Jury is out (of control)
Defense: Four ‘problem’ panelists at Karina trial
Lawyers for Karina Vetrano’s convicted killer claim that at least four jurors on the panel that found him guilty of the jogger’s 2016 murder committed misconduct, new court documents show.
The motions by the defense team of Chanel Lewis’ (below) allege that two jurors talked about the case before deliberations kicked off — despitee warnings from the judge not to do so.
One of those jurorsrs is also accused of rippingng up someone’s request to hear evidence because thehe pan-panelist didn’t want toto stay late.
Also, a female ju-ror told a male panelist to shut up after he questioned whether Lewis had raped Vetrano (below right) because there was no vaginal DNA evidence. The woman said she herself was a rape victim and knew more about sexual assault than he did. Finally, another of the Queens court panelists tried to draw comparisons between this case and a rape trial on which she had sat in The Bronx, defense attorneys said. The jury convicted Lewis on April 1, after five hours of deliberadeliberation. VetraVetrano, 30, was found strangstrangled with her pants pulled down in a marshy area nnear her Howard BeacBeach home. Lewis initiatially confessed but llater recanted.
The filings, which on Wednesday led Lewis’ sentencing to be rescheduled, seek to overturn the verdict.
The documents claim that two panelists improperly talked about their feelings on the case before deliberations.
“Specifically, JUROR B stated to JUROR A, ‘Well, I have my mind made up, and I hope you do, too,’ after the victim’s parents testified,” reads one motion.
The filing also claims that when the juror who was a rape victim told another panelist to shut up, that wrongly led to discussions about the jurors’ personal DNA knowledge.
“JUROR D improperly supplemented the evidence presented at trial with her own personal experience in such a way that led others to feel they could not challenge her and had to take her at her word,” the papers say. Lewis’ lawyers claim the juror who previously served in The Bronx on a rape trial also tried to insert her own expertise and draw parallels between the two cases. Prosecutors filed their own set of motions refuting the allegations — saying the same woman identified in defense papers as Juror D denied ever saying or hearing a similar statement. The parties are due back in court on Monday for hearings on the motions.