By Shereen Siewert
Trial dates for the 36-year-old Wausau woman charged in connection with a July 2019 drive-by shooting have been reset to January, after a May trial was postponed the day jury selection was to begin.
The two-week trial for Amanda Lewis was postponed the morning of May 10 to allow the court to review admissibility of a defense expert. A pool of jurors was already in place for the selection process when the decision was made.
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.
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.
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 was arrested in September 2019 near Dallas, Texas in an unrelated case, and extradited to Wisconsin to face charges here.
This marks the third delay for Lewis’ trial, which was originally set for July 2020. The initial trial date was delayed due to COVID restrictions and pushed to February, then moved to May.
The new trial date is Jan. 24, with a motions hearing set for August. Lewis remains jailed on a $250,000 cash bond.
