Private investigator aids in exonerating Derris Lewis

Cleared of his brother's murder, a tired Derris Lewis said yesterday that he spent his first hours of freedom programming a new iPhone and catching up on the family ironing. But he couldn't sleep. "When 5 o'clock hit, I said I might as well just stay up," Lewis told reporters yesterday. "I always knew this day would come. I was prepared for it. I was innocent from Day One."
But he took a hard edge when it came to finding the killer of his twin brother, Dennis, who was killed just shy of their 18th birthday in January 2008. His brother died defending their mother from five robbers wearing masks. One beat and shot him to death in an upstairs bedroom, which left Dennis' blood smeared on a wall.
Until this week, prosecutors were convinced that Dennis Lewis died of fratricide, but they dismissed all charges when a scientific test showed no blood in a palm print that Derris Lewis also left behind in the bedroom. The print, they said, could have been left at any time while Derris lived in the home on Loretta Avenue.
Teresa Edwards, a private investigator hired by the defense, theorized that Dennis Lewis was killed by members of one of the gangs roving the North Linden area at the time. She found more than 100 reports of home-invasions and armed robberies within 20 blocks of the Lewis home.
The defense team has given police the names of four people they think are suspects.
"We've collected evidence from people the police have never spoken to," Edwards said.

Link: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/08/07/lewis_case.ART_ART_08-07-09_A1_7OEN0DJ.html