The Contra Costa County Sheriff formally charged a man with the murder of a woman killed below a Crockett restaurant where she waited tables.
This really does bring some closure to Priscilla Lewis’s family, and even to some of the people who still work in this building and say they’re still haunted by what happened to her 25 years ago.
Lewis was just 21 when she was brutally assaulted and murdered in a basement bathroom below Four Corners Restaurant in Crockett in September 1996.
Since the night of her murder, Lewis’ cousin has been urging Contra Costa County Sheriff’s detectives to never give up in their pursuit of her killer.
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“We’re here, and she’s with us, and I know she’s smiling down and she’s going to get some peace now,” said cousin Troy Kinslow.
He was like a big brother to Lewis, because they grew up in the same house. Now fighting back tears of joy because sheriff’s detectives named a suspect.
“It’s happy tears. It kind of brings a lot back, so – but it’s something we’ve got to deal with,” said Kinslow.
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Detectives sent a DNA sample to a crime lab last year and it came back this week as a match to 51-year-old Danny Hamilton.
He was arrested three years after the murder, in 1999, for unrelated sexual assault charges.
Hamilton is now in a state prison near San Diego serving a sentence of 295 years after being convicted of those assault charges.
“I leave it in God’s hands, but I’m just glad that this hole that’s been in my family’s heart and soul that was taken so many years ago is finally going to be filled,” said Lewis’ cousin David Duncan.
He was like Lewis’ little brother, another cousin who lived under the same roof, and who has been waiting for this day since he was a teenager.
The family credited Contra Costa detectives with never giving up on them and following up on all leads for so long.
“He promised he would fight, fight, fight for her – and he did,” said Tracey Bozeman, Kindlow’s wife.
Hamilton is charged with murder, kidnapping, burglary and murder committed during an attempted rape.
Now the family plans to see this through to a trial if necessary, but in their minds the scientific evidence doesn’t lie.
“This guy is a monster and he needs to be held accountable,” said Kinslow.
