Joyce Lewis-Pelzer: Woman serving life in prison for fatally stabbing wife sentenced again for killing ex-girlfriend

DECATUR, GEORGIA: Georgia woman Joyce Lewis-Pelzer accused of abducting and murdering her former girlfriend has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, while she was already in prison, CBS Austin reports. 

Authorities in Georgia said the murder took place in 2011 and after the initial investigation the case went cold until 2018.

What did Joyce Lewis-Pelzer do? 

Shawndell McLeod, 35, failed to arrive at work after which her mother called the police outside of Atlanta and reported her missing.

Investigators discovered that McLeod had left an abusive relationship with Joyce Marie Lewis-Pelzer, who was already the subject of an arrest warrant after threatening McLeod with a knife two months prior, according to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office.

Lewis-Pelzer was questioned by detectives after the murder, however it was later discovered that she had been lying about her whereabouts. A investigator located Lewis-Pelzer's most recent girlfriend around seven years later. At least one of them said that Lewis-Pelzer "admitted to murdering McLeod."

It had apparently been planned for a few months and “Pelzer’s wife, Rosalyn Lewis, had hired a hitman to help kill McLeod.”

Authorities said the three “kidnapped McLeod as she arrived to work and held her captive for a few days while they dug a hole for her body.”

Joyce Lewis-Pelzer planned to kill her wife

In December 2018, Pelzer’s girlfriend told police she planned to kill her wife Rosalyn Lewis who had filed for divorce.

A few days later, Lewis reported to the police that Pelzer was the one who had stabbed her more than thirty times. She was then brought to the hospital, where she died.

Lewis-Pelzer, as she’s called by the Georgia Department of Corrections, then led state troopers on a highway chase, and when they “used a PIT maneuver to stop Pelzer’s car, she raised a gun at troopers, who shot her.”

The girlfriend accused Lewis of killing McLeod a few days later. She added that she had assisted in McLeod's burial, although McLeod's body has never been found. Although it wasn't Lewis-Pelzer's first conviction, the 47-year-old was found guilty in December of both felony and malice murder.

Lewis-Pelzer is currently serving a life sentence without the chance of parole for the murder of her wife Rosalyn Lewis.