Lawyers for Chanel Lewis filed a motion to vacate conviction in the killing of Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano (l.), saying he was the victim of “racial dragnet” by the NYPD.
Photos courtesy of Instagram (l.) and Ellis Kaplan
The Brooklyn man serving a life sentence for the brutal slaying of Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano in 2016 was wrongfully convicted, according to a motion to vacate filed in Queens Supreme Court on Monday, Aug. 21.
Civil rights attorney Ronald Kuby maintains his client, 27-year-old Chanel Lewis, should have his 2019 murder conviction overturned because the Queens District Attorney’s Office relied on DNA evidence that violated his constitutional rights. NYPD investigators relied on testing from Parabon Nanolabs, which at the time was an unlicensed vendor according to the 65-page court filing.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office does not comment on pending litigation, according to a spokeswoman.
Lewis, after a second trial, was convicted of killing Vetrano as she jogged through Spring Creek Park just blocks from her 84th Street home on Aug. 2, 2016. The jury found Lewis guilty of beating, choking and sexually assaulting his 30-year-old victim to death nearly five months after a mistrial was declared in his first trial after the jury was deadlocked just before Thanksgiving 2018.
A six-month manhunt for Vetrano’s killer came up empty until detectives 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 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…
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