ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Orange County woman who was found guilty of beating her girlfriend’s son to death in 2017 received a life sentence Friday.
Lakesha Lewis was found guilty of first-degree murder in May in the death of the 3-year-old boy.
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Prosecutors said Lewis and her mother, Callene Barton, killed 3-year-old Xavier Mokarzel-Satchel after the toddler drank milk from a jug.
Records from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office show that on July 7, 2017, Lewis beat the boy with a plastic rod used to open and close blinds after he was caught drinking milk straight from the carton and eating yogurt.
Barton is accused of yelling at the boy and throwing him down a hallway, causing his neck to turn, according to the report. The boy was found unconscious at the apartment on Silver Star Road and taken to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, where he later died.
The case for Lewis’ mother was closed when she was found incompetent during a court hearing in 2018 to proceed on charges of child neglect and aggravated manslaughter.
Brandi Mokarzel, Lewis’ girlfriend and the boy’s mother, was initially sleeping but woke up when she heard her girlfriend beating her son. She pleaded guilty to child neglect causing great bodily harm and was sentenced to three years in prison with credit for time served.