{"id":4109,"date":"2025-04-07T09:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T09:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/4109\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T09:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T09:11:10","slug":"boy-who-told-court-his-mum-drowned-his-sister-when-he-was-seven-speaks-out-for-the-first-time-after-17-years-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/4109\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy who told court his mum drowned his sister when he was seven speaks out for the first time after 17 years – US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.<\/p>\n

The boy who told the court that his mum drowned his half sister has broken his silence after 17 years.<\/p>\n

Seven-year-old AJ Hutto took to the stand in February 2008 when his mother Amanda Lewis stood trial for first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.<\/p>\n

On 8 August 2007, her seven-year-old daughter, Adrianna Elaine Hutto, was found unresponsive in her family’s pool in Esto, Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lewis called emergency services and reported that her little girl had been discovered not breathing. Adrianna was pronounced dead an hour after she was transported to Bay Medical Hospital.<\/p>\n

The whole incident was deemed an accidental drowning, until AJ revealed in a videotaped interview with police what he saw.<\/p>\n

AJ said he witnessed his mum<\/a> ‘dunk’ Adrianna in the pool as punishment for misbehaving.<\/p>\n

\"AdriannaAdrianna Elaine Hutto was found responsive in the family’s pool (ITV)<\/p>\n

“Mama dunked my sister. She done some stuff that she ain’t suppose so my mama got mad, so she throwed her in the pool,” he said.<\/p>\n

When the case went to court, the prosecutor asked him to detail why he’d drawn a picture of stick figures around the pool.<\/p>\n

“That’s my mama,” he said. “Killing my sister.”<\/p>\n

The boy said Lewis was ‘putting her hand over her face’.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Lewis was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in jail, with an extra 30 years for child abuse, The Daily Record reports.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Lewis has always maintained her innocence, appearing in Piers Morgan’s ITV series, Killer Women, in 2016 to ‘prove that I\u2019m innocent. Proving what he said I didn\u2019t do’. <\/p>\n

She said she ‘couldn’t believe they were doing this’ when her son testified against her, adding (via<\/a> The Independent): “I love him no matter what, I will always love him. He is in no way blame him for what happened.”<\/p>\n

Looking back on the court proceedings, however, AJ told<\/a> the Daily Mail: “I don’t believe I was, what they’ve called, coached or anything like that.<\/p>\n

\"AmandaAmanda E. Lewis received life in jail (Handout)<\/p>\n

“I just told them exactly what I saw word for word.”<\/p>\n

At first, AJ said he didn’t notice his mum in court after being separated from her for a number of months.<\/p>\n

“It was heartbreaking. You know, she’s my mother,” he added. “But there was also some relief that what we were going through at the time was finally coming to an end.<\/p>\n

“It’s court appointed that we cannot see each other, and I’ve wanted to keep it that way, just so nothing’s getting brought back up.<\/p>\n

“All the feelings and emotions and the traumas getting brought back into light.”<\/p>\n

\"AJAJ Hutto’s testimony in the case against Amanda E. Lewis proved to be a turning point (ITV)<\/p>\n

The now 24-year-old said his adoptive family was a much ‘happier household’, and it was ‘almost a 360 difference’.<\/p>\n

“Just darkness, trauma. A lot of abuse. Physically abused, both Adrianna and I were hit,” AJ continued.<\/p>\n

“The difference between the two families was night and day.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had to talk about it, so I kind of remember some things about my previous life.<\/p>\n

“And for the most part, I remember the abuse. Sometimes we wouldn’t even see it coming. It was literally sometimes we were blindsided.”<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24\/7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing. The boy who told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[188,12,727,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-4109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-us-news","11":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114295910319461588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}