Authorities said Maleia Cole, 33, followed him into a store and hit him repeatedly with the pans.
FRANKLIN TWP. -- When the family and friends of the late Jason Lewis, 35, viewed his body at a funeral home Wednesday evening, a hat was carefully placed on his head.
It covered the evidence of Lewis' tragic, brutal death: a fresh scar of at least six inches from his forehead to behind his ear, plus other cuts and shaved patches from his hospitalization and autopsy, according to his father, Daniel Munoz.
"He was a good kid, and he's going to be missed by a lot of people," Munoz said at his home in Franklinville before the service. "I can't believe it. Now we're putting him to rest."
Lewis' death Sept. 26 didn't make headlines until Tuesday, when the Camden County Prosecutor's Office announced the shocking circumstances behind it.
The office said that on Sept. 2, Maleia Cole, 33, chased Lewis across the street from his home in Camden and into a convenience store on Mount Ephraim Avenue in Woodlynne, beating him repeatedly in the head with two frying pans.
Surveillance video footage shows he tried to walk away from her, but she still knocked him to the ground and kept beating him before someone took the pans, according to the prosecutor's probable cause statement.
Cole was arrested after the incident, Munoz said. She was released and, after Lewis died, arrested on a murder charge Monday by federal marshals. Authorities wrote in the probable cause statement that Cole admitted to the beating, saying she was angry because they had argued and he walked out of the trailer where they lived.
Munoz said authorities told him the blows to his son's head were so violent that one of the pans' handles was partially broken.
Lewis' death came several weeks after he was discharged from a hospital where staff apparently believed he was well enough to go home. Messages left for media representatives of Lourdes Health System were not returned Wednesday.
Emergency personnel responding to 911 calls about the incident transported the bloodied but conscious Lewis just over one mile to Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, according to the probable cause statement. He was diagnosed with a severe brain injury and treated for for five days before he was sent home, the statement said.
"You could tell something wasn't right. He was slow in reacting," Munoz said of his son at that point. He said Lewis still appeared to be in pain.
"On that Sunday I went to watch the football game with him and I brought him a sandwich, and he's a big eater," Munoz said. "But he only took two bites of it. Something's wrong."
He said he believes his son went to an emergency room for help, but was not admitted for care, during the five-day period after he was discharged.
On Sept. 12, according to Munoz, Lewis ran from his home yelling that he needed to go to the emergency room, and was taken to Cooper University Hospital's level 1 trauma center.
"Within 20 minutes he was in the operating room," Munoz said. "He had a full brain bleed."
Lewis suffered three strokes and for the remainder of his life -- 13 days in the intensive care unit -- he was unable to speak or respond to instructions, Munoz said.
Lewis died 24 days after the alleged attack. A medical examiner determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
The prosecutor's office said that both Cole and Lewis told police they were dating, but Munoz said his son had always told him he was just letting Cole stay in the trailer to "help her out."
Munoz said he had a bad feeling about it, and told his son as much.
Cole has two past convictions, according to court records. One was for aggravated assault with intent to cause significant injury in 2004. Details about the crime were not immediately available.
The second conviction was for making terroristic threats. She was sentenced to a year of probation after she threatened to shoot and kill everyone in the Camden County Police Department lobby on June 13, 2016, according to information from the prosecutor's office.
Munoz said it wasn't the first time his son relayed that he was letting someone stay at his place who didn't have anywhere else to go.
"He always helps people out. When he had an apartment, he would let people stay there," he said. "He didn't have nothing but what he had, he'd share with whoever."
He said Lewis grew up in Camden and Pennsauken, where his mother lives. He dropped out of high school but Munoz said he completed the New Jersey ChalleNGe Youth Program at the Joint Base Mcguire-Dix-Lakehurst. He had run-ins with the law that his father attributes to trouble he found on "the streets."
Lewis dealt with health problems including one that damaged his kidneys and meant he had to be on dialysis three times a week. That made it hard to work, Munoz said, but his son was working side jobs, had his forklift operator's license, and was trying to make a better life for himself.
He also loved being a dad to his four children, who live in the Camden and Pennsauken area, his father said.
"He was very easy going. He had a very quiet demeanor," he said of Lewis. Investigators told him that the surveillance footage shows that his son "never raised a hand" to his attacker, Munoz said.
Hours before his family members and friends would gather to say their goodbyes to Lewis Wednesday evening, his father said the pain and panic of losing his son sometimes feels like a heart attack.
"I've been dealing with chronic pain for years, but with this here, it's double worse. Now it's not on the outside," he said, gesturing toward his chest. "It's like a heavy heart."
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.