Police: Husband of Fort Bliss Soldier Stabbed, Raped Her
Pastor Dale Morgan
Police: Husband of Fort Bliss Soldier Stabbed, Raped Her*
Monday, July 21, 2008
A Fort Bliss soldier who disappeared last week was stabbed and raped by
her husband before he abducted her from her off-post apartment and took
her to Nevada, police said Monday.
Pfc. Jeneesa Lewis, 29, turned up wounded but alive in El Paso Sunday
night, She was attacked as she entered her apartment about 5:15 p.m.
Thursday, police said in an affidavit charging Clinton W. Lewis, 34,
with aggravated kidnapping.
Lewis turned himself in to El Paso police Sunday night. He is being held
in the El Paso County jail on $75,000 bail. Jail records do not show if
he has a lawyer, but he was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
The police affidavit said Lewis was waiting inside the soldier's
apartment and kicked her in the face as she walked through the door. The
private first class was stabbed with a kitchen knife, threatened with
death, then raped, investigators allege.
Investigators said Lewis then drove her more than 650 miles to Nevada,
and apparently boarded an El Paso-bound bus sometime Saturday.
Lewis is wanted in Tennessee on a warrant for not paying back child
support and has a decade-long criminal history that includes several
arrests for assault and domestic assault.
Tammy Skelton, the soldier's sister, said early Monday that Lewis
returned to El Paso after seeing news reports of his wife's disappearance.
Delores Pigeon, the women's grandmother, said Jeneesa Lewis called
family early Monday to say her husband kidnapped her, drove her to
Nevada and then came back to El Paso to turn himself in.
"He took her into Nevada," Pigeon said. "She said she's in shock. She's
got two big holes in her legs and she lost of a lot of blood."
Army officials at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, the Fort Bliss
hospital, said the soldier had been treated and released.
"I was just so excited last night to her voice," Pigeon said. "She has
bumps and bruises all over."
The soldier, a mother of three, was reported missing Friday after
failing to show up for work at Fort Bliss. When soldiers from her unit
found her apartment locked and no one apparently inside, they called police.
Skelton said police told the family that the apartment was a wreck and
blood was found inside.
The woman was planning to leave her husband of two years, Skelton said.
The soldier sent her sister a series of text messages saying that Lewis
had left and had even sent a picture that looked like it was taken from
inside a Greyhound bus.
"She left him an envelope with money and a note telling him to leave and
not to come back," Skelton said. "She was so happy, saying he's 400
miles away."
By Wednesday afternoon, Skelton said, her sister believed Lewis was gone
for good and started making plans to go back to her apartment and start
over without him.
"Hey sis he's gone so when my check comes I'm going to buy a futon," the
soldier wrote in the text message Wednesday, Skelton said. "Yeah, he's
gone. Had police go with me yesterday, it's all clear."
She was last heard from in a text message at 4:56 p.m.
Skelton said the pair met about six years ago at a Tennessee night club.
At first, Lewis seemed charming and fun, but the relationship soon
became tumultuous and, Skelton says, abusive.
"He was all charm and fun then I guess," Skelton said. "He's a very
likable person. He could walk up to you and you'd think he was the
greatest thing since sliced bread."
The pair married about two years ago. Skelton said her sister was often
terrified of Lewis but never made any complaints to police.
"She would never tell us the whole story," Skelton said.
Skelton said she constantly urged her sister to leave Lewis.
"He told her that if she ever left him, he'd kill her. If he couldn't
have her, no one could," Skelton said. "I've heard him say that myself,
several times."
Skelton said her sister joined the Army last year to get away from her
husband and start a new life with her children.
The children have been living in Tennessee with the soldier's mother.
She planned to moved the children to Texas once she got a place to live
on Fort Bliss.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.