Texas jiu jitsu instructor convicted of sexual assault of student

Former owner of BQuick Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Stephenville, Texas has been found guilty on July 27, 2016 of sexually assaulting a student who was 14 years old at the time. The jury had reached the verdict in less than an hour in Erath County.

Samuel Lewis was promptly escorted out of the courtroom following a guilty verdict. He was arrested back in January 2014 and charged with sexual assault of a child, a second degree felony.

According to a local news report  the victim testified saying she began training under Lewis in the summer of 2013. She also said Lewis claimed to be unhappy in his marriage. The victim testified that Lewis knew she was a high school freshman at the time. The teenager felt bad for him saying: “I felt bad and was sympathetic towards him.” She said the two communicated through text messages and Facebook, and that the relationship turned sexual on Christmas Eve 2013 when they had sex in the bathroom inside the gym.

Soon after, the victim’s mother learned about it after finding an incriminating facebook exchange- which was followed up with a police report. Lewis’ ex wife also testified against him saying she became suspicious of the relationship between Lewis and the victim. Soon after she went to the victim’s mother with her concerns.

Lewis attempted to commit suicide shortly after arrest and while he was in recovery the wife asked him about the incident: “I wanted to know why. Was it because she was pretty? Was it because she was young? Was it because she did Jiu Jitsu? Because I thought I was a pretty good wife,” she said. “He said it was because of Jiu Jitsu and that was the only time he mentioned it at all.”

Edit to add: scary comments on Reddit about this. https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/4vlsvl/bjj_instructor_samuel_lewis_from_texas_convicted/