SALON

Friday, Sep 28, 2012 7:16 AM UTC

Warning signs seen before actor’s violent end

By

Topics: From the Wires,

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Probation officials openly worried about actor Johnny Lewis’ mental health and his danger to others in recent months, and this week their worst fears came true.

The man who died a violent death on “Sons of Anarchy” three years ago apparently beat and strangled his landlady and attacked neighbors before falling or leaping to his own death in neighborhood near Hollywood on Wednesday afternoon.

They were the final violent acts of a man who in the previous 10 months had been repeatedly arrested, sent to counseling and had left jail only five days before his demise.

Court records and his attorney detailed attempts to help Lewis but not in time to help 81-year-old Catherine Davis, who neighbors reported screaming inside a home near the outskirts of Los Angeles’ Griffith Park. The home had been ransacked, glass was shattered and a dead cat was also found inside, and Lewis’ body was found in the driveway.

Lewis’ cause of death is pending toxicology results, Coroner’s investigative division Lt. Fred Corral said Thursday evening. Davis died from blunt head trauma and manual strangulation, he said.

The deaths came four months after a probation officer expressed grave concerns about Lewis’ mental health, writing that he was “very concerned for the well-being of not only the community but that of the defendant.”

Court records detail Lewis’ descent from January 2012, when he attacked two men and hit them in the head with a bottle, through August, when he acted as his own attorney and pleaded no contest to felony assault.

By that point he had been arrested three times for incidents ranging from trying to break into an occupied home in Santa Monica, Calif., to resisting arrest. He had been sent to treatment programs that specialized in drug and alcohol addiction as well as mental illness.

A May 17 probation report states that “the defendant suffers from some form of chemical dependency, mental health issue and a lack of permanent housing. Given this, (Lewis) will continue to be a threat to any community he may reside.”

Another probation officer had written two months earlier, “Obviously defendant’s behavior is out of control and needs counseling afforded by a professional.”

Lewis remained on supervised probation at the time of his death.

Lewis’ attorney Jonathan Mandel said the actor had serious mental issues that seemed to surface fairly recently. He said Lewis’ parents and others had tried desperately to help him.

“Johnny Lewis had a lot of problems, a lot of mental problems,” Mandel said by phone Thursday. “I recommended treatment for him but he declined it.”

He continued, saying: “I give a lot of credit to his parents. They were really strong in trying to help him out. They really went to bat for him, but I guess they just couldn’t do enough.”

Lewis’ career spanned more than a decade, mainly in small roles. He played Ricky in the 2007 movie “AVPR: Aliens vs Predator — Requiem” and was Dennis “Chili” Childress for two seasons on TV’s “The O.C.” He also appeared in episodes of such popular television shows as “Boston Public,” ”Judging Amy,” ”Malcolm in the Middle” and “Drake & Josh.”

He was on “Sons of Anarchy” in 2008 and 2009 before his character was killed off.

Kurt Sutter, the show’s creator and executive producer, tweeted news of Lewis’ death Thursday:

“It was a tragic end for an extremely talented guy, who unfortunately had lost his way,” Sutter wrote. “I wish I could say that I was shocked by the events last night, but I was not. I am deeply sorry that an innocent life had to be thrown into his destructive path.”

___

Associated Press writers John Rogers and Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

More ANTHONY McCARTNEY.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
124 points125 points | 3 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
93 points94 points | comment
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
32 points33 points | 8 comments
vote
Revenge editing on Wikipedia: The unmasking of a writer who took advantage of online anonymity to pursue vendettas with other writers
14 points15 points | 3 comments
vote
In Montana, dark money brings down a judicial candidate
10 points11 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations