Lewis
A Greenwood man’s bid to withdraw a guilty plea for high-level child molestation and rape charges was flatly rejected by a judge on Monday.
Marthan Christian Lewis, 27, made a written motion to withdraw the guilty plea before Johnson County Circuit Court Judge Andy Roesener on Nov. 9. He had previously pled guilty to child molesting, a Level 1 felony, and rape, a Level 3 felony, on June 13.
Charges were filed against Lewis in May 2021 after a young girl allegedly told a family member that he had just raped her at a Greenwood apartment in June 2020. The girl allegedly said he stopped when someone else entered the apartment, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Then, in January 2021, another person reported Lewis had raped her at a Greenwood apartment during the same month. That person said the rape caused her pain, the affidavit shows.
She told police Lewis allegedly threatened to hurt her if she told anyone about what happened, and she thought that meant he would kill her, according to the affidavit.
Greenwood detectives interviewed Lewis in June 2020, and denied touching the first victim inappropriately or raping her, and refused a DNA swab. In January 2021, after the second victim reported she was raped, police served a search warrant on Lewis at the Howard County Probation Office, and collected a DNA sample, the affidavit shows.
DNA evidence supported the first victim’s claims that Lewis had raped her, according to the affidavit.
Dorie Maryan, Lewis’ attorney, had said last month Lewis had been going back and forth on whether to withdraw the guilty plea. He ultimately requested to withdraw it because he didn’t understand the written agreement, along with what occurred during the plea hearing that took place in June, she said.
During a hearing on the motion on Nov. 10, Lewis told Roesener and deputy prosecutor Carrie Miles he did not realize the agreement had a fixed sentencing cap for the Level 1 felony count. His attorney at the time, which was not Maryan, did not come to the Johnson County jail to read him the agreement.
Lewis claimed a jail officer had misled him about the terms of the agreement, and that he only discovered the error after speaking with other people incarcerated at the jail. He had only read halfway through the agreement, he said.
“It was completely different from what my previous attorney told me,” Lewis said.
Miles disagreed, saying that Lewis had said he understood the agreement during the June plea hearing. Lewis continued to disagree, saying he didn’t know it was a fixed plea.
After being asked by his attorney about the goal of the plea withdrawal, Lewis said he still wanted the case to be resolved without going to trial. He just wanted the previous agreement withdrawn, he said.
Later, Miles made the court aware that the prosecutor’s office was considering filing obstruction of justice charges against Lewis after he called witnesses and the complaint in an attempt to interfere with the case.
In Roesener’s Monday order denying the motion to withdraw the plea agreement, he said Lewis had communicated he understood the oath and the terms of the agreement. The court had also gone into detail to explain to Lewis the “fixed” nature of the sentence, it says.
At one point during the June hearing, Lewis had even corrected a deputy prosecuting attorney about the complaint’s initials during a discussion about the rape charge. The only question he asked was about whether the sentencing hearing would take place on the same day as the guilty plea, the order says.
A preponderance of the evidence is required to withdraw a guilty plea, and the burden of proof rested on Lewis. He did not present any evidence that would rise to a level of “manifest injustice” in connection with the agreement, the order shows.
”The defendant was able to quickly and cogently respond to questions from the bench and unfailingly acknowledged full understanding of the mechanics of his plea agreement,” Roesener wrote in the order. “The statutory burden here rests with the defendant to establish (a) cognizable basis to withdraw from the plea … the state shoulders no burden to prove that the plea agreement should be honored. The defendant has fallen short of his burden.”
A sentencing hearing has now been set for Jan. 9, 2023 at 9 a.m. He remains incarcerated at the Johnson County jail.
