FILICIDE: California: Crystal Lewis

Jan. 26, 2011:  Pablo Lopez and Paula Lloyd / The Fresno Bee

The Madera County woman suspected of killing her 5-year-old daughter this week before jumping to her death from a bridge had fought in court to win custody of the girl in 2008, court records show.
But before siding with Crystal Lewis in her bitter custody battle with her ex-boyfriend, a judge ordered her to get counseling because she had used drugs, according to documents in the child custody case in Madera County Superior Court.
The records paint a picture of a family life plagued with violence and drugs. But authorities are still trying to determine why Lewis apparently slashed her daughter's throat.
Autopsies have been completed on Lewis, 23, and her daughter, Marijane Lyn Lewis, but Madera County sheriff's officials are no closer to understanding the motive.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Erica Stuart said toxicology tests on Crystal Lewis' body have been taken, and the results will be available in about three weeks.

Marijane Lyn Lewis, 5 (left) and her mother, Crystal Lynn Lewis, were found dead Tuesday in what Madera County authorities called a murder-suicide.Authorities said Marijane's grandfather, Robert Lewis, discovered the girl's body about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Nipinnawasee home near Ahwahnee that he and his wife, Lidia, shared with Crystal Lewis and Marijane. Authorities found the body of Crystal Lewis three hours later under the William Sell Bridge in Mariposa County, about 2-1/2 miles away. Members of the Lewis family and Marijane's father, Taj Gutierrez, 29, of Coarsegold, could not be reached Wednesday to comment. Reached at his home in Midpines, Gutierrez's father, Alex Gutierrez, 59, declined to comment. But on Facebook, he wrote: "I lost my granddaughter ... today. She was only 5 and half. She was murdered this morning by her mother who then killed herself. Please pray for us as the grief is too much to bear. I'm crushed and totally heart broken. She was my reason for living." The custody-dispute documents give details of past conflicts in the family. Months after Marijane was born, her mother left Gutierrez, citing an abusive relationship.
In a written statement included in the court record, Lewis said she left her boyfriend because he was selling marijuana from the Coarsegold home they had shared. She moved into her parents' home on Windsong Way in March 2006.

"I was in fear for the safety of my daughter and myself," Lewis said.
She detailed a fight in July 2006 when, she said, Gutierrez pushed her to the ground and held her down after threatening to kill her and take away her daughter.
But in his own statement, Gutierrez said Lewis had started that fight. She came to his Coarsegold home and accused him of cheating on her, he said.
"She kept asking why I didn't love her," Gutierrez said in his sworn statement. "Crystal began saying that she was going crazy and she wasn't a good mother and that she can't take care of Marijane."
"She wanted to kill herself and be put away in a mental institution," he said.
Gutierrez said Lewis was upset because a female friend of his was at the house. Lewis threatened to slit the woman's throat and kill her, Gutierrez said.
The friend, Sarah Manning, also gave a sworn statement about the incident, saying Lewis was the aggressor. Lewis kicked, hit and scratched Gutierrez, Manning said.
In September 2006, Lewis told a judge that she had stopped taking drugs. She accused Gutierrez of continuing to use drugs, and she asked the judge for primary custody of their daughter.
The judge ordered Lewis to attend counseling.
On Nov. 14, 2007, Lewis submitted proof to the court that she had attended six sessions with a clinical psychologist.
The judge later gave Lewis primary custody and in April 2008 ordered Gutierrez to make monthly child-support payments of $183.

 http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/01/26/2248625/court-records-detail-family-strife.html#ixzz1CWL84QXc