Four Las Vegas Teenagers Held Without Bail For Beating Jonathan Lewis Jr.,17, To Death Over Vape Pen

Jonathan Lewis Jr., 17, was declared dead on November 7 at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas. He was being treated for the injuries he sustained on November 1 for complications from multiple blunt force injuries.

Lewis Jr. was beaten up by approximately 15 people near Rancho High School, where he had been a student.

Now, eight students have been charged in the beating – ages 13 to 17. Four boys have been charged with second-degree murder and are being being held without bail.

Dontral Beaver, 16, Damien Hernandez, 17, Gianni Robinson, 17, and Treavion Randolph, 16, were charged with beating Lewis Jr. to death and will be tried as adults despite being underage at the time of the assault.

Footage of the assault has been circulating on social media.

“We’re all just trying to process this,” the victim’s dad, Jonathan Lewis Sr., told The Las Vegas Review Journal. “The whole family is in shock. A couple [of individuals] attacked him, and they weren’t able to hurt him enough, and they all attacked him at once.”

Lewis Jr. had been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries on November 1 after police officers located him at about 2:05 p.m. with blood coming out his head.

This teenager’s father has refused to discuss details about the police investigation into the brawl, and authorities have not confirmed the child’s death yet.

Lewis Jr. was reported to be living with his mother in Las Vegas, though, he did have any plans to move to Austin, Texas, where he would live with his father.

Lewis Sr. wrote an email in which he stated that his son was a considerate and confident young person who cared about and loved everybody.

“This horrific tragedy is reflective of the divisive, conflict based, uncaring state that our society and humanity is currently facing with how we interact with our community,” the grieving father wrote. “Empathy and love are great strength and cowardly violence is pathetic.”

Lewis Jr. was hoping to join the military just like his grandfather, who served in the United States Navy.

The late victim’s father created a website called Team Jonathan and wrote about his son in the section of the website labeled “Jonathan Jr.’s Story.”

“Jonathan was a hero who tried to help a smaller child who was being bullied and 15 people attacked him in cowardly violence and our beloved son was beaten to death!” he wrote. “Jonathan was an aspiring artist, a kind, loving, caring, and generous young man who had his whole life ahead of him and he will be forever loved and cherished every day every moment!”

Lewis Sr. also created a fundraiser on GoFundMe called “Heart of a Champion Our Son,” on the day before his son’s death.

On this GoFundMe page, he wrote this in the description: “I’m sure many of you have seen the news in Las Vegas of our son who is in critical condition and on life support after what the news is describing as 15 people attacking him. We can’t release any other information yet except to say that we denounce violence as a means to resolve sociological conflict, we believe community members can coexist peacefully, and we love our son and all children with all our hearts! Our son is a kind, loving, gentle young man who has the heart of a champion and the brightest loving energy that attracts people to him with love! He’s an aspiring artist, devoted big brother, and a fierce protector of love ones!”

“We are so grateful for all the love and community support that has poured in for our son and hope that the world will focus on all that love and compassion as a beacon of hope for human relations and place recognition upon how much stronger the love and the spirit of community is than the dark moments of violence,” he added. “Love wins our son is a champion of love and family and the resilient spirit of human perseverance and will to be good and kind and loving! We have been given a statement from our son’s girlfriend that what occurred was that one of his smaller friends had something stolen by this group of 15 and they threw the small boy in the trash can and our son confronted them and he was attacked by them. He’s a courageous young man.”

On November 8, Lewis Sr. wrote this on GoFundMe: “Today at 11:26 a.m. my son was pronounced dead he will always be so loved as his dad I’ll forever hold him in my heart, shine even brighter, love even more and work all my life to bring peace into this world.”

As of today, 3,300 people have donated to this fundraiser, raising over $136,000, which is beyond his $25,000 goal.