‘Word for word’

After the trial, A.J. began a new chapter far from the public eye.

He was adopted by a loving couple, given a new name, and quietly disappeared from the spotlight.

Since that heartbreaking case, he’s never spoken publicly about the events that changed his life forever.

Until now.

The 24-year-old, now a firefighter, told the Daily Mail that he wasn’t “coached or anything like that” for the trial and only realized “later on in my teenager years” that his testimony determined the fate of his mother.

“I just told them exactly what I saw word for word,” A.J. said, adding that as a child, he was “really, really nervous…Having all those people looking at you and all that. But I was just glad it was over.”

Darkness

Speaking of his childhood with his sister and Lewis, A.J. shared that it was “just darkness, trauma. A lot of abuse. Physically abused, both Adrianna and I were hit.”

“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,” he said, adding that life with his adopted family was filled with love and happiness – a “360 difference.”