HUNTSVILLE - A suspect is under arrest in a Walker County double murder that happened July 24th. 46-year-old Howard Wayne Lewis allegedly murdered his own son and his ex-girlfriend's mother.
Investigators say they found Lewis' DNA on an object left at the crime scene, tying him to a crime the victims' family already suspected him guilty of, leaving them with a sense of relief for the arrest.
Howard Wayne Lewis walked into the Walker County Jail with his head down, silent, in handcuffs. Lewis is now under arrest for allegedly murdering his own son, Aiyden Lewis, and the child's grandmother Shanta Faye Crawford.
"I assumed it was him and this is what we've been waiting for. To see exactly who it was," said Donea Kimbrough, Crawford's niece.
Kimbrough says it's still hard to believe what their family has been through the last two and a half months.
"I'm still wondering is this real because who could do something like that? I just don't understand," Kimbrough said.
Walker County Sheriff Clint McRae described the brutal crime scene that led them to Lewis. McRae said Lewis beat Crawford to death with a blunt object and hung baby Aiyden from a doorknob on the inside of the house.
"To me it's senseless. It was a terrible crime scene. It was one that even those of us who've been doing this for a long time, we didn't want to be there," McRae said.
McRae wouldn't comment on what Lewis' reason for the crime was, but did suggest it had something to do with a custody battle over baby Aiyden.
"That was the first month in which his check had actually been garnished for child support," McRae said.
Even with Lewis locked up, it doesn't make Shanta Faye and baby Aiyden's deaths any easier for the family, though it does help the healing process.
"How could you even think about something like that?" Kimbrough said.
Sheriff McRae says Lewis does not have any criminal history, but he has reason to believe he was violent in the past. Lewis' bond is set at $1 million dollars.
