Murder Parolee Convicted of Raping Acworth Teenager

MARIETTA, GA — A man who was free on parole after serving 24 years for murder has now been convicted of raping and assaulting a teenage girl in Acworth.

On Thursday, a Cobb jury convicted Kenneth Charles Lewis, 55, of rape, two counts of aggravated sodomy, and child molestation for acts he committed against the victim between 2011 and 2013. The attacks began when the girl was 14.

In the 1980s, Lewis was convicted of a machete murder in Cherokee County, and he served 24 years in state prison before being paroled in 2008.

His victim testified that Lewis told her he had “chopped someone’s head off,” which she took as a threat. She told her mother about the attacks in 2014, who then called the police.

Lewis testified on Wednesday for more than an hour and insisted the girl was lying.

In her closing argument, ADA Hannah Palmquist told jurors: “The Defendant got on that stand and tried to manipulate you the same way that he manipulated his victim. He got up there and charmed you. He got you to like him and to trust him. He got you to drop your guard. That is a predator. That is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Shortly after the verdict, Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster sentenced Lewis to three consecutive life sentences plus 20 years.

“In a sense you committed murder one more time because you destroyed the life of a child. These are wounds that this young girl will bear for life,” Judge Schuster told Lewis. “The best I can do for this girl is to make sure that the State of Georgia does not give you another chance. I hope the Department of Corrections reads my sentence that you are not to spend one day of the rest of your natural life outside of custody.”

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