Teresa Lewis : Contract Killer

TERESA LEWIS : CONTRACT KILLER

CHELSEA CROSS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TERESA LEWIS

KRISTINA FETTERS

BRITTANY HOLBERG

CHRISTA PIKE

AMBER CUMMINGS

DEATH ROW GRANNY

DEE DEE MOORE

KIM SNIBSON

DEFRANCISCO SISTERS

MARLENE OLIVE

Teresa Lewis:

Mastermind of Murder or Following Orders

A death sentence always causes a stir across the United States. It is used rarely and for good reason, but a majority of states have valid death penalty statutes. In 2016 alone there were 20 cases of the death penalty being used, and there have been more than 1,400 cases since the penalty was reinstated nationwide in 1976. Although that seems like a high number, there were more than 14,000 murders in just 2013. It should be noted that the average number of murders per year is dropping at a steady pace, however. Taking these numbers into account, approximately 0.14% of murders end in a conviction that results in the death penalty, which certainly makes the sentence a rare one. On top of that, it is even rarer that another country weighs in on a death penalty case, but when it comes to the circumstances of Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis that is exactly what happened. Both Amnesty International and the leader of Iran cried foul about the case, both for very different reasons.

Teresa is a somewhat tragic figure in her own right. She was diagnosed with substance dependencies, lower than average IQ, and at least one mental illness. It is contentious whether or not she was coerced into committing adultery with two men and then hiring them to kill her husband and one of her son-in-laws, but the fact remains that three people are now dead: Teresa, her husband Julian, and his son Charles. The loved ones who were left in the wake of this unfortunate and painful event have truly experienced something awful. When it comes to the death penalty, there is one consequence that goes unnoticed at first, but is felt more strongly as time goes on. There is no way to go back to the convicted murderer later and ask them more about why they did what they did. It is true that these questions can be asked before they are killed by the state, however, stories change as remorse strengthens. Psychiatric and psychological treatments advance over time, and sometimes evidence revisited gives us the window into the situation that we had missed at the time of the crime.

Whether Teresa deserved to die is controversial. There are many reasons that a court might lighten or strengthen a sentence. Teresa’s supporters contend that her lower IQ should have reduced the severity of her sentence, while they also suggest that the court worsened the sentence because of her gender. Opponents point out that she orchestrated the deaths of her husband and son by her own confession, and for that reason alone she deserved death as is merited by the law of Virginia state. Regardless of which side holds the most weight, it is important for us to understand who Teresa was, why she committed such a terrible crime, and how we as a society can prevent crimes like hers from happening in the future.

Teresa Wilson of Danville, Virginia

Danville is a little city in Virginia with a quaint downtown area. It has a heritage properties vibe with lots of older, but well maintained, buildings. There seems to be an emphasis on greenery and the people take pride in their gorgeous rivers and bridges. It is here, in poverty, that Teresa Wilson was born in 1969. Her parents both worked in the local textile mill, and the family attended church regularly. Having some talent and passion for singing, Teresa sang in the church when she was young. When she was 16, she gave up attending school and instead got married to a man that she had met in the church that had been the source of pride in her life. The couple had one daughter whom they named Christie Lynn Bean, and divorced shortly after. It was at about that time that Teresa, now a Bean, reportedly turned to alcohol and painkiller in order to self medicate for mental illnesses that were undiagnosed. Her ex-husband’s mother has been quoted as saying that Teresa was not right since then, which is a description that has followed her.

Teresa is not described as being an intelligent person, and due to her unfinished education, she struggled to find meaningful work. After her divorce, she bounced around between low paying and underwhelming employment. Eventually, in the year 2000, she wound up at the Dan River textile mill and worked under a supervisor named Julian Clifton Lewis, Jr., who became her second husband. Julian Lewis had three children of his own, Jason, Charles, and Kathy. Charles was a reservist with the army of the United States. By June of 2000, Teresa and Julian were living together, and were married by the end of the summer. It is unclear how the relationship between Teresa and her three step-children was, and how Julian treated Teresa’s daughter Christie, who would have been about 15 at the time, but soon all of their lives were about to drastically change.

A year later in December 2001, Julian’s oldest son Jason Clifton Lewis, was killed in a car accident. His death was swift and unexpected, and brought with it a life insurance payout of $200,000. Although none of the family could have suspected it, the groundwork was laid for an even bigger tragedy. With the insurance money, Julian purchased a manufactured home along with a five acre parcel of land. Likely he was hoping to distract himself from his son’s death as well as providing for his family in the future by ensuring that they had shelter no matter what happened. Slightly less than a year later in August 2002, Julian’s youngest son Charles was preparing to leave for his first tour in Iraq as a member of the United States Army Reserve. In order to do so, he purchased a life insurance policy of $250,000 and denoted his father as the primary beneficiary. Although she had been his step mother for less than two years at that time, Charles made Teresa his second beneficiary, which was a mistake that cost him his life.

Teresa Lewis and a Contract for Murder

When Teresa met the killers of her son-in-law and husband at a Wal-Mart in the autumn of 2002, it would be great to know what exactly transpired. 21-year-old Matthew Jessee Shallenberger later wrote that Teresa was in love with me. She was very eager to please me. She was also not very smart. It is likely that Shallenberger used Teresa’s attraction to him in an attempt to get Charles’s life insurance money. In a small town like Danville, word gets around when a resident signs up for the military and is about to get deployed. It is likely than many people living in the area knew about the life insurance policy. In October, when Charles returned home from an elite training program in Maryland for a visit, this news was spread around as well. At this point, Teresa was already embroiled in her secret plot (or Shallenberger’s) and was also continuing a sexual relationship with him and his friend and fellow murderer 19-year-old Rodney Lamont Fuller. In late October, Teresa paid the young men $1,200 to purchase the appropriate amount of weapons and ammunition to be able to kill both Charles and her husband Julian.

Shallenberger and Fuller first attempted to kill Julian while out on the road. Either their attempt went completely unnoticed, or it wasn’t reported to the police, because when it failed, Matthew and Rodney had only to wait for their second chance. Teresa left the door unlocked to their home and waited in her room during the second murder attempt. Shallenberger and Fuller sneaked into the home on October 30th late into the evening. Shallenberger slipped into Julian’s room and shot him at least three times, decided he was dead, and left the room. Fuller was tasked with Charles: he used a shotgun to bring down the reservist, and then repeatedly shot him when he released that the other young man had not yet died. Once the ringing of the shots wound down, Teresa located her late husband’s wallet and divided up the $300 within among her two accomplices. The men then left the premises and disappeared into the night. There is no indication of where Julian’s surviving child, Kathy, was that night. After 45 quiet minutes passed, Teresa finally called the authorities. In the other room, Julian was still alive and bleeding out. Had she called the emergency services sooner, he might have lived, but as it is you don’t hire someone to kill your family and then try to save them. The sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene shortly after her call and started to attend to Julian, which is when Teresa’s husband said his last words: My wife knows who done this to me. Teresa later tried to claim that men unbeknownst to her invaded the home and killed her family members. She would only be caught in her lie when she makes her first mistake.

From the outset, Teresa didn’t have a long term plan of evading arrest. She probably believed that she wouldn’t be caught. Almost immediately after her husband’s death, she tried to withdraw $50,000 using a cheque she forged with his signature, which of course alerted the sheriff. During that first week, it was later proven that she had been trying to amass her husband and son-in-law’s properties and estate before they had even been put into the ground. Due to the mounting evidence, she promptly confessed upon her arrest, and began working with the investigators, who set their sights on gathering evidence against Shallenberger and Fuller. However, her full cooperation would not save her life.

Teresa, in the Justice System

From the time she was arrested until the time she was executed, her trial garnered more and more attention throughout the United States and the world. She had three separate psychological evaluations by forensic psychiatrists. One of them, Barbara G. Haskins, was court appointed and board-certified, and she had this to say about Teresa: Cognitive testing showed a Full Scale IQ of 72. [Her] Verbal IQ was 70, and Performance IQ was 79. Backing that up, Teresa’s lawyer was quoted as saying that Teresa was not mentally retarded, but she is very, very close to it. As mentioned earlier, Teresa had a painkiller addiction, alcoholism, and dependent personality disorder. She should have had a chance of being found unfit for trial, but the Attorney General of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli, seemed to hold something extra against her: the brutal nature of the crimes themselves as well as Lewis’ callous, manipulating, adulterous, greedy, egregious behavior had more than justified her death sentence. Her judge at the time also weighed in with Cuccinelli, saying that Teresa’s worst actions had been the cold blooded, pitiless slaying of two men, horrible and inhumane. He noted that she hadn’t pulled the trigger, but that her aim for financial gain was clear by her rifling through her dying husband’s wallet for cash.

Under Virginia law, the death penalty is the rule for sentencing someone who has committed more than one murder in under three years. Teresa’s daughter received a five year sentence that she served, because she apparently knew about the plot and didn’t report it, but the details on that part of the story are weak. Her partners in crime received mere life sentences, despite the fact that they were the ones who actually killed the two men, and the judge presiding over the case stated that Teresa was undoubtedly the head of serpent. However, he decided that Fuller and Shallenberger deserved the same sentence, regardless of any other mitigating or aggravating factor in an effort to be fair. Many have since disagreed, including famous crime writer John Grisham, who said of the case: As between Mrs. Lewis and Shallenberger, Shallenberger was definitely the one in charge of things, not Mrs. Lewis. Shallenberger killed himself in 2006, shortly after confessing, more or less, to