"Maleficent, pathetic coward": shocking reaction to the murderer's sentence

The parents of a murdered young woman while running in a park uttered scathing remarks to the murderer of their daughter in heartbreaking statements before the conviction.

Karina Vetrano, 30, was practicing in the New York City area of ​​Queens, USA, when the 22-year-old slayer Chanel Lewis attacked and strangled her to death in 2016. The latter was sentenced today to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. accusations of murder and rape.

He yawned when Judge Michael Aloise told him that he would spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The sentence comes a day after the judge has dismissed a motion to quash the trial. Lewis's lawyers requested that the verdict be quashed after two complaints for jury misconduct. The first Lewis trial was completed with a jury suspended in November and the new trial was a roller coaster of revelatory revelations and heartrending testimonies.

Justice Aloise told Lewis "that you brutally and savagely murdered this girl" and suggested that she turn to God "eager to forgive".

"If you make that decision, you will do it in a cage, that's a guarantee," the judge said.

Moments before Lewis learns her fate on Tuesday morning, Cathy and Philip, Karina Vetrano's parents, both watched their daughter's "monster" killer reveal their broken heart in the Queens County Criminal Court. .

Mr. Vetrano, who discovered that the dead body of his daughter had been thrown on an overgrown path near the place where they were running together, said the family was devastated. His grief was palpable when he told the judge that "his heart was torn that night."

"This monster killed four people that night, one is in paradise, the others are walking on the street while the zombies are waiting to be with Karina again," Vetrano said.

"Only my faith in God and my faith in heaven prevent me from committing suicide for fear of not being able to see my baby anymore.

"There is no more merry Christmas, no more Happy New Year, no more happy birthdays," he said with tears.

"There's more fun in life, more smiles, more happiness, they've all been captured by this convicted rapist."

Mr. Vetrano also spoke directly to the murderer of his daughter by explaining that he had a message to convey on his behalf.

"If you go to court and say you're sorry, she'll forgive you," he said. "Remember, these are not my words, they are his words, I will never forgive you."

Cathy Vetrano also spoke and told Lewis that he was "a pathetic and devilish coward" who "performed the work of Satan".

"Chanel Lewis also mbadacred me with the gruesome murder of my soul," Mrs. Vetrano said through her tears.

"As soon as you got hold of a child of God, you rejected the Holy Spirit and acted like the devil.

"You are so repulsive that you have left it hidden so that it is even more profaned in summer by insects and animals … like a snake, you've run away in the night with your secrets." and your lies.

"My hope is that you live a long life in the prison of the law and in the prison of your conscience."

The devastated mother called the sentence "Karina's day – it's her and she alone".

"It's a day when we recognize that Karina's life is important," Vetrano told the court before handing over the pair of white shoes that her daughter was wearing at work on the day of her murder.

"As small as they are, these are the shoes of a giant – a valiant warrior and a queen," she said.

Karina Vetrano's adult sister and brother also made pbadionate statements about the victims.

"Chanel Lewis has shown no mercy to my sister Karina and I ask the court not to pity her," said her sister Tana.

Lewis, who greeted his family with his handcuffed hands behind his back before sitting down, looked expressionless. He only made a brief statement in which he maintained his innocence before being sentenced.

"I'm sorry for the loss of the family, but I did not do that," he said.

Outside the courthouse, Lewis's mother, Veta, told reporters that her son was surrounded.

"I still believe and I know my son is innocent," she said.

Lewis's defense is committed to appealing the verdict.

Karina Vetrano's family has repeatedly said that she did not doubt Lewis's guilt. Outside the court, Vetrano told reporters that "Karina got justice and the murderer got justice."

Great discovery

Ms. Vetrano disappeared after telling her father that she was going to run in the local park around 5 pm on August 2, 2016. Mr. Vetrano had refused to join her because he had back problems.

When she did not come back, the father, worried, called his neighbor the chief of police, John Cbadidy, and a large-scale human hunt followed, with 100 detectives badigned to the case before M Vetrano does not find his body. She had been beaten, strangled and badually badaulted before being left on the weedy-covered trail with her top and short shorts at the Howard Beach Spring Creek Park.

The detectives took saliva samples from men arrested in the surrounding area, including Lewis in East New York, Brooklyn.

Police forensic teams said the traces of his DNA found on Ms. Vetrano's neck and phone, as well as the mixture of two of her nails.

Prosecutors said that the accused had been hand-injured the day after the murder, which a doctor reportedly said was consistent with hitting someone.

At first, Lewis had confessed to the crime during an interview with the police, but then said that he had been coerced.