Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect additional information provided by prosecutors in this case.
By Shereen Siewert
A trial set to begin Monday for the 36-year-old Wausau woman charged in connection with a July 2019 drive-by shooting has been postponed to allow the court to review admissibility of a defense expert.
Amanda Lewis faces two counts of attempted first-degree homicide as party to a crime, maintaining a drug trafficking place, three counts of intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child, and resisting or obstructing an officer. The charges were filed July 9, 2019 in Marathon County Circuit Court following an intense investigation into the alleged downtown Wausau shooting, which shook residents and business owners in the area. A two-week jury trial was set to begin this morning, with a pool of jurors already in place for the selection process.
Those charges have since been amended; the attempted first-degree homicide charge now carries a new “use of a dangerous weapon” modifier. The state also proposes adding an additional charge to the complaint.
Defense attorney Euene Detert filed an expert report early Monday, but Circuit Judge Mike Moran found that the filing did not comply with discovery statutes requiring reasonable notice of such a report before trial. Had the trial started Monday, as scheduled, the defense expert would have been excluded.
Circuit Judge Mike Moran offered defense attorney Eugene Detert the choice to proceed or reschedule the trial. Detert agreed to drop his speedy trial demand and requested the trial be postponed, which Judge Moran granted.
Police say Lewis was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Maurice Bell, who allegedly shot at two teenagers in the area of North First Street and McIndoe Street. No one was injured in the shooting, which is being described as retaliation for a perceived connection with the near-fatal beating of a 15-year-old boy two days earlier on Chicago Avenue. The boy who was beaten, a friend of Lewis’ son, was critically injured in the attack.
Bell allegedly responded to Lewis’ concerns by saying he would bring “2 of my nephews to shoot up the whole (expletive) town,” court documents state. Police say Bell and Lewis were involved in a relationship, and the vehicle used in the drive-by shooting was registered to Lewis.
Bell was arrested in September 2019 near Dallas, Texas in an unrelated case, and extradited to Wisconsin to face charges here.
Lewis remains jailed on a $250,000 cash bond. A new trial date has not yet been set.
