Man convicted of murder in Westfield player's death | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

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Westfield linebacker Herman Mitchell, 17, was a first-team, all-district selection who had plans to play football at Oklahoma. He was fatally shot on Aug. 24, 2007. Rivals.com
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June 26, 2008, 5:56PM
Man convicted of murder in Westfield player's death

By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

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A Houston man was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting death of a high school football star last year.

Emile "Rusty" Anthony Lewis, 20, showed little emotion as state District Judge Mike Anderson announced the jury's verdict.

He faces up to life in prison.

The eight-man, four-woman jury heard opening statements in the trial's punishment phase late Thursday and are expected to hear closing arguments this morning. Then jurors will begin deliberating Lewis' fate.

Law enforcement officials said that Lewis shot and killed Herman Mitchell, 17, a first-team, all-district selection with Spring Independent School District's Westfield Mustangs, Aug. 24, 2007, in the parking lot of the northwest Harris County apartment complex where the two lived.

Lewis has denied being involved in Mitchell's death.

Officials said the pair had argued and had a fist fight earlier in the day before the shooting. Mitchell, a senior who had planned to play at the University of Oklahoma, had been on his way to a football scrimmage with three teammates when the fight apparently erupted.

After the fight, Lewis went to his apartment and then returned to the parking lot with his mother, a friend and a rifle, prosecutors said. He forced Mitchell into the driver's seat of a teammate's sports utility vehicle and then shot him five times.

Lewis, a New Orleans native who moved to Houston after Hurricane Katrina, said he and Mitchell had not had a fist fight. Yet his right eye was swollen and beginning to blacken when he was arrested, police said.

The pair had a long-standing feud, police said, about the ownership of a tan-and-white pit bull, which at the time of the shooting was in Lewis' possession.

dale....@chron.com

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RevKev wrote:

"Lewis, a New Orleans native who moved to Houston after Hurricane Katrina"

That says it all!

6/26/2008 6:35:51 PM

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DukeSpirit wrote:

Legal beagles?

If Lewis had time (after a fight), to go home, get a gun, return to the campus, force this young man into a car then shoot him 5 times, why isn't this 1st degree premeditated murder, and why isn't Lewis facing the death penalty?

Inquiring minds want to know!

6/26/2008 6:19:50 PM

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TransAmer99 wrote:

"After the fight, Lewis went to his apartment and then returned to the parking lot with his mother, a friend and a rifle..."

Wow, 'mom', great set of parenting skills you've got there! Mr. Prosecutor, why can't they start greasing up the needle right now?

6/26/2008 8:27:09 PM

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ObamaGirl wrote:

One man is dead and another will be punished for his murder over a dog?
Sad, sad, sad!!!

6/26/2008 6:50:13 PM

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Blynn56 wrote:

The mom is a piece of trash.

6/26/2008 7:49:01 PM

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