MAN WAR PAN FACEBOOK LEAVES YOUNG GIRL WITH JAMAICAN PARENTS DEAD

Tatyanna Lewis’ friends tried to talk her out of fighting and so did her boyfriend, Tyshaun Page, whom 18-year-old Lewis had been dating off and on for about four years. During one of the off times when the couple spent two months apart, Page fathered a child with Chynna Stapleton, 24.

But the fight, which started as a Facebook feud over Page, turned deadly late Friday night when Stapleton rammed her Jeep into Lewis, pinned her against a tree and then backed up to run her over again, according to prosecutors in court Monday where Stapleton, charged with murder, was ordered held without bail.

Lewis’ best friend Jazz Clarke, 17, explained that Tatyanna and Ty eventually got back together and Ty told her he had a baby on the way. It wasn’t necessarily easy, but Tatyanna accepted the child because it was Tyshaun’s.

“She always told me she don’t want to be part of that, the baby mama drama. She don’t want nothing to do with that,” she said.

Last week, friends say, Lewis grew increasingly tired of the social media taunts and disrespect from Stapleton. Clarke said she and other friends kept telling her to stop wasting energy on it.

Lewis, the daughter of a Chicago police officer, was in a nursing program at North Shore Hospital in Evanston, was acting as a caretaker for both her aunt and grandma and making plans to travel to her native Jamaica this summer.

And, she got the guy. Page, 20, was talking about marriage — last year he bought her a ring.

ats.

Lewis sent Clarke screenshots of what she wanted to write to Stapleton. By Friday night, Lewis had enough of words and wanted to fight.

She and Stapleton agreed to link, or meet up and fight. They kept posting messages on social media about where they’d meet, which ended up being in front of Page’s house near 114th Place and South May Street in the Morgan Park neighborhood, officials said.

Clarke last spoke to her best friend on FaceTime at 11:06 p.m. Friday. A friend with Lewis paused the FaceTime call. Then Lewis began a Facebook Live stream that showed her punching Stapleton repeatedly, according to Clarke, who saw the streaming video and said Lewis chose not to post the footage to her Facebook page.

When the livestream cut out, it seemed like Lewis was fine.

Right after that, the friend with Lewis called Clarke, screaming, crying and begging Clarke to come help. It was 11:17 p.m. and Clarke said she could never have imagined what happened in those 11 minutes.

Tyshaun Page, 20, boyfriend of Tatyanna Lewis, an 18-year-old woman who was killed after being repeatedly rammed into a tree by another woman, talks about the incident on May 15, 2017, in the Morgan Park neighborhood. (Alyssa Pointer/ Chicago Tribune)
After the fight broke up, a bloodied Stapleton had gotten into her 2002 Jeep Liberty with a 13-year-old in the back seat, Cook County prosecutors said during the bond hearing Monday.

Lewis kicked a passenger-side door as Stapleton was trying to pull away, and witnesses then heard Stapleton yell, “I’ve got something for you,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jamie Santini said.

Stapleton made a sharp turn, drove the Jeep over the curb and onto lawns on May Street, where witnesses saw her “barreling down on them,” Santini said.

Lewis tripped and fell as she tried to run from the Jeep, prosecutors said. Stapleton hit her with the Jeep and pinned her against a nearby tree, then put the car into reverse, Santini said.

Lewis was stuck to the front end of the Jeep, and as Stapleton reversed the car, she dragged Lewis along until Lewis was pulled under, according to prosecutors. Stapleton then stopped, shifted into drive and ran Lewis over with both the front and rear wheels of the Jeep.

At 11:27 p.m., Lewis was pronounced dead.

A Saturday autopsy found that Lewis died of multiple blunt force injuries, according to the medical examiner’s office, which ruled her death a homicide.

Stapleton fled after hitting Lewis, leaving leaked fluids and car parts in her wake, prosecutors said.

Chicago police pulled her over about a mile and a half away, officials said. Officers noticed extensive damage to the Jeep and that Stapleton’s face was bleeding. They also saw tree bark on the front end of the car, Santini said.

The 13-year-old in the back seat was physically unharmed, prosecutors said. The teen’s relationship with Stapleton or Lewis was not immediately known.

Stapleton has no criminal history, her lawyer, Christopher Anderson, an assistant public defender, said in court. He said that Stapleton was provoked by Lewis’ “provocative language” online and in person. Anderson also said witnesses saw Stapleton was beaten up at the scene.

Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil noted, however, that the fistfight was over by the time Stapleton had gotten in the car.

“Not only did you hit her, you dragged her,” the judge said to Stapleton. “All the while you’ve got a 13-year-old in the back seat. … You are a danger to yourself and society.”

Onlookers in the gallery pounded on the glass separating them from the courtroom as Stapleton was led away after the hearing, drawing rebukes from sheriff’s deputies.

Stapleton’s father, 46-year-old Jesse Stapleton, declined to comment.

“She’s not a monster,” he said of his daughter. “That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Kuriakos Ciesil made her opinions known from the bench. “It’s really sad that it’s always women fighting over men. Ridiculous,” she said.

But Page insists the women weren’t fighting over him. He said it happened because “Taty was tired of being picked on.”

Neither of the women were friends on Facebook, but they could see what the other one was saying, according to Clarke. Some comments were s*xually graphic and others were just cruel.

A post on Lewis’ Facebook page — her last — at 8:12 p.m. Friday said: “His (baby mama) say she pulling up I’m on the block right now please don’t send me off.” The post has been shared more than 850 times.

Page said once he realized what Stapleton was doing on the night of the fight, it was too late for him to intervene. He said if he had just insisted that Lewis go inside or get out of there, she would’ve listened. But it was too late.

“I couldn’t even say ‘watch out,’ I couldn’t say nothing,” Page said. “I turned back around and she was already to … you know.”

Clarke said Lewis wanted to be a nurse and the pair talked about joining the Army later this year. The two teenagers both came from Jamaican families so Clarke said Lewis called themselves “Jamericans.”

They were both proud to have jobs after school, to have worked to buy cars. When she wasn’t trying to pursue modeling, Lewis was the kind of friend who would text “I love you,” or “You’re beautiful” out of the blue, Clarke said.

Lewis was the baby of her family and the only girl, with three big brothers, Clarke said.

Clarke was grounded over the weekend and after a recent move to the North Side of the city, she couldn’t get out to meet Lewis on Friday.

“I feel as if I was there we would never even have went over there because I would’ve told her, like, it’s not worth it, we should do something else,” Clarke said. “Because I got a bad feeling about that.”