A woman who allegedly drained her grandmother’s bank account of more than $100,000 is also a facing a charge of aggravated child abuse.
Jessica Leigh Lewis, 35, who had been living with her grandmother at her home on Saint Andrew’s Boulevard on the Historic Side of The Villages, continues to be held at the Lake County Jail. She has been lodged there since her Feb. 3 arrest on a felony warrant charging her with theft from a person over the age of 65. She is accused of stealing $104,372 from her 98-year-old grandmother’s bank account.
Lewis had taken her child to Nemour’s Children’s Hospital in Orlando where it was determined the child had suffered a skull fracture. The Department of Children and Families was contacted and launched an investigation. A doctor also confirmed the child had several fractures in various stages of healing on the legs, right arm and ribs.
During an investigation, The Villager told police that her great-grandchild “seemed to cry a lot” and “Jessica was annoyed by her crying.” The great-grandmother dismissed it, telling police that it is “normal for an infant to cry a lot.”
Lewis had been released from a Florida prison in 2017 after serving time on drug charges as well as a grand theft charge. Her grandmother allowed Lewis to move in with her upon her release from prison.
However, she threw Lewis out after discovering the money missing from her bank account.
Lewis had linked her PayPal account to her grandmother’s bank account. Lewis also used money from the account to pay for phone calls to her boyfriend, 40-year-old Jermaine Harvard of Eustis, who has been held since August at the Marion County Jail on a federal drug charge. Harvard allegedly distributed fentanyl to someone who later died after ingesting it. Lewis also put money in Harvard’s commissary account at the jail.
