By Dalia Bautista Rodriguez & Derrick Tat
SACRAMENTO – Defendant Damon Lewis and his wife have been married for more than 20 years. Their love story now might be considered something out of a horror film, with Lewis facing felony domestic violence charges.
In a Sacramento County Superior Court preliminary hearing late last week, Deputy Vy Suon testified that on the evening of June 11, he was dispatched to a domestic violence call at a home, where the victim stated that she and her husband had been arguing for days.
The first incident occurred on June 8, where he found out that she was renting out a storage room without his knowledge. He threatened her, telling her to go with him to the storage unit or 
else he would drown her. Nothing happened after that.
The next day, it became more violent. Defendant Lewis put his fingers to her eyes and caused bruising. The victim believed that he had a firearm buried in the backyard and decided to flee and go to a friend’s home. The defendant said he’d find her.
Detective Darryl DeGuzman found that there were two active restraining orders. The victim and family member had also reported the defendant in violation of his restraining order on June 18 and July 2.
Deguzman reviewed the messages with the victim, which consisted of over 75 pages, that all came from the defendant himself. The messages consisted of Facebook Messenger, email, and texts on threats about murdering her with his bare hands.
The victim’s attorney gathered all the messages between the victim and defendant, and when the defendant was made aware of this, he started threatening the victim’s lawyer as well.
The victim was able to block the defendant on Facebook, but he was able to unblock himself. He created a group thread and added her to the group to continue threatening her.
Deguzman conducted a search warrant on defendant Lewis’ Facebook account and found messages stating that if the victim ruins him, he’ll kill her for it and her lawyer will be next. The defendant also claimed that he will harm the victim’s future love interest, and then have sex with her “while she cries and sobs on top of the corpse of her future lover.” The defendant was also quick to assume that her new “lover” was her lawyer.
On multiple occasions, the defendant tried to compel the victim to not report him to police. He did it both in a pleading and threatening manner. The defendant also acknowledged that he tried to flee court.
After the defendant’s arrest, he still tried to contact the victim by handwritten mail and getting into contact with the son. The handwritten mail was addressed to animals and to the victim’s address, utilizing “humorous names.” He contacted her as recently as Nov. 18. He would even call their son and ask to talk to her over speakerphone.
The defendant entered a not guilty plea. Trial is set for Monday, Feb. 22, 2021.
Dalia Bautista Rodriguez is a third-year transfer at UC Davis and majoring in Community & Regional Development. She is originally from 
Guadalupe, CA.
Derrick Tat is a recent graduate from San Jose State University majoring in Criminal Justice and minoring in Business. He is born and raised in San Francisco, CA.
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