Honk News – (Tulsa, OK) – An Oklahoma man has been sentenced to life in prison for the years of abuse, torture, and murder of his two young stepchildren, including the killing and burning of one child and leaving the other malnourished and permanently injured.
Tulsa County District Judge Clifford P. Smith on Thursday sentenced John L. Miles III to seven consecutive life sentences, including one without the possibility of parole, along with an additional 55 years for the serious crimes committed against Orlando Hugger Jr. and his sister, according to court records.
A jury in October 2024 found Miles guilty of first-degree murder by child abuse, along with multiple counts of child abuse, neglect, and desecration of a human corpse.
Camille Rechae Lewis, the mother of Orlando, entered a guilty plea last year for charges including child abuse and neglect, second-degree murder, and desecration of a corpse. Lewis testified against Miles at trial as part of her plea deal. On Friday, Smith sentenced her to life in prison, allowing for parole eligibility after 35 years.
Prosecutors from the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office described the details of the case as among the most unsettling they have ever faced.
Tulsa Police revealed that the case emerged after the children’s grandmother reached out to them on January 27, 2023. She reported that her grandson had been missing for several years and might be deceased. Additionally, she informed authorities that her granddaughter had suffered from severe ongoing sexual abuse.
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According to investigators, the grandmother reported that Lewis had left her daughter, who was 13 at the time, in her care in September 2022, noting that the child appeared to be “skin and bones from malnourishment,” officials stated. The grandmother mentioned that after Lewis departed, the girl informed her mother that the 11-year-old boy had passed away.
During a police interview, the 13-year-old girl revealed that her mother and stepfather would confine her and her brother in different closets for extended periods, deny them food, and physically abuse them with belts and cords.
“The girl said at times she had to urinate/defecate in a bag/cup in the closet,” the release stated. “She said sometimes she and her brother would be forced to sleep in an igloo-style doghouse in the backyard and exercise outdoors in very cold weather.”
Police reported that the child informed investigators her stepfather “would offer her food in exchange for sexual favors.”
She mentioned that her mother informed her about the tragic death of her brother.
“The girl said in March of 2021, she heard her mother crying and begging her brother to wake up,” the release stated. “The girl said her mother later told her that her brother had a seizure and died, and they did not take him to the hospital because they did not want to be in trouble.”
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Police reported that Orlando passed away in August 2021. Miles and a cousin buried the boy’s body in a park, later returning to dig it up, burn it in a barrel, and dispose of the ashes in a drainage system, as the child recounted her mother’s words.
On February 7, 2023, Camille Lewis was taken into custody by officers. During the process, she confessed to mistreating her children, which resulted in the scars on her daughter’s body. However, she stated that she had not seen her son since he disappeared two years prior. She eventually confessed that the boy passed away in her embrace.