Last hope squashed, Karina killer to be sentenced Tues.
The sentencing of the man convicted of killing Queens jogger Karina Vetrano is back on track after a judge on Monday rejected a defense motion to throw out the verdict after accusing jurors of misconduct.
Chanel Lewis will be sentenced Tuesday nearly three weeks after jurors said he was guilty of killing Vetrano, 30, who was attacked on a trail while she jogged in Spring Hill Park in Howard Beach on Aug. 2, 2016.
Lewis’ lawyers had asked the judge to overturn the verdict, arguing that one juror had decided guilt before deliberations and pressed others to agree; that a second juror used knowledge gleaned from a previous stint on a jury; and that a third discussed her prior sexual abuse.
But Judge Michael Aloise denied the motion, to the satisfaction of Vetrano’s parents, who had already suffered through a mistrial before Lewis was convicted.
“It was a joke,” the victim’s father, Phil Vetrano, said of the motion. Nothing but fools, all fools.”
Vetrano spoke outside Queens Criminal Court after prosecutors accused juror and budding actor Christopher Gooley of “seeking his 15 minutes of fame” when he said other panelists had their minds made up already and pressured him into a decision about the sexual assault charge against Lewis.
“Would it be fair to say that publicity for an actor is good?” Assistant Queens DA Brad Levanthal said.
“This juror was more concerned with how his verdict was going to be perceived in the community in which he makes a living. Suggest that juror No. 4 was seeking his 15 minutes of fame, his 15 minutes of publicity. His credibility is an issue. His motive is an issue.”
Chanel Lewis’ mother, Veta, was upset by the ruling.
“I am a mother, and I feel the Vetrano pain because they lost a daughter,” she said. “I, too, lost a son, and my son is not the killer. But you know what, I will get my reward from the righteous judge up there. God almighty knows that no sin goes unpunished.”