DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A mother charged with the murder of her daughter says she’s going to trial because she couldn’t bring herself to plead guilty for something she calls an accident.
Kealin Lewis stood beside her attorney Monday morning outside the DeKalb County Courthouse right after she had just pleaded not guilty for the mother of her daughter Kendall.
Nearly two years ago, when Kendall was 5, Lewis was driving down Interstate 85 when she says Kendall got ahold of a gun that was underneath her seat.
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Kendall died from a gunshot wound and the District Attorney’s office charged her with felony murder and child cruelty.
“Let me tell you, Miss Lewis, her life has been turned upside down,” her attorney told Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes. “She lost her baby girl and nothing will ever bring her back. She’s certainly regretful that she committed this act of reckless conduct when the gun was under the seat when the child, unfortunately, got ahold of it. But she is not guilty of murder. She’s going to have to live with this for the rest of her life.”
Police had concerns right after the shooting because they said Lewis did not perform CPR on her daughter as the 911 operator told her to.
Investigators even tested Lewis’ hands for gunpowder but they still haven’t released the test results.
Her attorney said he’ll get the results soon when he gets all of the discovery from the case.
“The only thing she did was reckless conduct, which is a misdemeanor and they’re trying to turn this into a felony case. We will take this case to trial before we ever plea to any felony murder charge,” her attorney said.
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