His tiny voice was shaky at times yet the words he uttered proved damning.
Seven-year-old AJ Hutto found himself at the center of a high-stakes courtroom drama in Florida. He bravely testified that he witnessed his own mother drown his sister in their backyard pool. This testimony ultimately led to his mother receiving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The image of young AJ, dressed sharply in a white button-up shirt, black vest, and light-colored pants, recounting the harrowing details in court left a lasting impact. This emotional moment unfolded in February 2008 and has continued to stir debate and emotions.
Despite his mother Amanda Lewis’s persistent claims of innocence, her appeals against the first-degree murder conviction for the death of her seven-year-old daughter Adrianna have been unsuccessful. She remains incarcerated while upholding her stance of being wrongly accused.
After the trial, AJ was adopted by a couple outside his family, had his name changed, disappeared from sight and has never spoken publicly about those fateful events.
That is, until now.
DailyMail.com can reveal the incredible transformation of the pint-sized witness who, at times bewilderedly, recounted the horror at his poor family home in the tiny rural community of Esto, Florida, tucked just below the Alabama state line.
And in an exclusive interview, the now 24-year-old man shared his verdict today on his mother’s case, 17 years after last seeing her at the end of that harrowing courtroom ordeal.
Seven-year-old AJ famously took the stand in his mother’s 2008 murder trial where he described watching her drown his sister, sealing her fate in the caseÂ
Amanda Lewis was found guilty of murdering her seven-year-old daughter Adrianna Hutto in their above ground pool at their Esto, Florida home, and is now serving a life sentence
‘One hundred per cent guilty,’ he says firmly. ‘I stand by every word I said.’
It was revealed at the trial in Bonifay, Florida, that AJ loved to play with a red and white toy fire truck, one of his few childhood possessions, which was pictured during his testimony.
We can reveal he’s carried on that obsession by becoming a firefighter himself.Â
Meanwhile, he is also married and surrounded by friends. His wife knows his full agonizing history. Yet such is the sensitivity still surrounding him that his parents-in-law are unaware of it, as are his firefighter colleagues, we can disclose.
AJ spoke with us on condition that his new identity is not revealed.
He has had no direct contact with 45-year-old Lewis and wants to keep it that way, mostly refusing to refer to her as his mother and calling her Amanda instead.Â
Prosecutors based much of the case on AJ saying he witnessed Adrianna being deliberately drowned, despite his story in court fluctuating under questioning.
However, the decisive moment of his testimony came when prosecutor Larry Basford asked him to explain a drawing he’d done showing stick figures around the pool.
Little Hutto won over the jury with his heartbreaking testimony during which he became overwhelmed and broke down in tears
Lewis’s version of the fateful events on August 8, 2007, is that Adrianna accidentally drowned after slipping and falling in while attempting to clean bugs from the pool
AJ was the only witness to the crime and in court the prosecutor asked him to explain a drawing he’d done showing stick figures around the pool
‘That’s my momma,’ he said. ‘Killing my sister.’
Asked how Lewis was doing that, he replied: ‘Putting her hand over her face.’
Lewis was represented as outside the 4ft-deep pool in the sketch, with a thick line drawn over the edge to Adrianna who was shown inside.Â
AJ told the court the line was meant to be his mother’s arm. The child witness drew himself watching from a tree.
He also wrote ‘She Did’ on the drawing, which he told the court meant ‘she died,’ referring to his big sister. The words ‘To Bad’ on the sketch meant ‘it was scary’.
Judge Allen Register ruled AJ was a competent witness despite his age and the gravity of the moment. But campaigners for Lewis say the child was led too much by the prosecution team and his answers were inconsistent.
Reflecting back, AJ tells DailyMail.com: ‘I don’t believe I was, what they’ve called, coached or anything like that. I just told them exactly what I saw word for word.’
AJ considers his answers carefully and thoughtfully while talking with us, pausing for the right words.
When asked to explain the drawing, he pointed to a stick figure of his mom ‘killing my sister’Â Â
Authorities at first believed Adrianna’s death was accidental, but within hours, in a videotaped interview, AJ told police: ‘Mama dunked my sister’
During the trial it was revealed AJ loved to play with a red and white toy firetruck, one of his few childhood toys, which was pictured during his testimony. DailyMail.com can reveal the boy went on to become a firefighter himself
The trial started six months after Adrianna died in hospital and at first AJ didn’t recognize his mother in court despite being asked if he saw her there.
He was asked several times. But he burst into sobs when, through the prosecutor pointing out various people, he realized he’d been staring at her.
Of that moment, he says: ‘It was heartbreaking. You know, she’s my mother. But there was also some relief that what we were going through at the time was finally coming to an end.
‘It’s court appointed that we cannot see each other, and I’ve wanted to keep it that way, just so nothing’s getting brought back up… all the feelings and emotions and the traumas getting brought back into light.’
He has, however, monitored from a distance any developments in the former nursing home worker’s bids for freedom.
Of his childhood with his adoptive family, he talks fondly, saying: ‘It was good. it was a lot better. Good Christian family. There was love, a happier household.’
‘My childhood with Amanda was, it was almost a 360 difference, completely different.’
Asked to explain further, he says: ‘Just darkness, trauma. A lot of abuse. Physically abused, both Adrianna and I were hit. The difference between the two families was night and day.
AJ’s testimony was highly controversial at the time, with defense lawyers pointing out the boy’s story was riddled with inconsistenciesÂ
Lewis was convicted by a six-person jury, which took the death penalty off the table, after a four-day trial. She received life without parole plus 30 years for child abuse
‘It’s been a long time since I’ve had to talk about it, so I kind of remember some things about my previous life.
‘And for the most part, I remember the abuse. Sometimes we wouldn’t even see it coming. It was literally sometimes we were blindsided.’
Asked about his relationship to Adrianna, he pauses and says simply: ‘We were best friends.’
Of the trial he says he was ‘really, really nervous… I just told them what happened.
‘Having all those people looking at you and all that. But I was just glad it was over.’
Despite some reports, AJ says he did not understand the full consequences of his testimony for his mother at the time, only realizing ‘later on in my teenager years’ that this meant her going to prison for the rest of her life.
DailyMail.com can also reveal National Guard veteran Lewis has a recently appointed attorney and other legal assistance in a last-ditch bid to reopen her case while she’s in Homestead Correctional Institution for Women south of Miami as Florida inmate number Q21185.
Sources close to Lewis have told DailyMail.com her legal team is re-investigating any potential cracks in the case that would allow them to mount a new appeal.
For the most part, I remember the abuse. Sometimes we wouldn’t even see it coming. It was literally sometimes we were blindsided.
Lewis’s version of that August day when the temperature exceeded 100F degrees is that Adrianna accidentally drowned after slipping and falling in while attempting to clean bugs from the pool.
She said she’d come home from her night shift and napped while AJ, then six, and half-sister Arianna watched cartoons. The children later pestered her for a swim, but she turned down their plea because she wanted to head out to get school supplies.
However, she said AJ came into the house and said Adrianna was in the pool. She looked out the back door and AJ ‘was raking in the water with his hand, like he was trying to grab her,’ she told ABC News in 2010.
‘When I got to the pool.. she was face down… she was very purple, very blue.’
Lewis said she started CPR and called 911, saying to the operator: ‘Send an ambulance please. My daughter fell in the pool and she’s not breathing.
‘Her lips are purple, what do I do? Water’s just coming out of her nose. Please hurry.’
Adrianna was flown by helicopter to the nearest hospital where an emergency team regained a pulse. But it didn’t last and she died at 5:05pm.
Authorities at first believed the death was accidental.Â
Local fire chief Charles Corcoran said: ‘She went in over the side of that pool, leaned too far. She went down into the water and hit her head.’
In a prison interview with Piers Morgan in 2016, Amanda maintained her innocenceÂ
Holmes County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Michael Raley said there were ‘no indicators of foul play… nothing of that. It was just a child playing in the pool drowned’.
However, within hours, AJ told police on a videotaped interview: ‘Mama dunked my sister.’
He said Lewis was angry Adrianna, who suffered from Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), had sprayed glass cleaner in the house.
‘She done some stuff that she ain’t suppose so my mama got mad, so she throwed her in the pool,’ he said. AJ claimed Lewis repeatedly dunked his sister, drowning her.
AJ had raised this possibility with his step-grandfather Charles Burns and Amanda’s mother Brenda Burns, who were looking after him in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. They took AJ to the police where he gave his graphic account.
Investigators probed the modest home, finding their bedroom was squalid, reeking of urine and mostly devoid of toys.
Lewis, who told police Adrianna had been wetting the bed, was charged with murder a month later.
An autopsy report detailed a bruise on Adrianna’s face that resembled a handprint.
This was conducted by Dr. Charles Seibert, who had previously been placed on supervised probation after the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found him negligent in 35 of 700 autopsies.
The hospital doctor who tried to save the young girl’s life said Lewis was emotionless when she heard her daughter had died, merely asking for the location of the vending machine.
Lewis’s co-workers said she had spoken of ‘killing’ Adrianna after the youngster had damaged her car, writing ‘loser’ with a permanent marker in the interior.
The accused mom passed a lie detector test and refused to take a plea deal of 10 years for manslaughter.
She was convicted by a six-person jury, which took the death penalty off the table, after a four-day trial. She received life without parole plus 30 years for child abuse.
