Delbert Charles Lewis, 66, known to some as Charlie, was found shot in his Beaumont, Texas, home in the early morning hours of September 27, 2023. Jefferson County deputies responding around 4:20 a.m. discovered him on the master bedroom floor with a single gunshot wound to the left ribcage. He was taken to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital for emergency surgery for a lacerated liver and died of his injuries on October 3, 2023.

Lewis lived with his 40-year-old girlfriend, Tracy Marie Samuel. Samuel told investigators she had gone to the bathroom during the night, smoked crack cocaine, then recalled returning to the bedroom and dropping a gun; she said the weapon discharged and repeatedly described the shooting as an accident. Investigators recovered a Smith & Wesson M&P .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a spent .40 casing near the foot of the bed.

Samuel was arrested the day Lewis died and was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on October 18, 2023; bond was set at $800,000. Does anyone have information about Lewis, his trucking business, or the events that night?