A child murder victim was remembered Wednesday evening in the Quad Cities.
Family and friends of Jennifer Lewis of Rock Island released balloons at her grave in Chippiannock Cemetery on what would have been her 36th birthday. Lewis was nine years old in 1990 when she was raped and murdered.
Family and friends of child murder victim Jennifer Lewis released balloons on what would have been her 36th birthday https://t.co/s2FnfyHJfD pic.twitter.com/gZ1ShgJ0bW — Lacy Scarmana (@LacyScarmana) September 22, 2016
Instead of remembering the horrific events that lead to her death, Lewis' godmother, Mary Maxwell-Rockwell, wants people to remember her smile.
"Her way of just instantly being your friend the first time she met you," Maxwell-Rockwell says. "Her smile was contagious and the way her eyes lit up; I don't know anybody who didn't like her. She just was a friend to whoever she walked up to right away."
Joining Maxwell-Rockwell were Lewis' mother, Sheri McCormick, and two family friends.
Stanley Liggins has been tried and convicted twice for Lewis' murder. The Iowa Supreme Court overturned the first convictionand he was tried again in 1995. And the Iowa Court of Appeals reversed the second conviction in 2013. Pretrial motions will be heard in February and his third trial could be held in May.
