Only A Fool Does This!
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor

Young, pregnant mom killed in Kenner road-rage crash remembered as beloved ‘baby of the family’

1 person was killed and another was injured when their two vehicles crashed into two power poles in Kenner on Thursday, Jan. 30. 2020. The driver of the Chevrolet sedan was pronounced dead at the scene, Kenner police said.

1 person was killed and another wounded when two cars crashed into two separate utility poles in Kenner on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020. The driver of this sport utility vehicle survived the crash, Kenner police said.

Jade Lewis, in graduation cap and gown, stands with her mother, Dorothy Lewis, left, and father, Robert Lewis Jr., at her high school graduation. Her brother, Robert Lewis III, and her brother-in-law, Fred Hutson, stand behind her.

Jade Lewis, center, holds her son, Mars Villavasso, while posing with her partner, Marcus Villavasso.

The night before pregnant mother Jade Lewis died in a car crash Thursday, she was cuddling with her firstborn son, 2-year-old Mars Villavasso.

A new baby would be arriving soon, and Mars just seemed to cling to his mother that night. Neither could have known what the next day would bring. 

“Mars was hugging her and kissing her and hugging her and telling her, ‘I love you, mommy. I love you, mommy,’” Lewis’ own mom, Dorothy Lewis, 51, recalled. “She was a beautiful mother.”

The Lewis family was still gripped by grief and shock Friday morning as they struggled with the loss of both Jade Lewis, 22, and her unborn son, a boy she planned to name Mydas. 

Kenner police are still investigating the crash that claimed Lewis’ life, but they said it was a road-rage encounter that turned deadly. Jade Lewis and the unidentified driver of another vehicle slammed into separate utility poles along eastbound West Esplanade Avenue in Kenner after a 12-block clash that began near Williams Boulevard, authorities said.

Kenner Police Department spokesman Lt. Michael Cunningham said criminal charges are a strong probability for the surviving driver, a 45-year-old Metairie woman who has not been publicly identified.

“I want to make sure they were doing their due diligence, that they’re going to press charges against that person,” Dorothy Lewis said. “I don’t want my baby to be swept under the rug.”

The unnamed woman, who was driving a 2008 Toyota 4Runner, tried to change lanes and almost hit Lewis’ 2008 Chevrolet Malibu, Cunningham said.

“She (the SUV driver) sped up to get over, and then Lewis sped up, preventing her from getting over,” Cunningham said.

For just under a mile, the two drivers continued to ratchet up their speeds to stay ahead of each other until the SUV driver made a final surge to cut in front of Lewis’ car, according to authorities.

“She changed lanes and clipped the front of Lewis’ vehicle,” Cunningham said.

The impact sent Lewis’ car sideways so that it crashed into a utility pole between Maryland Avenue and Lake Trail Drive, police said. The pole hit the driver’s side door, killing Lewis. She and her baby were pronounced dead at the scene.

The SUV fishtailed and crashed into another utility pole about a half-block away. Its driver was taken to a hospital in stable condition Thursday afternoon. She was released from the hospital Friday, Cunningham said.

The SUV driver has not been arrested, but investigators obtained a blood sample for toxicology testing, Cunningham said.

As Lewis’ family began to prepare for her funeral, a few smiles and laughter bubbled forth as relatives swapped memories of the young mother.

Lewis was “the absolute baby of the family,” the last born among her siblings and cousins. Raised in New Orleans, Jade Lewis reaped all the attention and adoration that typically come to the youngest in the family.

“Everybody spoiled her,” Dorothy Lewis said. “They would talk about me, but then they would turn around and always overload her with gifts.”

Jade Lewis graduated from McDonogh 35 Senior High School in 2015 and worked as an aesthetician, specializing in waxing, eyebrows and lashes, her sister, Deshawn Ernest, 34, said. Ernest and sister Dominique Hutson, 32, good-naturedly described their little sister as sweet but straight-talking with a bit of a “bougie” streak.

Still, Jade Lewis was a warm and thoughtful person to friends as well as those she didn’t know so well. Dorothy Lewis recounted her pregnant daughter’s recent insistence on buying baby bottles for another mother-to-be she found out was in need, even though Jade Lewis was still saving money to buy her own.

“She would give you the clothes off her back,” Dorothy Lewis said.

Before she became a mother, Jade Lewis was everyone’s favorite auntie, the go-to for trips to the movies, playtime and parade chaperone duties. But relatives say she absolutely bloomed once she became a mother to Mars.

As of Friday, the family had not yet told the toddler about his mother’s death.

“I don’t even know where to begin,” Ernest said.

Jade Lewis is also survived by her father, Robert Lewis Jr.; another sister, Cheakita Schaffer; a brother, Robert Lewis III; and her partner, Marcus Villavasso.

“She was everybody’s baby. It’s a big loss,” Dorothy Lewis said.