On Monday, Joseph Lewis, of Ironton, had his sentence handed down for the murder of Jeri Crabtree in May.

Lewis was found guilty of murder, tampering with evidence and violation of a protection order on Nov. 15 by the unanimous decision of a jury after a three-day trial in the Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.

On Monday, Judge Andy Ballard gave a combined sentence of 18 and half years to life on the three counts, 15 years to life for murder and three years for tampering with evidence and six months in a county jail for violating a protection order.

Lawrence County Prosecutor Brigham Anderson said Lewis will not be eligible to see the parole board until he has served 18 years and doubts that he will ever get out of prison.

“Judge Ballard followed my recommendation and sentenced to the maximum of life with the possibility of parole after 18.5 years” Anderson said. “Joseph Lewis has a lengthy record and is very unlikely to ever be granted parole.”

In 2010, Lewis was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of for two counts of felonious assault and one count of tampering with evidence for stabbing a girlfriend and her mother in April 2010. He was released on April 24, 2020.

This case against Lewis began on May 23, after the Ironton Police Department got a call around 4 a.m. about a fatal overdose at Lewis’ apartment at 116 ½ S. Seventh St.

Officers arrived and after knocking at the front door and getting no response, the officers looked in the kitchen window and saw a man and a woman lying on the kitchen floor.

They knocked on the window and were told to use the front door which was unlocked. When they entered the building, officers saw Lewis sitting next to a Jeri Crabtree, 59, who appeared to have severe injuries. 

The officers handcuffed Lewis and called for medical assistance for Crabtree.

The Lawrence County Coroner’s Office was called to the scene and pronounced her dead.

Lewis was arrested and charged with murder.

A preliminary autopsy report came back that Crabtree had “stabbing, strangulation and asphyxiation.”

At trial, Lewis pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense.

Anderson refuted that and an autopsy revealed that Crabtree had been stabbed 14 times, had blunt force trauma to the head and neck and asphyxia, which indicated strangulation.

“It was bad. It was really bad,” Anderson said. “His defense was that she did it to herself.”