Life in prison without parole for man convicted of killing boss at Jazz Cafe in Milwaukee

Jason Small



MILWAUKEE -- A man convicted of killing his boss at the Jazz Cafe in Milwaukee was sentenced to life in prison Monday, July 9.

Jason Small was sentenced to life without parole.

He was found guilty in the 2016 murder of Donald Lewis.

A jury in May convicted him on three counts:


    Small was initially reported missing, along with the victim when they were last seen together at the cafe a week before Lewis was found dead.

    According to a criminal complaint, when police found Small at a home on 13th Street, they found multiple plastic gloves with blood on them, paperwork belonging to the victim, and a security camera system from the Jazz Cafe. All of it was in a nearby garbage can.

    Young Urban Jazz Cafe at 24th and Fond du Lac



    Donald Lewis



    Surveillance video from the cafe shows Small removing an object from "underneath the counter where Lewis kept his firearm" -- and following "Lewis into the kitchen at the top of the basement stairs," according to the complaint.

    Small was then "going back and forth from the kitchen to the basement" -- and appears to remove money from the till. The complaint states he later came out of the basement carrying a black bag.

    Lewis was later found underneath boxes in a walled-off room of the basement. He had been shot three times.

    Organization Milwaukee Police-department