Lewis, an Illinois man, was sentenced to 45 years in prison, with none of the term suspended to parole, after pleading guilty to killing 52-year-old Shantwoin Jones outside a Gary liquor store. Jones died from blunt-force trauma after being attacked with a tree branch behind Economy Package Liquors at 5150 Broadway, according to a report.
The Dispatch Argus reported, citing a probable cause affidavit, that Gary police officers responded after a customer called about an unresponsive man behind the business.
What Surveillance Video Reportedly Showed
As the outlet summarized the affidavit, detectives said surveillance footage showed Jones near the building before a man carrying a large tree branch approached him. The affidavit reportedly stated that Jones did not appear to be arguing or fighting with the man before the attack.
The report said the affidavit identified the man as Lewis and described footage showing him striking Jones with the branch for about 16 minutes. Jones died on July 23, 2025.
Sentence Handed Down More Than a Year Later
The surveillance details and timeline in this account come from the Dispatch Argus’s summary of the probable cause affidavit; they have not been independently verified here.
Gary homicide figures and another sentencing
The Gary Police Department reported 28 homicides in 2025, down from 40 in 2024. Those citywide totals provide context but do not establish the circumstances of Jones’s killing or explain this individual case, according to the department’s annual figures.
A separate Gary case had a different setting and outcome: The Times of Northwest Indiana reported that Jeremy Worley received a 70-year sentence, including a habitual-offender enhancement, for killing his roommate Deon Perry in their shared apartment on Clark Road on Feb. 4, 2024. The report said Worley’s case resulted in a jury conviction; Lewis pleaded guilty in Jones’s killing, which took place behind a liquor store.
