Though his tiny hands were too small to hide his teary-eyed face, a pint-sized witness found the courage to testify against his mother, revealing that “mama got mad” and “dunked” his 7-year-old sister in the pool. After 17 years of silence, A.J. Hutto, now 24, is speaking out on addressing the court as a child, maintaining that his mother, Amanda Lewis, is “100% guilty.”
In 2008, a quiet Florida courtroom was shaken by the voice of a little boy who stepped up to share an unthinkable truth.
A.J. Hutto whose new identity is protected for privacy didn’t fully understand the legal implications of what he was saying. He was just a child telling the truth, trying to process something no 7-year-old should ever have to witness.
Dressed in a crisp white button-down shirt, a black knit vest, and light-colored pants, A.J. gave a heartbreaking account of the moment he saw his sister, Adrianna Hutto, drown in their backyard pool.
Initially, authorities believed it was a tragic accident until A.J. told them something far more disturbing: he claimed their mother, Amanda Lewis, had killed Adrianna.
Lewis’ Account
On August 8, 2007, Amanda Lewis, a 27-year-old nurse’s assistant working night shifts at a nearby nursing home, came home and laid down for a quick nap while her children watched cartoons.
Her plan was simple: rest briefly, then take the kids shopping for back-to-school supplies.
But as the day grew hotter temperatures topping 100 degrees the children asked to cool off in the backyard’s above-ground pool, which Lewis claimed was strictly off-limits without adult supervision, according to a 2010 ABC report.
“I told them we couldn’t use the pool today because we were getting ready to leave,” she recalled. “So they asked if they could go outside and play for a bit while I finished getting things ready.”
Moments later, Lewis said her 6-year-old son, A.J., came back inside and quietly said, “Mama, Adrianna is in the pool.”
“At first, I thought he meant she was near the pool,” Amanda Lewis recalled. “So I said, ‘Okay, well tell her to come inside.’”
But when she looked out the back door, what she saw froze her: A.J. was reaching into the water, raking his hand through it like he was trying to pull something or someone out.
“I ran outside,” she said. “When I got to the pool… she was face down. She was very purple, very blue.”
Adrianna was airlifted to the hospital but did not survive.
“I kissed her. I hugged her,” Lewis said of the moment doctors told her Adrianna was gone. “I touched her. Because I knew it would be the last time. I knew then—my baby was gone.”
Initially, authorities believed it was a tragic accident.
A.J.’s Account
Six months later, 7-year-old A.J. sat in a courtroom filled with unfamiliar faces, unaware that his testimony could determine the future of his own mother.
“Mama dunked my sister,” he told police in a prior interview. “She done some stuff she ain’t supposed to, so my mama got mad and throwed her in the pool.”
In court, A.J. was asked to draw what he remembered from the day his sister died. His sketch showed one stick figure standing by the pool, another floating in the water, and himself positioned a short distance away under a tree.
When prosecutors asked what he was doing in the scene, he calmly replied, “Playing” in the tree.
They then pointed to the figures near the pool.
“Mama,” he said, identifying one.
“And what is she doing?”
“Killing my sister,” A.J. answered.
“How?” they asked.
“Putting her hand over her face,” he said his simple, emotionless tone cutting through the courtroom.
On the left side of his drawing, A.J. had also scribbled the phrases “She did” and “too bad.” When asked what that meant, he explained: his sister had died and it was scary.
The jury ultimately found Amanda Lewis guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
‘Word for Word’
After the trial, A.J. disappeared from the public eye and began a new life. He was adopted by a caring couple, given a new name, and shielded from the media spotlight.
For years, he remained silent about the traumatic events that forever changed his childhood.
Until now.
Now 24 and working as a firefighter, A.J. spoke to the Daily Mail, breaking his long silence. He insisted that no one coached him during the trial and that he didn’t fully understand the weight of his testimony until his teenage years.
“I just told them exactly what I saw, word for word,” he said. “As a kid, I was really, really nervous… having all those people staring at you. But I was just glad when it was over.”
Darkness
Reflecting on life with his sister and their mother, A.J. described it as filled with pain:
“Just darkness, trauma. A lot of abuse. Physically abused both Adrianna and I were hit.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had to talk about it, so I only remember bits and pieces of my old life,” A.J. shared. He said his life after the trial, with his adoptive family, was filled with love and stability a complete “360 difference.”
What stands out most from his early years, he said, is the abuse. “Sometimes we didn’t even see it coming. It would blindside us,” he recalled of the physical harm both he and Adrianna his “best friend” endured.
A.J. hasn’t seen his mother since he testified in court. “It’s court-ordered that we can’t have contact, and I’ve wanted it that way,” he explained. “Just to avoid bringing back the feelings, the emotions, the trauma.”
“It was heartbreaking,” he added. “She’s my mother. But there was also some relief that everything we were going through was finally over.”years
