Defendant fails to sway Jeff jury in stabbing death

Confronted with opposing versions of the events that led to the death of a Marrero teenager three years ago, a Jefferson Parish jury sided with prosecutors Thursday and convicted "a bully" of intentionally stabbing the youth during an altercation stemming from a stolen cell phone.

The jury convicted Jamal Lewis, 20, of manslaughter in the death of Martell Callahan, 15, rejecting his claim that he was "playing around" and accidentally stabbed the teen during a confrontation in the 1500 block of Westwood Drive on April 6, 2006.

"I just made a mistake and stabbed a dude," Lewis testified.

Facing up to 40 years in prison, Lewis, wearing an oversized suit whose jacket still had the Stafford brand tag stitched to its left sleeve, wept as deputies recorded his fingerprints after the verdict. Judge Ellen Kovach of the 24th Judicial District said she will sentence Lewis on Thursday.

Lewis stabbed Callahan once in the left side of his abdomen outside the Concordia Apartments, where Lewis lived with his mother. Callahan, a student at the Westbank Alternative School who played slide trombone for L.W. Higgins High School's band, died from internal bleeding.

Lewis plunged the blade at least 4 1/2 inches into Callahan's front side with such "a significant amount of force" that it pierced cartilage under his ribs, went through several organs and severed two arteries that run along his spine, forensic pathologist Karen Ross testified. That, she said, appeared to rule out an accidental stabbing.

A friend of Callahan's, Brian "BJ" Johnson, who was 13 years old at the time, testified he and Callahan were on a bicycle when he saw Lewis sitting outside his apartment. When Johnson asked Lewis about his cell phone, which he said Lewis stole from him three days earlier, Lewis pushed him off the bike, he said....