# Update: Mistrial Declared On 2016 Death Of Howard Beach Jogger, Katrina Vetrano



## Bklynqueen (Nov 21, 2018)

I'm so surprised this hasn't been posted yet; many members on this forum thought her father had something to do with this.  *Original Thread:* *30- Year Old NY Jogger Found Dead*

*Hung Jury in Murder Trial Over 2016 Death of Jogger Karina Vetrano*









By John Surico

Nov. 20, 2018
The trial of the man accused of murdering Karina Vetrano, a 30-year-old woman who was killed while jogging in a Queens park in 2016, ended in a mistrial Tuesday night.

After a day and a half of deliberations, 12 jurors returned to the courtroom split on whether to find the man, Chanel Lewis, 22, guilty of the murder and sexual abuse of Ms. Vetrano on an early August afternoon in Spring Creek Park.

The defense lawyers requested a mistrial, and Justice Michael B. Aloise of State Supreme Court in Queens granted the motion, supporting the jurors’ sentiment that their conclusion would not change. “I’m inclined to believe them,” he said.

The victim’s family members declined to speak with reporters as they left the courthouse. A person with the family said they needed space.

During deliberations, the jury requested a number of key pieces of evidence that were presented throughout the trial. That included further examination of the DNA evidence, and a viewing of the confession tape, in which Mr. Lewis is seen admitting to the murder on two separate occasions, after repeatedly denying it to investigators.

Robert Moeller, one of Mr. Lewis’s lawyers, said that a day and a half had been sufficient time for deliberations.

“According to their note, they were hopelessly deadlocked,” Mr. Moeller said. “So what’s another day going to do?”

Mr. Lewis is “happy that he wasn’t convicted,” Mr. Moeller added. Yet he remains in custody.

“The jury is understanding that DNA is not all it; the confession is not all it,” said Jen Cheung, a lawyer for Mr. Lewis. “There are issues in the case that, as you all see, are much more complex.”

Officials with the Queens District Attorney’s Office said that they planned to retry the case. A new trial is set to begin Jan. 22.

The Legal Aid Society released a statement pledging to continue its defense of Mr. Lewis.
*
“As we have said since Day 1, this case is far from conclusive and the jury’s deadlock proves this,” the statement said. “The death of Karina Vetrano is tragic and our hearts go out to her family, but the rush to criminalize our client is not the answer nor is it justice.”*

Ms. Vetrano’s badly beaten body was found by her father on the night of Aug. 2, 2016, setting off a manhunt that involved scores of officers. In early February 2017, the police arrested Mr. Lewis on charges of murder and sexual abuse.

Mr. Lewis became a suspect after a police lieutenant said he had spotted Mr. Lewis loitering in Howard Beach in the months preceding the murder. The lieutenant, John Russo, told jurors that Mr. Lewis had been wearing thick clothing during the middle of summer and had avoided the police, which made him stand out. Later, the police reviewed a 911 call from May of that year that placed Mr. Lewis in the same part of the park where Ms. Vetrano’s body was discovered.

Soon after they identified him as a possible suspect, the police confronted Mr. Lewis at his home and asked him for a DNA sample. He confessed to the crime during a four-hour interrogation after his DNA matched a sample found on Ms. Vetrano. “I was beating her and was mad at her,” he told a Queens assistant district attorney in an interview that was videotaped.





Karina Vetrano was strangled in 2016 when she went for an after-work run in a Queens park.Credit
In a nearly two-hour closing argument on Monday, the lead prosecutor, Brad Leventhal, raised his voice frequently to describe Ms. Vetrano’s murder. Then Mr. Leventhal acted out the crime, using both hands to show how prosecutors say Mr. Lewis first punched and then strangled Ms. Vetrano.

“If you follow the evidence, it leads you to one location; it leads you to to one person. Right over there,” Mr. Leventhal said, pointing directly across the courtroom at Mr. Lewis. “Chanel Lewis. Murderer. Killer.”

Mr. Leventhal described Mr. Lewis as a loner, motivated by “anger and sexual frustration.” He said the defendant often roamed the streets of Queens and Brooklyn, where he lived, and did not have a job, friends or girlfriend.

The prosecution’s case relied heavily on Mr. Lewis’s videotaped confession and DNA evidence found at the crime scene that matched his profile. Prosecutors also focused on a hand injury that Mr. Lewis suffered the same day Ms. Vetrano was murdered that was consistent with punching someone.

Mr. Leventhal said that Mr. Lewis was upset when he left his home on the day of the murder because a neighbor was playing loud music, so he went to Spring Creek Park. He had previously visited the park at least seven times. It was a place, Mr. Leventhal said, where Mr. Lewis often “went to clear his head.”

The prosecutor said Mr. Lewis attacked Ms. Vetrano as she jogged through an overgrown section of the park. Medical evidence showed Mr. Lewis repeatedly punched Ms. Vetrano, then strangled her after climbing on top of her chest and sexually abusing her, Mr. Leventhal said.

Mr. Leventhal said the defendant had conducted 137 web searches on his phone after the police approached him and requested a sample of his DNA, including queries for the phrases “Miranda rights” and “sacrament of penance,” a Christian rite of atonement.

The defense argued that the interrogation was intense for Mr. Lewis, who was left alone for two hours in a windowless room, not given a phone call, and then put into a jail cell.

Mr. Moeller also tried to cast doubt on the DNA evidence, suggesting the crime scene had been contaminated. He said Mr. Lewis might have touched a surface that Ms. Vetrano touched at some point, and a transference of small amounts of DNA might have occurred.

“People’s DNA can end up in places that they’ve never been,” he said.

Mr. Moeller noted that Mr. Lewis, on the night he eventually confessed to the crime, had first denied to the police having anything to do with Ms. Vetrano’s death several times before he was put in a “windowless” room for several hours without being allowed to call his family. The defense lawyer also pointed out that several details in the confession were at odds with some of the findings in the autopsy.

At times, Mr. Lewis, who attended a high school for students with learning disabilities, appeared confused on the videotaped confession. He occasionally mumbled through his responses.

The cause of death had been ruled as strangulation, but Mr. Lewis told an investigator on the night he confessed that Ms. Vetrano had drowned in a puddle. He denied sexually assaulting Ms. Vetrano, but the victim’s body was discovered partially clothed with trauma to her vagina and rectum.

Finally, in closing arguments, Mr. Moeller said Mr. Lewis’s hand injury would have prevented him from throwing a phone 40 feet from the path, where the police later found it.

Mr. Moeller claimed the police investigation and prosecution had tried to make the evidence support their faulty theory. “The government is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”

_Correction: November 21, 2018
An earlier version of this article misstated when Karina Vetrano was murdered and sexually abused in 2016. It was in early August, not late August._


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## Transformer (Nov 21, 2018)

I'm glad the jury did some critical thinking and analysis, especially when it comes to a person that is impaired.


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## Bette Davis Eyes (Nov 21, 2018)

I am frankly surprised and with all of the information revealed, it doesn't make sense.


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## Atthatday (Nov 21, 2018)

I think he’s innocent.


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## Transformer (Nov 21, 2018)

shawnyblazes said:


> I am frankly surprised and with all of the information revealed, it doesn't make sense.




How about pro prosecutor bias reporting.


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## discodumpling (Nov 22, 2018)

I still think hes innocent. They found a simple dude to pin it on and hes young, poor, vulnerable and quite frankly much of this story doesn't make sense. 
Who travels on PT from BK to Howard Beach Queens to "think" things through? And ends up grabbing a random chick and brutalizing her? Why'd her Dad know exactly where to locate the body? 
I promise yall Black people dont go to Hwd Beach less we have business to attend to over there. They dont like us...and we dont like them. It's been like that since before they killed that Trini boy back in the day. It is Italian mob territory and there is nothing inviting about that neighborhood. 
I used to teach senior yoga to the old Italians back there for a time, so they put some respect on my name cause I taught their Nonna or whatever...but most Black folks ain't randomly going to Hwd. Beach to think ish out. I pray for this young man to have a favorable outcome.


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## nysister (Nov 22, 2018)

I totally agree with you.

Where from Brooklyn was he supposed to be traveling from? Not that I think he's guilty, but parts are walkable to HB, I lived on the boder as a kid. However like you said, no Black person (even of limited mental capability) would be likely to go there. Those folks are Sopprano-style savages that other Italians would talk bad about. 

Remember the stench from the bodies the mob used to dump in Jamaica Bay? Ugh, I can still conjur up that smell. {Shivers}



discodumpling said:


> I still think hes innocent. They found a simple dude to pin it on and hes young, poor, vulnerable and quite frankly much of this story doesn't make sense.
> Who travels on PT from BK to Howard Beach Queens to "think" things through? And ends up grabbing a random chick and brutalizing her? Why'd her Dad know exactly where to locate the body?
> I promise yall Black people dont go to Hwd Beach less we have business to attend to over there. They dont like us...and we dont like them. It's been like that since before they killed that Trini boy back in the day. It is Italian mob territory and there is nothing inviting about that neighborhood.
> I used to teach senior yoga to the old Italians back there for a time, so they put some respect on my name cause I taught their Nonna or whatever...but most Black folks ain't randomly going to Hwd. Beach to think ish out. I pray for this young man to have a favorable outcome.


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## nysister (Nov 22, 2018)

Regarding the poor young woman, that was either her Dad or someone she broke up with. In these situations it's highly likely it was someone she knew, and someone that knew her well.


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## intellectualuva (Nov 22, 2018)

When they said DNA 50-11 times, I just knew they found semen or something concrete. smh. 

Videotaped confessions have been proven time and time again to be false in many cases. Folks say whatever someone wants to hear, especially if they are being fed information while they are being interrogated for hours on end. 

This guy being impaired would have been easy to manipulate and get a quick win. Plus his race fits their narrative.


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