woman, a churchgoer, who volunteered for Meals on Wheels.

Jeannine Lewis, 52, is slowly recovering at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional
Medical Center. But she'll never be the same, the 27-year-old Daniel Lewis
said. She was taken off the ventilator and the tubes were removed from her
chest this week, but a part of her brain is dead, he said.

The family now wants some answers.

Daniel Lewis said his brother was taken by police to University Medical
Center on

Feb. 16 for treatment after a psychotic episode, three days before he
stabbed his mother.

Police got involved because Kevin Lewis was walking around his house naked,
holding a sword and acting erratic. Neighbors came over to help, and when
police arrived, they had to pepper spray him to take the sword away, said
Cpl. Mark Francis, Lafayette police spokesman. No charges were filed
because it was believed that Kevin Lewis was only a threat to himself and
no one else, Francis said.

Daniel Lewis said doctors at UMC asked his brother if he was hearing
voices. He eventually was released. Daniel Lewis said he's trying to obtain
the medical records from that hospital visit. He believes his brother
should have been kept there.

Family and friends said Jeannine Lewis had been terribly worried about her son.

"She was always nervous because of Kevin. He occupied all of her time,"
Daniel Lewis said.

Authorities with the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center wouldn't say if
Kevin Lewis was under the influence of drugs when he was booked into jail.

On the day the incident happened, Jeannine Lewis took a long lunch break
from her job selling tickets at the Cajundome, telling her boss she needed
to check on her son.

Police said Jeannine and Kevin Lewis drove to the parking lot of the strip
mall where Camellia Cleaners and B.J.'s Pizza are located on West Congress
Street.

Police said Jeannine Lewis was stabbed in the alley behind the strip mall,
and a wooden pallet placed on top of her. Kevin Lewis drove away in her
car, police said. An employee of B.J.'s Pizza found Jeannine Lewis and
called authorities. Kevin Lewis was arrested the next day.

Family friends reacted in disbelief.

Sheryl O'Meara said younger children in the neighborhood looked up to
Kevin. In addition to running cross country and track during high school,
he liked to play ice and roller hockey.

"I get mad because it's hard for me to understand," O'Meara said. "Whenever
you look at the Lewis family, you say that wouldn't happen to them. ... He
was a normal child."

(Metro Editor Kristi Dempsey contributed to this report.)