At just seven years old, AJ Hutto took the stand in a Florida courtroom and pointed a tiny finger at his mother, accusing her of taking his 7-year-old half-sister Adrianna’s life.
His harrowing testimony in court sent his mother Amanda Lewis to prison for life.
Now, 17 years later, AJ is now living a completely different life, with a new family and a new identity. And he stands by every word he said in court during his mother’s trial.
At the age of 7, AJ Hutto’s testimony in court sent his mother to prison for life
Warning: This article contains details of child maltreatment which some readers may find distressing.
“One hundred percent guilty,” the now 24-year-old man told the Daily Mail about his mother.
“I stand by every word I said,” he said.
“I stand by every word I said,” the now 24-year-old man said
AJ, who recently gave the interview under the condition of keeping his new identity a secret, said he was adopted by a “good Christian family” in a “happier household,” much different from the home he was used to for the first seven years of his life with Amanda.
He said the difference between the two families “was night and day.”
“My childhood with Amanda was, it was almost a 360 difference, completely different,” he told the outlet.
It was “just darkness, trauma. A lot of ab*se. Physically ab*sed, both Adrianna and I were hit,” he continued.
For the most part, it is the maltreatment that AJ remembers from his life with his mother.
“Sometimes we wouldn’t even see it coming,” he said. “It was literally sometimes we were blindsided.”
Adrianna’s passing was initially thought to be an accident with “no signs of foul play”
On an ill-fated day on August 8, 2007, Adrianna was rushed to the hospital and eventually lost her life at 5:05 p.m.
“We were best friends,” AJ said.
It was initially believed that Adrianna’s passing was an accident.
AJ said Adrianna did “some stuff” she wasn’t supposed to before his mother allegedly drowned her
“She went in over the side of that pool, leaned too far. She went down into the water and hit her head,” local fire chief Charles Corcoran said at the time.
Holmes County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Michael Raley said at the time that there were “no indicators of foul play.”
“It was just a child playing in the pool drowned,” he added.
He told his step-grandfather Charles Burns and Amanda’s mother Brenda Burns that his mother repeatedly dunked his sister in a 4-foot-deep, above-ground pool and drowned her.
Adrianna had “done some stuff that she ain’t suppose so my momma got mad, so she throwed her in the pool,” AJ told the police in a videotaped interview.
“That’s my momma,” the child said in court, explaining his drawing of stick figures by the pool
Although his story fluctuated under questioning in court, the key moment in his testimony took place when prosecutor Larry Basford asked him to explain a drawing of stick figures around the pool, with one watching from a tree.
“That’s my momma,” he said about the drawing of stick figures around the pool. “K*lling my sister.”
When asked how she was doing so, he said, “putting her hand over her face.”
The words “She did” were also part of the drawing, which the court took to mean “she died.”
AJ still remembers being “nervous” about the trial even today
Today, AJ remembers being “really, really nervous” about the trial. He didn’t fully understand at the time that his words would send his mother to prison for life.
“I just told them what happened,” he said. “Having all those people looking at you and all that. But I was just glad it was over.”
Amanda’s co-workers also revealed that she had previously spoken about taking her daughter’s life after she damaged the interior of her car by writing “loser” with permanent marker.
According to the mother’s version of August 8, 2007, Adrianna was trying to clean bugs from the pool and accidentally drowned.
She told ABC News in 2010 that her son and daughter were playing outside when AJ came back into the house to tell her that Adrianna was in the pool.
“At first I thought he meant maybe she was by the pool and I said, ‘OK, well, tell her to come in,’” she said.
But when she looked out the back door, she said she saw AJ “raking in the water” as if he was trying to grab her.
“When I got to the pool … she was face down. … She was very purple, very blue,” she said.
The accused mother maintained her innocence and passed a lie detector test
Amanda passed a lie detector test during the investigation and turned down a plea deal of 10 years for manslaughter. Her four-day-trial ended with the jury giving her life without parole plus 30 years for child ab*se.
“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,” AJ told the Daily Mail.
Still, he’s been keeping an eye on any developments in Amanda’s case. She recently appointed a new attorney and has undertaken measures to reopen her case.
Image credits: True Crime Central
7-year-old AJ’s prized possession of a red and white toy fire truck was present during his testimony.
His childhood passion followed through, as he is now a firefighter, happily married to a wife who knows about his traumatic childhood.
He wants to continue maintaining his no-contact relationship with his convicted mother.
“Such a horrific thing for a child to go through,” a social media user said
