LIFE FOR A LIFE
Karina’s kin rage as killer gets the max Mayhem erupts, 2 protesters cuffed
The parents of a savagely murdered Queens jogger spoke directly to her killer, the man who left them heartbroken, shattered, suicidal.
Phil Vetrano and his wife Cathie poured out their agony and angst to convicted murderer Chanel Lewis before he was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole during an emotionallycharged court session.
“Like a snake, you slithered away into the night,” mom Cathie Vetrano told Lewis as he sat a short distance away at the defense table in Queens Criminal Court.
Lewis “carried out the work of Satan,” said Vetrano , who at one point held up a pair of white shoes worn to work by her child Karina on the day of the murder. “The angels wept and the devils danced in delight as you began to torture and impose the most brutal death on my daughter.”
The devastated mom spoke after her husband and daughter Tana, though their words could hardly convey the numbness that followed the brutal Aug. 2, 2016, murder of Karina Vetrano as she ran through a park near their home in Howard Beach.
“That monster killed four people that day,” said Phil Vetrano. “One of us is in heaven, but the other three of us walk the earth as zombies, just waiting to die so we can be with Karina again. Only my faith in God and my belief in heaven keeps me from killing myself.”
Lewis, 22, insisted that he did not kill 30-year-old Karina, while family and friends in the courtroom started chanting “Justice for Chanel!” once the maximum sentence was imposed.
“I’m innocent,” Lewis insisted. “I’m sorry for the family’s loss, but I didn’t do this.”
Queens Criminal Court Judge Michael Aloise handed down the jail term one day after rejecting a defense team argument claiming juror misconduct tainted the guilty verdicts for sexual assault and murder against Lewis. Aloise said he expects Lewis will eventually admit to his role in the brutal killing.
“When you decide to make that decision,” the judge told Lewis, “you’re going to do it inside a cage.”
Chanel’s mother Veta Lewis acknowledged that hearing the dead woman’s parents broke her heart. But so did the sentence imposed on her son.
“As a mother I still believe, and I know my son is innocent,” said Veta Lewis. “Chanel did not kill this lady. The judge tried to sentence him without compassion … What he did today is not justice for Chanel.”
Veta Lewis, without offering any proof, accused prosecutor Brad Leventhal of framing her son. Supporters of the convicted killer shouted at Leventhal when he exited the courthouse, with some even following the the prosecutor for a short distance.
But trial testimony indicated Lewis’ DNA was found on the victim’s body, and jurors also saw the defendant’s videotaped confession to police.
In the madness outside the courthouse, two supporters of the sentenced defendant were arrested for civil disobedience — including Rev. Kevin McCall, spiritual leader for the Lewis family.
Lewis was convicted on April 1 in his second trial for the death of the jogger, with the jury needing just five hours to return its verdict. His first trial ended in a hung jury last November.
Cathie Vetrano finished her statement by delivering a barbed sendoff to the killer.
“I wish you good health,” she told Lewis. “May you live a long life in darkness and in fear, longing for what you have lost.”