FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A Fort Wayne man accused in the stabbing death of an employee at the Waynedale Kroger earlier this month may claim insanity as a defense, according to filings in Allen Superior Court. The attorney for 31-year-old Jermard Lewis requested in the filings that her client have a competency hearing and be evaluated by two psychiatrists to determine whether he is competent to stand trial as well as two or three psychiatrists or psychologists to determine his sanity at the time of the killing of 59-year-old Perla Nieto.
Lewis is accused of grabbing Nieto from behind and stabbing her before pulling her to the ground and stabbing her repeatedly after he walked into the Bluffton Road store on the city’s southwest side at about 11 a.m. on Dec. 7, according to court documents.
Fort Wayne police said at the time investigators did not believe Lewis knew Nieto, but words between them may have been exchanged earlier that morning before Lewis was asked to leave the store.
He’s accused of then coming back and killing Nieto.
The Allen County Coroner ruled Nieto’s death a homicide. Police arrested Lewis hours after the killing when he drove away from a home officers had under surveillance with the thought he might be inside, court documents said.
While being interviewed by police, Lewis reportedly told officers he went into the store so he could attack Nieto because of an interaction he had with her at the store earlier in the day, according to court documents.
Multiple witnesses inside the store at the time identified Lewis as Nieto’s killer and police said surveillance footage shows him stabbing her, according to court documents.
Lewis was previously convicted of a felony count of battery to a law enforcement officer stemming from an incident in 2017 in which he was accused of throwing a block of wood at officers who were positioned inside the Bud Meeks Justice Center next to the Allen County Jail downtown.
After throwing the block, Lewis fled only to be confronted by a Fort Wayne police officer responding to the scene.
When questioned about what happened, according to Allen Superior Court documents, Lewis told the officer he saw someone who tried to shoot him enter the justice center and that’s when he threw the block of wood.
Lewis then got into an altercation with that officer, court records said. He was accused of punching the officer in the face before trying to kick and struggle with other officers who tried to arrest him, according to court documents.
After violating his probation by failing to report for court-ordered programs as part of a suspended sentence when convicted, Lewis spent about a year in prison on that battery charge, court records said.
If convicted of killing Nieto, Lewis faces 45 to 60 years in prison.
He is due back in court for a hearing on Jan. 8.
Poster Comment:
I guess my buddy Eric knew the victim pretty well. He was pretty broken up about it. I had the impression the victim was a young gal for some reason. She was 59, the same age as Dr. K, my GF.