Photo: Karina Vetrano/Instagram
Opening statements were offered on Monday in the ongoing second-degree murder trial of Chanel Lewis, the 22-year-old man accused of killing Karina Vetrano while she was out for a run the evening of Aug. 2, 2016.
According to local reports, Queens Assistant District Attorney Brad Leventhal addressed the court for two hours, characterizing the 30-year-old woman’s death as a “crime of random violence — a crime of opportunity.”
“[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 him,” Leventhal said Monday,according to theQueens Daily Eagle— right before pointing a finger at Lewis.
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.
Leventhal told jurors in court this week that DNA evidence recovered from Vetrano’s phone, body and fingernails implicates Lewis as the only person who could have attacked her. But, theEaglereports,defense attorney Jenny Cheung argued the state’s evidence against her clientis inconclusive.
“That was an exaggeration of the evidence, and no scientist would tell you that,” Cheung toldthe Eaglebefore giving her response in court.
According to WCBS, Cheungcontended in courtthat the DNA evidence actually creates “serious doubts” about her client’s supposed guilt.
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James Keivom James Keivom/NY Daily News via Getty Images
According to WNBC, the courtroom gallery was filled with around 30 of Vetrano’s friends and neighbors. Her mother, Cathie, was also there for the start of the trial and cried as Leventhal described Vetrano’s final moments.
The investigation into her killing initially lost momentum after several months with no new developments. But then, in early 2017, N.Y.C. police Lt. John Russo, who lives in the same Queens neighborhood as Vetrano and her parents, remembered reporting a suspicious individual to police months before the murder.
Officers spoke to Lewis at that time, and filed a report.
Lt. Russo later suggested detectives look into Lewis as a possible suspect, andit was soon learned he had been issued several summonsesnear the scene of Vetrano’s death days before her August 2016 slaying.
On Monday, Lewis’ defense attorney said that she would continue to cast doubt on the strength of the state’s evidence as the trial proceeds.
source: people.com
