AVEION MALIK LEWIS - 2 yo (2010) - Roanoke VA

James Lewis took his son, Aveion, and daughter, Gabrielle, to family
cookouts, and spent time with them at home. But that changed, Lewis
said, when the children's mother began dating Brandon Lockett.
"It just seemed like she was shutting me out of my kids' lives,"
Lewis said Friday, the first time he's spoken publicly since Aveion's
death.

James Lewis, biological father of Aveion Lewis,
says he struggled to get custody of both his daughter and son.


Lewis, 23, also talked about his custody battles with Morgan Lockett and the Department of Social Services.
Social Services issued a statement Friday about Aveion's case.
Social workers put him in foster care for 16 months after he was found
to be severely underweight. He was returned to his home after the
Locketts completed classes and other requirements, the news release
said.
Police are still searching for the 2-year-old's body. The Locketts
reported to police Jan. 14 that Aveion was abducted, but Brandon
Lockett later told police that the toddler had died.
Police haven't said how Aveion might have died, but a search warrant
said they are investigating the toddler's death as a homicide.
Brandon Lockett has been charged with felony child neglect,
improper disposal of a human body and obstruction of justice.
Morgan Lockett has not been charged.
Aveion's case came to Social Services in May 2008, when the boy was
14 months old. The department got a report that Morgan Lockett was
neglecting Aveion, and that he was severely underweight.
A search warrant filed this week in Roanoke City Circuit Court said
Aveion weighed less than 9 pounds at that time.
Aveion was born with a medical problem that required surgery to
remove part of his intestines, according to the warrant. As a result,
he had a strict feeding schedule and needed medication.
Two days after Social Services was notified, Aveion was taken into
protective custody so he could get the medical treatment he needed, the
news release said.
Aveion remained in foster care until March. During that time, Social
Services developed a plan for Aveion's mother and stepfather that was
approved, and periodically reviewed, by the Roanoke Juvenile and
Domestic Relations Court.
The plan included having Brandon Lockett attend an 18-week program
on domestic violence alternatives, which he completed, the news release
said.
He and Morgan Lockett also completed a parenting education class.
While in foster care, Aveion doubled in weight, according to the search warrant.
During that time, Lewis said he visited his son and tried to get custody of him.
"I was always worried about him," Lewis said.
In December 2008, Social Services allowed the Locketts to have
extended visitations with Aveion at their home.
A clinical in-home therapist spent 20 to 30 hours per month
observing the Locketts parenting, reinforcing and teaching good
parenting practices, and watching Aveion's adjustment, the news release
said.
In March, Aveion was returned home, but Social Services retained
legal custody. The in-home therapy continued, and Aveion's social
worker made scheduled and unscheduled visits to see that Aveion's
medical needs were met.
In September, a judge awarded Morgan Lockett legal custody of Aveion
on the recommendation of Social Services, the news release said.
Jane Conlin, director of Social Services in Roanoke, said Friday
that the responsibility for what happened to Aveion does not rest with
her department.
"The person who is responsible for this is not the social worker,"
she said. "I think we need to keep in mind that social workers aren't
mind readers. We work with the best knowledge and information we have
and within the law. Nobody can, with 100 percent accuracy, predict the
behavior of another person."
Lewis, however, said he never trusted Brandon Lockett.
"The way Brandon was, it just seemed like he wanted to get to me," Lewis said.
The two would have confrontations during court hearings, and Lewis
said that his children's mother's attitude toward him changed after she
began dating Lockett.
That's when Lewis said he lost contact with his children.
He recalled several times that he tried to see them, such as on
Aveion's first birthday, when he said Morgan Lockett wouldn't answer
the door.
Lewis' mother, Briggitte Mason, also said she had to go to court to
get visitation rights and, even then, found herself knocking on a door
that wouldn't open.
"How many times can you get your heart broke?" Mason said.
Now Lewis, who works at Walmart and at the Roanoke Civic Center,
wants custody of his daughter, who is about to turn 4.
She is currently staying with Morgan Lockett's mother, who is also
looking after Brandon Lockett's two children, said Cara Ward, Morgan
Lockett's sister.
Ward has been busy collecting donated items for the children because
no one wants to go back to the Southeast Roanoke home where Aveion was
last seen.
The Kirk Family YMCA, Total Action Against Poverty, Babies and
Children Inc. and other businesses have donated toys, clothing and
other items, Ward said.
She said her family has been touched by the community's support,
and she praised Roanoke police for their dedication.
The support, and the family's faith, are keeping them going.
"We believe Aveion is in heaven," she said.

Police haven't found the body of Aveion Lewis, but that isn't stopping his family from remembering the toddler.
Aveion's family is holding a memorial service to remember the two-year-old.
The service will be at the St. Matthew Word of Life Fellowship Church on Abbott Street in Roanoke at 5 p.m. Sunday night.
His aunt says the family has been having a hardtime with the child's death, but believe he's with God now.
Aveion went missing nearly two weeks ago after his step-father told police someone kidnapped the child.
Since that time his step-father has been arrested and charged in connection with his death.

Authorities are searching the Smith Gap landfill for the body of a missing Roanoke toddler.

The Roanoke Police Department says the landfill search resumed Tuesday
after it was suspended for two days because of bad weather. A search of
the Roanoke River will resume when the water level drops.

Tuesday would have been Aveion Mark Lewis' third birthday.

The boy's stepfather, 24-year-old Brandon Lockett, has been charged
with felony child neglect, improper disposal of a human body and
obstruction of justice.

Lockett told authorities that three men abducted the boy from the
family's home on Jan. 14. Police say there was no abduction and they
believe the child was dead before authorities received a 911 call.

Poster's Note: Up until today LE said this was a death investigation. Now, they are using the word: Homicide.
I am not sure what has changed but I am now moving this topic to Murdered Children.

Tuesday should have been Aveion Lewis' third birthday.
Instead of cake and candles, however, the day was marked by
mud and trash as the search continued for his body.
Nearly two weeks after his mother and stepfather reported him
missing, more than 20 people spent the day raking through trash at the
Smith Gap Regional Landfill in Western Roanoke County.
Roanoke police Capt. Greg Staples said searchers had worked "a
little bit over halfway" through four trainloads of trash from the
city, opening garbage bags and scrutinizing the muddy debris for any
sign of the boy.
Brandon Lockett, Aveion's stepfather, and Morgan Lockett, his
mother, reported to police Jan. 14 that Aveion was abducted. Police
said Brandon Lockett later told them that the toddler had died.
Brandon Lockett was charged with felony child neglect, improper
disposal of a human body and obstruction of justice. Police haven't
said how Aveion might have died, but a search warrant said they are
investigating the toddler's death as a homicide.
Staples said that early in the investigation, officials asked the
Roanoke Valley Resource Authority to identify and separate trash that
may have come from near Jamestown Place in Southeast Roanoke, where
Aveion was first reported missing.
After days of searching around Jamestown Place and the nearby
Roanoke River, investigators returned to the trash. They started
searching through it on Saturday but had to stop for two days because
of the rain, Staples said.
"The rain has really hampered our efforts," Staples said. "It's made the
search area at the top of the mountain muddy. The mud clings to the
trash, makes the trash heavy and hard to sift through with garden
rakes."
The search progressed slowly on Tuesday. Bulldozers dumped buckets
full of muddy, compacted trash on a saddle of flat land. About 21
police officers, detectives, recruits and officials from the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children then stood shoulder to
shoulder and raked through the trash, looking for any evidence of
Aveion's body.
Staples said that searchers had found scraps of paper here and there
indicating that at least some of the trash came from near Jamestown
Place, but that other pieces came from around the city.
He said he'd never in his 20 years as an officer searched through the landfill on a case before.
Staples said the investigators will keep working until they find
Aveion's body or have worked their way through all the trash. The
latter may take another two days or so.
Investigators have also searched large trash bins and other
receptacles. Police say they'll continue to search along King Charles
Avenue, including the Roanoke River, once the water level recedes.
Anyone with information about Aveion is asked to call the Roanoke Police Department at 853-2212.

After days of searching through
trash in a Roanoke, Va., landfill, police have found what could be the
body a 2-year-old boy first thought to be abducted, now presumed dead.The
boy’s stepfather, 24-year-old Brandon Real Lockett, formerly of Macon,
is charged with child neglect, improper disposal of a human body and
obstruction of justice in the case. He has not been charged with
murder, according to a Roanoke police news release.
Police officers discovered the body of a small child Wednesday.The
child’s body has been taken to a medical examiner’s office in the
Roanoke area to determine the identity and cause of death, according to
the police.Lockett initially told police that three men knocked
him unconscious, ransacked his house and restrained a 4-year-old girl
before taking his stepson Jan. 14. He said the men also left a ransom
note demanding $10,000, according to a report in The Roanoke Times.
Lockett told police last week that the toddler, Aveion Malik Lewis,
was dead before he was reported missing.

Oh God. No words...

so very sad

Police Chief Joe Gaskins said that
searchers found the body of a small boy in the Smith Gap Regional
Landfill in Western Roanoke County Wednesday.

Police looking for
missing Roanoke toddler Aveion Lewis had isolated trash originating
from the 2100 block of King Charles Avenue in Roanoke, where the
2-year-old lived with his mother and stepfather, Morgan and Brandon
Lockett. Teams of searchers found the body in the isolated trash.

The
medical examiner's office in Roanoke will identify the body and
determine a cause of death. Police did not release details about the
age or race of the child found. They also would not say how they
believe the child died.

Brandon Lockett was charged last week with improper disposal of a human body, felony child neglect and obstruction of justice.

Roanoke
Commonwealth's Attorney Don Caldwell said the grand jury, which will
meet Monday, had been scheduled to consider a murder charge against
Brandon Lockett. Now that police have discovered a child's body, that
may change, Caldwell said.

UPDATED: A toddler's body found; Family of Aveion Lewis speaks out

Body of small child found at Smith Gap landfill in Roanoke County (01/27) 2:09

Last week, police charged Brandon Lockett with felony child
neglect, improper disposal of a human body and obstruction of justice.

Roanoke Police Chief Joe Gaskins says Lockett gave numerous stories to the police, many of which have turned out to be false.

"He didn't deserve, no kid deserve that. I couldn't even fathom
another human being doing that to a child," says Aveion's uncle, Chris
Ward.

UPDATED Thursday 5:06 p.m.
Roanoke police are still waiting on a positive ID on the body of a toddler found in a Roanoke County landfill.
They believe it's the body of Aveion Lewis. The two-year-old was reported missing on January 14.
His stepfather, Brandon Lockett, has been charged in connection with
his death after he told investigators the baby was kidnapped.
Commonwealth's Attorney Don Caldwell tells News7 his office had
planned on pursuing murder charges at the next grand jury on Monday.
But because of the recent discovery of the body, he will now withdraw
that charge and wait on the medical examiner's report.
Lockett isn't due back in court until March.

Police are awaiting positive identification of a child's body found Wednesday.
Even though they don't have
his body, the family of toddler Aveion Lewis has scheduled a vigil in
his honor for Sunday at St. Matthew Word of Life Fellowship Church in
Northwest Roanoke.
The Roanoke Police Department had not received confirmation Thursday
night that the child's body found at the Smith Gap Regional Landfill on
Wednesday was that of Lewis, who was reporting missing from his
Southeast home on Jan. 14, a spokeswoman said.
"His spiritual body is in heaven, but we'd like to have closure to
be sure of the facts of what happened to his physical body," said his
aunt, Cara Ward.
The child's stepfather, Brandon Lockett, was charged last week with
improper disposal of a human body, felony child neglect and obstruction
of justice after he told police that Aveion had died. He may be
presented with additional charges, Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney
Donald Caldwell has said.
Aveion's mother, Morgan Lockett, has not been charged.
The memorial service is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the church, which is at 1422 Abbott St. N.W., Roanoke.

When the body thought to be that of 2-year-old Aveion Lewis was
found in a regional landfill, he was wrapped in packaging and tape, a
search warrant filed in Roanoke Circuit Court on Friday said.
Reported missing from his Roanoke home on Jan. 14, the toddler was
the subject of an intense search -- first for the kidnappers who his
stepfather claimed had taken him, later for his remains after
investigators determined the abduction story was false and that he had
been killed.
Aveion's stepfather, Brandon Lockett, was charged last week with
felony child neglect, obstruction of justice and improper disposal of a
body.
Remains that are believed to be Aveion's were found Wednesday in the
Smith Gap Regional Landfill in Roanoke County. Authorities had begun
searching there after determining that garbage containers from around
Aveion's home in the 2100 block of King Charles Avenue Southeast were
emptied Jan. 14 and their contents taken to the city's trash transfer
station, then moved by rail to Smith Gap.
In a search warrant filed Friday, police said searchers found a
child's body "inside of packaging that was bound with an adhesive
binding."
The warrant said police planned to search the home Aveion shared
with Lockett and Aveion's mother, Morgan Lockett.
Morgan Lockett has not been charged in the case.Specifically,
police were seeking "all packaging items. All identification items,
receipts, bar codes, and applications for membership. Any adhesive
tape. All documents pertaining to Aveion Lewis."

The search warrant return, filed later Friday afternoon, said police
collected 17 pieces of duct tape, plastic grocery store shopping bags
and a mop. Officers took swabs from a training toilet, toddler bed and
stains under the toddler bed and on a bedroom closet door. And officers
seized a variety of paperwork, including immunization records on
Aveion's siblings, and a prescription bottle for Aveion's medication
that had been filled in 2008.
Though identification of the body found at the landfill has not been
confirmed, Aveion's relatives scheduled a memorial service for Sunday
at St. Matthew Word of Life Fellowship Church in Northwest Roanoke. The
service is planned for 5 p.m. at 1422 Abbott St. N.W.

Roanoke police are searching an e-mail account linked to Brandon
Lockett for more clues in the death of Aveion Lewis, according to court
papers.

The toddler’s stepfather, Brandon Lockett, has made
statements about an “unknown” person who received Aveion’s body for
disposal, according to a search warrant filed today in Roanoke City
Circuit Court. Lockett also provided a cell phone number, the document
said.

Account information from the cell phone shows that the
user’s e-mail address is the same address police discovered on a
computer seized from Lockett’s home, the search warrant says.

That e-mail address is linked to Myspace and Facebook profiles that appear to belong to Lockett.

Police
are searching the e-mail account and hope that what they might find
will either “confirm or dispel” Lockett’s statements and identify
anyone else involved, according to the document.

Police have said that Lockett has been uncooperative, telling police many different stories about what happened to Aveion.

The
toddler went missing Jan. 14, when Lockett told police that Aveion had
been abducted by three men. Police later learned from Lockett that
Aveion was dead.

Last week, they found a small child’s body,
wrapped in tape and packaging, in a western Roanoke County landfill.
The medical examiner’s office has not yet identified the remains.

Lockett,
24, is charged with felony child neglect, improper disposal of a body,
and obstruction of justice. He is being held at the Roanoke City Jail.

Aveion’s family has scheduled a memorial for 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Matthew Word of Life Fellowship Church in Northwest Roanoke.

ROANOKE -- Court records on file in
Roanoke Circuit Court show investigators are looking for another
suspect in the Aveion Lewis case.
Police believe the toddler died sometime around Jan. 14.
Investigators say a body found in a landfill Jan. 27 was "consistent" with Aveion's body, according to court documents.
Police have charged the boy's stepfather, Brandon Lockett, with
child neglect, improper disposal of a body and obstruction of justice.
Lockett has not been charged with murder.
A new search warrant on file this morning in circuit court claimed
investigators had information Lockett had been "making statements
referring to an unknown person and cell phone number receiving Aveion
Lewis' dead body . . . for disposal."
Investigators are studying Lockett's cell phone, e-mail account and
MySpace page to see if they can find that "unknown person," according
to the search warrant.

The medical examiner's office confirmed this afternoon that the body
found Jan. 27 at Smith Gap Landfill in Roanoke County was that of
missing toddler Aveion Malik Lewis, police said.

The Roanoke
Police Department charged Brandon Lockett, the toddler's stepfather,
with felony child neglect, improper disposal of a body and obstruction
of justice after Lewis went missing in mid-January.

Police
announced this week that they were investigating an e-mail account
linked to Locket to confirm whether anyone else may have been involved
in the toddler's death.

Poor wee child. What a list of horror in today's murder thread