Jogger juror raises a stink
Slams panel in Karina-slay verdict
Nearly three weeks after reaching a unanimous guilty verdict, there’s a lone griper among jurors in the Howard Beach jogger murder trial.
In court papers filed by defense lawyers for convicted murderer Chanel Lewis, a man identified as “Juror A” alleges behindthe-scenes misbehavior by three of his fellow panelists — one during the trial and deliberations, the other two during the five-hour discussions preceding their unified guilty verdicts.
“Well, I have my mind made up and I hope you do too,” the jury foreman reportedly declared to Juror A on day two of the trial, after the parents of victim Karina Vetrano testified. The same juror later tore up a note from the jury to the judge about the length of their April 1 deliberations, according to Juror A’s affidavit.
The defense, at a Monday hearing in Queens, hopes to convince Supreme Court Judge Michael Aloise that the jurors’ behavior is enough to set aside the guilty verdicts against their 22-year-old client. The first prosecution ended with a mistrial last November.
Prosecutors, relying on affidavits from the three accused jurors, insist that nothing untoward occurred during the trial or deliberations. If Aloise agrees, Lewis will return to court Tuesday and face a possible sentence of life without parole for the Aug. 2, 2016, sexual assault and slaying of the 30-year-old Vetrano near her Queens home.
“For the reasons set forth in the attached memorandum of law, the court should deny the defendant’s motion to set aside the verdict,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Brad Leventhal in court papers obtained by the Daily News.
The prosecutor, in his eight-page response to the defense, urged Aloise to hold the Monday court session rather than proceed with the scheduled sentencing of Lewis this past Wednesday.
“An evidentiary hearing will permit this court to make findings of fact and credibility determinations that will enhance the record and thereby facilitate any appellate review,” wrote Leventhal.
According to the defense, the misconduct included two jurors — one a rape survivor, the other someone who served on an earlier, unrelated rape case — using their prior experiences to sway the jury vote on the sexual abuse charge against defendant.
All three jurors provided prosecution affidavits refuting the Juror A allegations, with the alleged sex crime victim declaring “I have never been raped and have never claimed to anyone to have been raped.”
The jury foreman denies making the “mind made up” remark, and the third juror says Juror A’s claim about discussing the foreman’s statement with him is bogus.
The third juror acknowledges briefly bringing up the prior criminal case, but recalls that he was quickly shut down by another juror insisting that he “should not discuss any aspect of my prior case. I immediately acknowledged he was correct, and did not discuss the facts of my prior jury service at any point thereafter.”
Juror A also recounted the supposed impatience of his courthouse colleagues once the deliberations began, with an unspecified number of jurors complaining when he asked to rewatch the videotaped confession given by Lewis to the NYPD.
The defense has alleged that the admission was coerced while their client was in police custody.
“When the TVs were not working when we asked to see the confession tape, we went back into the deliberation room,” he recounted. “Some of the jurors said, ‘Do you really need to see it again? It’s going to take three hours. We’re going be here until 1 a.m.’”