16 APRIL 4, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Second Vetrano trial ends in guilty verdict
Chanel Lewis (at right) was convicted on April 1 of murdering Karina Vetrano (left) in Howard Beach back in August
2019. File photos/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
from him a DNA sample which was
said to match the DNA profile of
Vetrano’s killer.
According to trial testimony,
Lewis entered the park on the night
of the murder, apparently angered
by a neighbor playing loud music.
He encountered Vetrano while she
ran through the park and, without
saying a word, went on the attack,
repeatedly punching her in the
face and tearing her clothes off.
After sexually assaulting her,
prosecutors said, Lewis choked
Vetrano to death, even as she fought
back. Crime scene investigators
later recovered her killer’s DNA
from under her fingernails. An
autopsy later revealed that Vetrano
suffered tears to her genitalia
that indicated that she had been
sexually assaulted.
The investigation further
revealed that Lewis’ cellphone
data indicated that it pinged
from phone towers near Spring
Creek Park at around the time the
murder took place. Detectives also
learned that, even before he was
considered to be a suspect in the
Vetrano murder, he had searched
the internet on his cellphone for
information about Vetrano and
criminal proceedings, including
double jeopardy, Miranda rights
and the death penalty. (The death
penalty is no longer carried out in
New York state on capital murder
charges).
Lewis faces up life without
parole when he is sentenced on
April 17.
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
Just hours aft er closing arguments
were completed, a jury has reached
a verdict in the second trial of the
Brooklyn man accused of murdering
Howard Beach’s Karina Vetrano.
Chanel Lewis, 22, was found
guilty of committing the Aug. 2,
2016, murder and sexual assault
of Vetrano, who was brutally
beaten and choked after going out
for a run blocks from her 84th
Street home. Lewis was arrested
for the crime six months after it
occurred,w tied to the homicide
through DNA evidence recovered
at the scene.
NY1 reported that applause
broke out in the courtroom after
the guilty verdict was announced
on April 1. Chief Assistant District
Attorney John Ryan hoped that
the outcome would “give the
Vetrano family some closure
and comfort knowing her killer
will likely spend the rest of his life
behind bars.”
“A vibrant, young woman’s life
came to an abrupt and violent end
at the hands of a then-20-yearold
Brooklyn man,” Ryan said on
Monday night. “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.”
Monday’s verdict marked the end
of Lewis’ second trial, and came
nearly five months after a mistrial
was declared in the first case just
before Thanksgiving 2018 due to a
deadlocked jury.
The quick verdict also came about
after Lewis’ defense team filed a
motion against the DNA evidence,
submitting an anonymous letter
which claimed that the case was
“racially-biased” and that detectives
had collected DNA samples from
more than 300 black men. The
motion was ultimately dismissed.
Vetrano’s body was found among
the tall reeds of Spring Creek Park
hours after her father reported
her missing on Aug. 2, 2016. A sixmonth
search for her killer turned
up nothing, even though forensic
detectives recovered enough
genetic evidence from the crime
scene to create a DNA profile of her
killer. The profile did not match
anyone in the state’s DNA databank
up to that point.
Police caught a break in the
case in February 2017 when an
NYPD lieutenant recalled seeing
Lewis weeks earlier near the
park where Vetrano was killed on
an unrelated matter. Detectives
questioned Lewis and obtained
Man takes own life after Sunnyside shooting
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
EDAVENPORT@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
An Amtrak employee who
shot a colleague in the leg in
Sunnyside on March 28 died
of a self-infl icted gunshot wound, it
was reported.
According to police, at around 8
a.m. on March 28, the two Amtrak
employees got into an argument in
the vicinity of Queens Boulevard and
40th Street, near the 40th Street stop
on the 7 line.
During the argument, authorities
noted, one of the men pulled out a
fi rearm and shot the other man in the
leg and fl ed the scene.
The victim was taken to Elmhurst
Hospital with wounds that were not
considered life-threatening, law
enforcement sources said.
A report on the Citizen app indicated
that the suspect fled the scene in
a black 2012 Cadillac. Police confi rmed
that the suspect drove the car to a
Rite Aid parking lot at the corner of
Roosevelt Avenue and 51st Street in
Woodside, where he was barricaded
with officers trying to negotiate
with him.
Police say that the suspect had a fatal
self-infl icted gunshot wound and was
pronounced dead. The investigation
is ongoing.
/WWW.QNS.COM
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