Queens jury finds man guilty of murder in Karina Vetrano's 2016 death

A Queens jury Monday night found a 22-year-old Brooklyn man guilty of murder for the 2016 strangulation of Karina Vetrano, the 30-year-old Howard Beach jogger found dead in a park near her home after going for a run.

The panel came down with its verdict against Chanel Lewis after five hours of deliberations in a case that in November resulted in a mistrial when the first jury couldn’t agree on a verdict.

Lewis was found guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree felony murder and first degree sexual abuse. Sentencing for Lewis is set for April 17. He faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

After the jury foreman announced the verdict with a deep, bellowing, "guilty," Vetrano's parents, Philip and Catherine, hugged. Philip Vetrano extended his arms above his head and looked up toward the courtroom ceiling as other family members cheered. Several girlfriends of his slain daughter were also in the courtroom and embraced and broke into tears when they heard the verdict.

NYPD detectives who worked the case and testified during the trial hugged and slapped each other on the back, as did prosecutors.

“This was a horrifying case," said John M. Ryan, chief assistant district attorney, in a statement released after the verdict came down. "A vibrant, young woman’s life came to an abrupt and violent end at the hands of a then-20-year-old Brooklyn man. Ms. Vetrano’s death was brutal. She was pulled from a park pathway, sexually assaulted and in her last moments of life she gasped for air as the defendant’s hands tightened around her neck.”

Lewis said nothing before being escorted from the courtroom and his Legal Aid Society lawyers were silent as they left the Queens State Supreme Court building and drove away. They could not be immediately reached for comment later Monday night.

Prosecutors with the Queens district attorney's office presented evidence over a two-week period to the jury. The key elements to the prosecution case were two confessions Lewis gave to investigators as well as DNA from Vetrano’s neck and cellphone, which was deemed by a forensic expert to be a match to Lewis.

Other evidence included graphic crime scene and autopsy photos that caused onlookers in the courtroom to gasp and some jurors to appear visibly upset. Vetrano's parents cast their eyes down when the photos were displayed in the trial. 

DNA found under Vetrano’s fingernail was determined by experts at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to have a high statistical probability of being from both her and Lewis, rather than some unknown person.

The defense maintained that Lewis’ confessions had been coerced and that the DNA evidence was ambiguous or unreliable. The defense said Lewis was the victim of a rush to judgment by police and sloppy investigative work.

The case took on racial overtones when just days before the jury was set to deliberate an anonymous note was sent to prosecutors and Legal Aid Society lawyers, alleging that cops targeted Lewis because he was a black man from East New York. The letter, which made arguments sympathetic to the defense, was allegedly written by a cop and made claims about the investigation, a number of which were false based on court evidence and the NYPD.   

Vetrano, a speech pathologist, was found dead in the weeds of Spring Creek Park by her father and police the night of Aug. 2016.  The young woman, known to friends for being vivacious and friendly, had gone to the park for a jog after returning from work in Manhattan. Lewis, a taciturn, self-admitted loner, was retried for strangling and sexually abusing Vetrano.

Usually, Vetrano’s father accompanied his daughter on her runs but couldn’t the night she was killed because of a back problem.

As he left the courtroom Monday night, Philip Vetrano said "justice will be served." Catherine Vetrano said nothing but a bit later, outside the courthouse she expressed relief.

"Now I can grieve," she said.

The guilty verdict came just after 9:20 p.m. following nearly five hours of deliberations. Before the jury got the case Monday, Lewis' attorneys unsuccessfully moved for Judge Michael Aloise to reopen evidentiary hearings or order a mistrial because of the anonymous letter circulated last week. The note gave opinions on alternate scenarios as to how Lewis’ DNA might have found its way on to Vetrano’s cellphone at the crime scene.

The note caused a last-minute tempest, with some familiar with the case suggesting it was timed to arrive on the eve of jury deliberations. Assistant District Attorney Brad Leventhal told Aloise the unsigned and unsworn note was nothing more than an attempt by someone to “derail the trial."

Aloise rejected the defense request regarding the letter as well as other standard defense motions asking the judge to throw out the case because the prosecution hadn’t proved its side.  Aloise didn’t given explanations for his rulings.

In his summation, Legal Aid attorney Robert Moeller reiterated to the jury the defense themes that Lewis’ confessions to detectives and prosecutors had been coerced and the DNA evidence in the case unreliable. Apparently sensing the importance of the DNA component to the case, Moeller spent close to a half-hour of his 90-minute summation attacking the testimony of Linda Razzano, the DNA expert from the medical examiner's office who testified for the prosecution.

Moeller argued that Razzano was evasive or refused to give straight answers about whether DNA could be transferred to a victim by someone other than the defendant.

“DNA moves through contact and it doesn’t have to be person to person,” Moeller said.

A key argument of the defense involved Lewis’ DNA, which was found on Vetrano’s neck and her cellphone, as well as likely under her fingernails. The defense had suggested the DNA was transferred to Vetrano through an intermediary or innocent contact.

In his more than two-hour summation, Leventhal argued that the prosecution wasn’t race-based.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.