Man Found Guilty of Manslaughter after Pushing Cousin Down Stairs During Argument

By Andrew Michaels , Alyssia Davis [former] - February 16, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

A 32-year-old Baltimore man was found guilty of manslaughter on Feb. 16 after pushing his cousin down the stairs during an argument last year.

Following a five-day trial before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Yvette Bryant, a jury returned a guilty verdict for Demetrick Lewis, but found him not guilty of first and second-degree murder. The defendant is scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 17.

The prosecution informed the court that the defendant and Shanlette Lewis were arguing on Feb. 1, 2022, when Shanlette spit in her cousin’s face on the 700 block of North Curley Street. Demetrick then pushed her down the stairs, causing head and neck injuries.

Shanlette died two days later.

During Thursday’s closing arguments, Lewis’ defense attorney, Brandon Patterson, told the jury that the death of the 33-year-old victim “has completely divided their family.” Patterson shaped his argument around what he described as inconsistencies in the testimony from Lewis’ 11-year-old cousin.

The defense attorney explained that Baltimore Police and the prosecution “pressed” the witness for her testimony. For example, the witness testified that the defendant pushed her aunt with all of his force, but in her statement to police, she never said “forced.”

Patterson said another inconsistency in the child’s testimony was that her aunt flew down the stairs when she was pushed and did not hit any of the steps—inconsistent with the medical examiner’s testimony regarding how the victim sustained her injuries.

“Once piece of inconsistency causes the whole testimony to be looked at suspiciously,” he said.