A mother has begun serving a prison sentence for inflicting a skull fracture on her young daughter at a home at which they were living in The Villages.
Jessica Leigh Lewis, 36, was sentenced to eight years in state prison on a charge of aggravated child abuse in connection with a 2018 incident which occurred on the Historic Side of The Villages.
She was transferred Tuesday from the Lake County Jail to the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections. She began serving her sentence at the Florida Women’s Reception Center in Ocala. Her release date is set for April 28, 2030.
Lewis had taken her child to Nemour’s Children’s Hospital in Orlando where it was determined the child had suffered a skull fracture. The Department of Children and Families was contacted and launched an investigation. A doctor also confirmed the child had several fractures in various stages of healing on the legs, right arm and ribs.
During an investigation, Lewis’ grandmother told police that her great-grandchild “seemed to cry a lot” and “Jessica was annoyed by her crying.” The great-grandmother dismissed it, telling police that it is “normal for an infant to cry a lot.”
Lewis had been released from a Florida prison in 2017 after serving time on drug charges as well as a grand theft charge. Her grandmother allowed Lewis to move in with her on Saint Andrew’s Boulevard upon her release from prison.
Lewis, while free on bond in the child abuse case, drained her grandmother’s bank account of more than $100,000. The grandmother was 98 at the time.
Lewis had linked her PayPal account to her grandmother’s bank account. Lewis used money from the account to pay for phone calls to her boyfriend who was being held at the Marion County Jail on a federal drug charge. Lewis also put money in his commissary account at the jail. Lewis has pleaded no contest in that case.
The judge also sentenced Lewis to eight years in prison for ripping off her grandmother. The two eight-year prison sentences will run concurrently. In addition, Lewis was ordered to make $104,000 in restitution to her grandmother.
