Killer of Fiancee Gets 27 Years to Life in Prison

The tearful family of a woman shot to death by her fiance three months before their scheduled wedding begged a San Fernando Superior Court judge Tuesday to send her killer to prison for the rest of his life.

But under California sentencing laws, Judge John H. Major could only sentence Eric Michael Lewis, a 34-year-old computer engineer, to 27 years to life in prison, which could render him eligible for parole in 18 years.

“He should not be allowed to walk the same streets we walk and he should not be allowed to breathe the same air we breathe,” said Elmer Jordan, father of Beverly Jordan, who was 30 when Lewis shot her twice in the head and twice in the neck with a handgun in November, 1988.

Lewis, of Canoga Park, originally was charged with murder with a special allegation of killing for financial gain, a charge punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment without possibility of parole. But prosecutors said they would have trouble proving that motive and last month accepted a guilty plea to first-degree murder.

During a preliminary hearing, Lewis was characterized as an intelligent sociopath, buried in debt, who preyed on affluent or upwardly mobile women he thought could help him financially.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Barshop said Lewis divorced his second wife after a brief marriage, leaving her thousands of dollars in debt. At the time of his engagement to Beverly Jordan, Lewis also owed several thousand dollars in credit card bills, Barshop said.

Barshop said that Lewis may have killed his fiancee after she discovered he had not invested $10,000 she had given him six months earlier. Testimony indicated that Jordan became suspicious after Lewis repeatedly urged her to pay the premium on a $150,000 life insurance policy, naming him as beneficiary. She did not pay.

Lewis confessed to the murder when he was arrested in November, 1988, after a cyclist discovered Jordan’s body in a parked car in Chatsworth.