Photo: Karina Vetrano/Instagram
The trial of the man accused of murdering30-year-old Karina Vetranowhile she was jogging in Queens in 2016 ended in a mistrial Tuesday night, a spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney’s office confirms to PEOPLE.
The New York Timesreportsthat jurors deadlocked after a day and a half of deliberating the fate of Chanel Lewis, 22, who is accused of sexually abusing and then strangling Vetrano while she went jogging on a Howard Beach trail.Vetrano’s father later found her body while searching for herafter she didn’t return from her daily run.
The DA’s office will retry the case and the next court date for Lewis — who faces charges of first-degree murder and sex abuse — is set for Jan. 22, the spokesperson says.
“[Vetrano’s] dead because she was unlucky enough, misfortunate enough to be in a secluded location outside of the eyes and ears of anyone but [Lewis],” Queens Assistant District Attorney Brad Leventhal saidwhen the trial began earlier this month,according to theQueens Daily Eagle.
Leventhal described Vetrano’s death as as a “crime of random violence — a crime of opportunity.”
After arresting him,police said Lewis allegedly admitted to killing Vetranobut denied sexually assaulting her. Lewis told police, they said, that he could not stop himself from attacking her as she was jogging past him.
James Keivom James Keivom/NY Daily News via Getty Images
Leventhal told jurors during the trial that DNA evidence recovered from Vetrano’s phone, body and fingernails implicates Lewis as the only person who could have attacked her. But, theEaglereports, Vetrano’s defense attorneyJen Cheung argued the state’s evidence against her clientis inconclusive.
According to WCBS, Cheungcontended in courtthat the DNA evidence actually creates “serious doubts” about her client’s alleged guilt.
The Legal Aid Society, based in New York City, which provides legal aid to the indigent and impoverished, released a statement regarding the first trial’s outcome.
“As we have said since Day 1, this case is far from conclusive and the jury’s deadlock proves this … The death of Karina Vetrano is tragic and our hearts go out to her family, but the rush to criminalize our client is not the answer nor is it justice,” it read.
An estimated400 mourners turned out for Vetrano’s funeralin 2016.
Before she went running on the day of her death, Vetrano’s father had asked her to avoid the very area where she was found murdered, noting the park where she spent the final moments of her life attracted drifters and homeless people. Her last words to him as she headed out the door were, “It’s OK, Daddy, I’ll be all right.”
source: people.com
