{"id":176496,"date":"2025-09-23T14:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/176496\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T14:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:33:14","slug":"fort-wayne-man-sentenced-for-stabbing-killing-waynedale-kroger-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/176496\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Wayne man sentenced for stabbing, killing Waynedale Kroger employee"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – A Fort Wayne man learned his punishment Tuesday for stabbing and killing a beloved Waynedale Kroger employee in 2023.<\/p>\n

BACKGROUND: Cashier killed in stabbing at Waynedale Kroger<\/a> | Police arrest suspect wanted in fatal stabbing of Waynedale Kroger cashier<\/a><\/p>\n

Jurors found 32-year-old Jermard Lewis guilty of murder last month in the stabbing death of 59-year-old Perla Nieto. He admitted to stabbing Nieto when questioned by police soon after the Dec. 7, 2023, stabbing, as well as during his trial.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Allen Superior Court Judge sentenced him to 65 years.<\/p>\n

Lewis stated in court that he plans to appeal his conviction. <\/p>\n

COURT DOCS: Suspect admits to returning to Kroger solely to attack cashier<\/a> | Fort Wayne man accused of stabbing cashier at Waynedale Kroger has criminal history<\/a><\/p>\n

He first came to the store about 35 minutes before the stabbing, when he got into an argument with Nieto and other Kroger employees. When he returned, Lewis walked straight to Nieto in the self-checkout area and pulled her toward himself, court documents say.<\/p>\n

He then began stabbing her.<\/p>\n

\"PerlaPerla A. Nieto, 59, was fatally stabbed while working at the Waynedale Kroger on Dec. 7.(Provided)<\/p>\n

RELATED: Kroger stabbing suspect files for insanity defense, requests competency evaluation<\/a><\/p>\n

Police identified Lewis as Nieto\u2019s attacker through surveillance video and witness descriptions, court records show. When they went to his home, they found Lewis sitting in his car.<\/p>\n

He told police he attacked Nieto because he didn\u2019t like how he was treated when he was at the store before the stabbing, court documents say. <\/p>\n

Lewis filed a notice of an insanity defense and requested an evaluation to determine whether he was competent to stand trial less than a month after the stabbing. He was scheduled to go to trial in March, but it was rescheduled as another murder case<\/a> moved forward.<\/p>\n

TRIAL COVERAGE: Trial begins for Fort Wayne man accused of stabbing beloved Kroger employee in 2023<\/a> | Defense attorney asks for murder suspect to be charged with manslaughter<\/a> | Man found guilty in fatal stabbing of Waynedale Kroger employee<\/a><\/p>\n

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Copyright 2025 WPTA. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – A Fort Wayne man learned his punishment Tuesday for stabbing and killing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[105139,37204,4,450,90111,451,105140,50037,105142,3,105141,32338,452,453,105143],"class_list":["post-176496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-21alive-news","tag-allen-county","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-fort-wayne","tag-headlines","tag-jermard-lewis","tag-kroger","tag-kroger-stabbing","tag-news","tag-perla-nieto","tag-stabbing","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-waynedale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}