×

State dismisses attempted murder, reckless endangerment charges against Timothy Lewis, Minot

The Ward County State’s Attorney’s Office filed to dismiss attempted murder and reckless endangerment charges against Timothy Devon Lewis, 28, Minot, because “further investigation is required.”

Judge Gary Lee signed off on the dismissal of the case without prejudice on Tuesday. Lewis’s attorney, Kalli Hoffmann, said her client was released from the Ward County Jail on Tuesday night.

A jury trial in the case had been scheduled to begin Sept. 30 before Lee.

Lewis had been accused of trying to kill his ex-girlfriend and of terrorizing and putting multiple other people in danger by firing shots at an occupied house on April 20. He had originally been charged with Class A felony attempted murder and of eight counts of Class C felony reckless endangerment and eight counts of Class C felony terrorizing, all Class C felonies. All but two of the terrorizing and two of the reckless endangerment charges were later dismissed.

According to court documents and statements made during court proceedings, Lewis and the woman had recently ended their relationship. She accused him of domestic violence and of stalking her. The woman and her current boyfriend, Anthony Lee Davis, 26, of Minot, had been at a friend’s apartment at Terrace Drive and they and a group of friends were preparing to leave to go to a local bar. The woman saw a red light on herself and others. She believed it was coming from a gun and heard shots. She fell to the ground. No one was injured. Davis fired a gun back towards the black SUV. The group of people were going to go back into the apartment, but the woman’s friend ordered all of them to leave because her children were in the apartment. That incident occurred at 11:32 p.m.

A second shooting allegedly took place at the home of one of the woman’s relatives in the 2200 block of Landmark Circle less than an hour later, at 12:15 a.m. A man, a woman and four children were in the home at the time. No one in the residence was injured. The charges related to that incident were dropped.

Lewis came to the police department the following afternoon and denied that he had anything to do with the shooting. He said he had been at home sleeping the entire time. He told police that he had allowed a friend to borrow his vehicle the previous evening.

Davis, 27, was sentenced in July to two years in prison for brandishing a gun at a resident in a northwest Minot apartment building on April 21 and for being a felon in possession of a stolen firearm. Davis had gone to another address and brandished a gun at a man there after he had been involved in the previous shooting incident.

According to Judge Lee’s order of dismissal, no shell casings were discovered at the scene of the shooting and no shell casings were found in Lewis’s car. Investigators also did not recover a gun or any ammunition and they did not conduct gunshot residue tests of Lewis’s hands or clothing. The case rested entirely on the credibility of Lewis’s ex-girlfriend and her identification of Lewis’s vehicle at the scene. Lee wrote that the lack of corroborating evidence likely played a role in Ward County State’s Attorney Roza Larson’s request to dismiss the case.

Since the case has been dismissed without prejudice, the state could bring new charges against Lewis in the future if it chooses to do so.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today