JARRATT, Va. — Teresa Lewis, who plotted with a young lover to kill her husband and stepson for insurance money, became the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly 100 years when she was killed Thursday night by lethal injection.
Lewis, 41, was a mother who became a grandmother behind bars. Just before she was executed, Lewis asked whether her husband’s daughter was in the death chamber.
“I want you to know I love you, and I’m sorry for what I did,” she said. She was pronounced dead at 9:13 p.m. EDT.
Lewis’ case generated passion and interest across the world. The European Union asked Gov. Robert McDonnell to commute her sentence to life, citing her mental capacity. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cited the case at an appearance in New York.
It began on an October night nearly eight years ago, when Lewis prayed with her husband, slipped into bed next to him and waited for her two conspirators to come inside the door she had left unlocked. The two men showed up about 3:15 a.m., opened fire, then fled.
After the shooting, Lewis waited about half an hour to call 911. Her stepson, Charles “C.J.” Lewis, died quickly. But her husband, Julian Lewis, whose body was riddled with birdshot, was alive and moaning when police arrived.
At first, Lewis told officers the shooting was the work of an unknown intruder. But she eventually confessed that she and her lover, Matthew Shallenberger, then 22, killed for money. She led police to Shallenberger and a second gunman, Rodney Fuller.
Fuller, made a deal with prosecutors in return for a life sentence. The judge also sentenced Shallenberger to life, saying it was only fair because of Fuller’s deal.
Shallenberger committed suicide in prison.
Lewis is the 12th woman to be executed in the U.S. since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
