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LONG BEACH (CNS) - A Long Beach man was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in prison for the shooting death of a woman who was newly pregnant with a baby believed to be his child.
Tremaine Lewis, now 33, was convicted May 15 of first-degree murder for the killing of Alicia Faith Todd, 21, in Long Beach in the early morning hours of June 24, 2015.
Jurors also found true an allegation that Lewis personally discharged a firearm during the commission of the crime.
Superior Court Judge Richard M. Goul noted that he "completely concurs with the jury's decision."
The judge cited what he called "the lack of any emotion, remorse or human feeling" by Lewis throughout the court proceedings, noting that he had seen the defendant smiling, including when the crime scene photos were shown and at the time of the jury's verdict.
"The court has not seen this type of behavior before," Goul said.
The judge noted that "nothing can bring back Alicia," but said it was his hope that "the defendant heard the voices" of the victim's family members as they spoke in the Long Beach courtroom.
The victim's great-uncle, Mack A. Jenkins, called Lewis a "violent, sociopathic predator" and told the judge he had "tried to warn Alicia about men like the one who ultimately took her life."
"... But unfortunately, her murderer found her, manipulated her and her feelings, and when she became a problem for him, he killed her," her great- uncle said. "In a cold, premeditated way, this individual lured Alicia out of her home in the middle of the night under the guise of agreeing to talk with her about her pregnancy, and shot her three times in the head, leaving her in the alley like trash."
He noted that the aspiring social worker was posthumously honored with an associates degree from Long Beach City College based on her older sister's efforts on her behalf.
Jenkins called for the "maximum penalty" for Lewis, whom he said met the victim while she was sitting at a bus stop.
The victim's cousin, Mack E. Jenkins, said he considered the victim "like the little sister I always wanted."
"... We're not here for closure. We're here for justice," said Jenkins, who is the chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.
The victim's older sister, Patricia Franklin, told the judge, "On June 24th, 2015, someone decided to play God and murder my little sister."
In his closing argument last month, Deputy District Attorney Marlon Duke Powers told jurors that the victim went to Planned Parenthood a day earlier for testing to confirm her suspicion that she was pregnant, and that "the defendant's entire world was changing in those 48 hours leading up to Alicia's death."
"This complication in Tremaine Lewis' life was solved with three bullets," Powers told the jury.
The woman, who lived in Signal Hill, was found dead in an alley between Orange and Lemon avenues, north of 21st Street, according to Long Beach police.
Police said soon after the killing that the person who called 911 to report seeing the victim's body in the alley had heard gunshots about an hour earlier.
The victim was clutching a pair of keys, indicating that she had intended to return home, but her cell phone was never found, the prosecutor told jurors.
DNA testing on embyronic material recovered from the victim showed that it contained DNA that matched the defendant's genetic profile and is found in 1 in 18 million people, according to the deputy district attorney, who said the victim was "no more than a side girl" to Lewis and that the pregnancy complicated his relationship with his girlfriend.
Defense attorney Stephen R. Kahn acknowledged that what happened was "indeed a tragedy," but said "not one piece of direct evidence puts the defendant there" in the alley at the time of Todd's killing.
"There's no pressure on him to eliminate her ... to get her out of the way," the defense attorney said, adding that Lewis' girlfriend was aware of his relationship with the victim.
He noted that Todd was about four to five weeks pregnant and had found out about her pregnancy a day or two before she was killed, but questioned whether it was "so life-shattering" that she was pregnant.
"Why would he kill her because she was pregnant?" Kahn asked jurors. "This case makes no sense. ... There is no reason to kill this young woman."
The defense attorney said last month that he expects Lewis to appeal his conviction.
The defendant has remained behind bars since he was arrested by Long Beach police in February 2016.