Man sentenced for 2013 murder of 11-year-old Burbank student

A 29-year-old man was sentenced on Thursday to 56 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing his girlfriend’s 11-year-old son, who went to school in Burbank, on Memorial Day three years ago.

A jury convicted Rineson Curtis Adams last month of one count of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Jai Lewis, as well as one count of child abuse against Jai’s younger brother.

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Jai, who attended David Starr Jordan Middle School, was remembered in court by his mother as an aspiring athlete who was good at math and loved making people laugh.

“He would’ve been a positive contribution to society,” said Gina Evans, who witnessed her son’s stabbing on May 27, 2013.

That morning, Adams cooked scrambled eggs and bacon for the two brothers in their Los Angeles apartment before knocking on the door of the bedroom they shared.

“Knock, knock,” Adams said, according to the prosecutor’s recollection of chilling testimony and interviews.

“Who’s there?” one of the boys answered.

“Killer,” Adams said.

Armed with a steak knife, Adams walked into the bedroom and slashed Jai’s hand before stabbing his chest.

Evans rushed into the bedroom, where her son died in her arms shortly after. She then called 911, screaming and pleading for help.

After the incident, Evans also grabbed a knife and stabbed Adams, who was outside of the apartment at that point.

Adams had previously told his girlfriend that he didn’t like the way Jai — who refused to call him “Dad” — looked at him, and that he wanted to “chin-check” the boy, the prosecutor said.

Adams’ attorney Eric Duvernay argued that his client was hallucinating and delusional at the time of the attack, but a jury found that Adams was sane when he committed the crime. After a judge denied his request for a mistrial, Duvernay said he plans to appeal the verdict.

During the trial, Adams sat in a tattered wheelchair wearing a neck brace and a blue Los Angeles County jail gown that his attorney said indicated that he was on “suicide watch.”

Sitting next to his attorney, Adams — who has prior convictions for burglary and selling drugs — had multiple outbursts during the trial, which prosecutor Carolina Lugo said was a show for the jury.

After he was sentenced Thursday, Adams apologized to Jai’s father, who sat through the trial but was too grief-stricken, Lugo said, to attend the sentencing.
“I’m sorry for taking the life of your son,” Adams said. “Contrary to anyone’s beliefs, I loved him, too.”