The man convicted of murdering New York jogger Karina Vetrano has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole following two dramatic trials.
Chanel Lewis, 22, was sentenced on Tuesday in Queens Supreme Court for the 30-year-old jogger’s brutal murder and sexual assault more than two years ago.
He was convicted this month of brutally murdering Vetrano as she ran on a park trail near her family home in Howard Beach, Queens, back in August 2016.
Lewis continued to maintain his innocence as he was given a life sentence without the chance of parole, telling the court: ‘The only thing I want to say is, I’m innocent. I’m sorry for the family’s loss, but I didn’t do this.’
He appeared to yawn as the judge was reading his sentence. His supporters yelled ‘Justice for Chanel’ and ‘Chanel is innocent’ after his sentence was handed down.
In an emotional victim impact statement read by Vetrano’s mother Cathie prior to sentencing, the grieving mother slammed Lewis as being ‘remorseless’ and a ‘pathetic evil coward’.
‘So repulsive are you, that you left her hidden to be further desecrated in the summer hear by bugs and animals… like a snake you slithered away into the night,’ Cathie told Lewis.
‘My hope is that you live a long life within the prison of the law and the prison of your conscience.’
Cathie declared the sentencing day as ‘Karina’s day’ and, at one point, held up a pair of white shoes that her daughter had worn to work the day of her murder.
‘This is a day where we acknowledge that Karina’s life matters,’ she said, adding that her daughter was a ‘valiant warrior and a queen’.
Addressing Lewis, the emotional mother said: ‘The second you put your hands on a child of God, you rejected the Holy Spirit and acted out as the devil.
‘The angels wept and the devils danced in delight as you began to torture and impose the most brutal death on my daughter.’
Judge Michael Aloise said he hoped Lewis would seek forgiveness and eventually admit to the crime.
‘But when you do do it, it’ll be in a cage. That’s a guarantee,’ Aloise said.
In a dramatic retrial earlier this month, it took just five hours for a jury to convict Lewis for Vetrano’s murder and sexual assault. A previous trial ended in a hung jury in November.
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Source: Daily Mail
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