GUILTY IN - Diamond Lewis, 23, & baby Morgan (safe), Merrillville, 11 Apr 2016 *Arrests*

Police said they found a missing 2-month-old girl Tuesday in Gary, but the search for the child's mother continued...

Rice declined to disclose who the child was found with, but said the baby was not injured.

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Lewis' body was found Thursday in the basement of an abandoned house in the 1400 block of West 18th Avenue in Gary...

According to the Lake County Coroner's Office, Lewis, who would have turned 23 next month, died of asphyxiation due to strangulation.

Police said two people are in custody and that charges are pending.

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Kareem Jahbbar Williams, of Gary, the father of Lewis' 2-month-old daughter, was charged with murder and fraud and his girlfriend, Alexis Alexander, also of Gary, was charged with fraud...

Williams is accused of killing Lewis by strangulation and along with Alexander dumping her body in an abandoned home in the 1400 block of West 18th Avenue in Gary. Williams is also accused of using lighter fluid to burn Lewis' body, police said.

The two are also accused of selling Lewis' 1999 Buick Century, which had been missing, to an auto dealer and using Lewis' FSSA-issued card to go shopping on April 15, 16 and 17, according to the probable cause affidavit.

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During two rounds of questioning by police, Kareem Jahbbar Williams had made no incriminating statements in the strangling of his former girlfriend, authorities said.

But early on April 22, 2016, following his arrest pending the filing of a murder charge in the death of Diamond Christina Lewis, 22, Williams opened up to a Merrillville police officer who was driving him to the Lake County Jail, according to the officer's testimony at a court hearing.

Williams' attorney, Philip King, had asked the judge to suppress the statement. But on Friday, Lake Superior Court Judge Samuel Cappas ruled the statement was properly obtained and would not be prohibited from introduction at Williams' trial. The judge also agreed to postpone the trial, which had been set to begin Aug. 14, to Jan. 22, to allow King time to hire experts to evaluate evidence in the case.

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Alexis Alexander, 26, of Gary, had been charged with fraud in connection with the case, but the charge was dropped in September 2016. Prosecutors have the option of refiling the charge.

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A Gary man was found guilty of murdering the mother of his child by choking her in 2016 and leaving her body in an abandoned house in Gary.

It took the jury a little more than four hours Monday to find Kareem Jahbbar Williams, 24, guilty on all counts, which included murder, altering the scene of a death, obstruction of justice, auto theft, mutilating a corpse and fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 29.

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JusticeWillBeServed said:

Williams, 24, was sentenced Thursday to 72.5 years in the 2016 death of Diamond Lewis, 22.

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