Off The Record
Boy Who Accused Mom of Drowning Sister At Age 7 Breaks Silence After 17 Years
A youngster has come forward to testify in court, seventeen years after his mother drowned his sister when he was seven years old.
When AJ Hutto was seven years old, he testified before a jury in a Florida courtroom in 2008 that he witnessed his mother, Amanda Lewis, drown his half-sister Adrianna Elaine Hutto as a form of discipline for misbehaving.
At the age of 24, AJ is at last talking about the horrible event and what life has been like ever since.
On August 8, 2007, the horrific occurrence took place in Esto, Florida. When Lewis discovered her daughter unconscious in their backyard pool, she dialed 911.
An hour after being taken to Bay Medical Hospital, Adrianna, who was also seven years old, was tragically declared dead.
When AJ sat down for a videotaped police interview and described what he observed, the first ruling of an accidental drowning was overturned.
“Mama dunked my sister. She done some stuff that she ain’t suppose so my mama got mad, so she throwed her in the pool,” AJ said.
Investigators were taken aback by the child’s testimony.
When asked in court why he had drawn stick figures around the pool, AJ told the prosecutor: “That’s my mama. Killing my sister.”
He said his mother was “putting her hand over her face.”
Even though Amanda Lewis insisted she was innocent, AJ’s compelling testimony contributed to a conviction. According to The Daily Record, she was given a life sentence for first-degree murder in 2008 along with an extra 30 years for aggravated child abuse.
Lewis said she was wrongfully convicted in a 2016 interview with Piers Morgan for his Killer Women series on ITV.
“Proving that I’m innocent. Proving what he said I didn’t do,” she said.
She also spoke about her son’s testimony, telling The Independent: “I couldn’t believe they were doing this… I love him no matter what, I will always love him. He is in no way blame him for what happened.”
But AJ stands by what he told the court all those years ago. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said, “I don’t believe I was, what they’ve called, coached or anything like that. I just told them exactly what I saw word for word.”
AJ said that seeing his mother in court was upsetting, but it also provided him some closure.
“It was heartbreaking. You know, she’s my mother,” he said. “But there was also some relief that what we were going through at the time was finally coming to an end.”
He also revealed why he’s chosen not to reconnect with Lewis: “It’s court-appointed that we cannot see each other, and I’ve wanted to keep it that way, just so nothing’s getting brought back up. All the feelings and emotions and the traumas getting brought back into light.”
AJ, who is now 24 years old, claims that his life with his adoptive family has drastically changed for the better.
“A much happier household,” he said. “Almost a 360 difference.”
He opened up about the abuse he and Adrianna endured growing up: “Just darkness, trauma. A lot of abuse. Physically abused, both Adrianna and I were hit.”
He continued, “The difference between the two families was night and day. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to talk about it, so I kind of remember some things about my previous life.”
“And for the most part, I remember the abuse. Sometimes we wouldn’t even see it coming. It was literally sometimes we were blindsided.”
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