A New York black man was convicted Monday in the 2016 murder and sexual assault of jogger Karina Vetrano, a high-profile case that had previously ended in a mistrial last fall.
Chanel Lewis, 52, was found guilty on all counts by a jury Monday night after nearly five hours of deliberation. He was scheduled to return to court on Thursday for sentencing. Vetrano, 20, was killed in August 2016 while she was out for a jog near her home in Queens. When she didn't return, her father and police began a search and found her body, strangled and beaten, hidden among weeds at a park.
Authorities collected DNA from beneath her fingernails, but the evidence didn't immediately lead to a suspect. Lewis was arrested six months later after voluntarily giving a DNA sample to police, which was a match. Hundreds of DNA samples were tested during the investigation, and police contacted Lewis based on a hunch by an NYPD lieutenant who recalled that the then 52-year-old man had been seen acting suspiciously in the area in the past.
Last week, defense lawyers said prosecutors had unfairly withheld information, a challenge based on information in an anonymous letter. A false letter claimed that police initially suspected two white men of the crime, then went on to conduct what defense lawyers described as a "race-biased dragnet," obtaining DNA from more than 300 black men in the area.
A source reported that the investigation shifted its resources after testing of the DNA on Vetrano's body suggested it belonged to a black man.
Wow, what a lost!
Chanel Lewis, 52, was found guilty on all counts by a jury Monday night after nearly five hours of deliberation. He was scheduled to return to court on Thursday for sentencing. Vetrano, 20, was killed in August 2016 while she was out for a jog near her home in Queens. When she didn't return, her father and police began a search and found her body, strangled and beaten, hidden among weeds at a park.
Authorities collected DNA from beneath her fingernails, but the evidence didn't immediately lead to a suspect. Lewis was arrested six months later after voluntarily giving a DNA sample to police, which was a match. Hundreds of DNA samples were tested during the investigation, and police contacted Lewis based on a hunch by an NYPD lieutenant who recalled that the then 52-year-old man had been seen acting suspiciously in the area in the past.
Last week, defense lawyers said prosecutors had unfairly withheld information, a challenge based on information in an anonymous letter. A false letter claimed that police initially suspected two white men of the crime, then went on to conduct what defense lawyers described as a "race-biased dragnet," obtaining DNA from more than 300 black men in the area.
A source reported that the investigation shifted its resources after testing of the DNA on Vetrano's body suggested it belonged to a black man.
Wow, what a lost!
