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The man accused of killing the jogger Karina Vetrano was convicted of all charges Thursday night.
Chanel Lewis, 21, has been convicted of murder and sexual abuse and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is scheduled for April 17.
"Jubilation: Justice has been rendered," said the victim's father, Phil Vetrano, while he was coming out of the courtroom while holding his wife by the hand.
The pleadings were heard last Monday by the jurors. They handed down their verdict against the accused Lewis a few hours later.
Vetrano, 30, was killed while jogging at Spring Creek Park, next to Howard Beach, New York, on August 2, 2016. After the 30-year-old girl did not return home after her run in the evening she normally did it with her. his father Phil Vetrano.
(Courtesy: Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen / WABC) An image made from a video of Karina Vetrano, 30, a few hours before her death while she was jogging in Queens, New York.The parents of the graduate of St. John's University were worried when she did not come home at her usual time and called a neighbor who works for the New York City Police Department in order to To get help.
According to the testimony of the trial, Phil Vetrano conducted the research and finally discovered the partially dressed body of his daughter lying in neglected weeds in the waterfront park.
Vetrano was severely beaten, lying on the ground in 8-foot reeds, with broken teeth, down pants and wet socks, said Robert Boyce, chief of NYPD detectives at the time.
(Queens District Attorney's Office) The last photo of Karina Vetrano at her home in Howard Beach, moments before her departure for a jog on August 2, 2016, with her mother in the background.Boyce termed brutal murder one of the most remarkable cases of his career.
"My thoughts were … she was dragged through [a puddle of] water, then dragged into the high reeds, "said Boyce, who has since retired and has become a contributor to ABC News.
His phone was found thrown in the reeds about 15 to 20 feet from his body, Boyce said.
The police found the DNA of an unknown person on his mobile phone, neck and nails, he said.
Six months after the start of the investigation, the case had become cold when one of the investigators, Lieutenant John Russo, was reminded to have called the police a man Black wandering in the neighborhood of Howard Beach three months before the death of Karina Vetrano. testimony.
The man was later identified as Lewis.
Lewis, then 20, agreed to allow the police to search him for DNA in his home east of New York, while his mother was standing nearby.
(Charles Eckert / Newsday via AP, Pool) Defendant Chanel Lewis, right, sits at the defense table before the Queens Borough Supreme Court of New York on the sixth day of her retrial for the murder of Karina Vetrano on March 26 2019.He was arrested a week later for murder and sexual assault. He has been in prison since his arrest.
Lewis, who did not seem to know Vetrano, reportedly told detectives that he "had just lost him" and had strangled him after seeing the jogging trail, according to a statement that prosecutors read aloud on his indictment.
Vetrano "did not do anything," Lewis told the police. "I was just angry at the time. I beat her to let my emotions go out. I never really wanted to hurt her. It just happened. "
Lewis' first trial, in November 2018, resulted in a jury after 13 hours and led the judge to declare his trial in error.
This is a story in development. Please check again for updates.
Emily Shapiro of ABC News contributed to this report.
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