Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that Chanel R. Lewis, 20, of East New York, Brooklyn, has been arraigned on a 13-count indictment charging him with murder and sexual abuse in the strangulation death of Karina Vetrano, 30, as she jogged alone on a park trail near her Howard Beach home last August.
The indictment charges Lewis with four counts of first-degreemurder, five counts of seconddegree murder, two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual abuse and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. If convicted, Lewis faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Lewis appeared today before Queens Supreme Court Justice GregoryL. Lasak, who ordered him continued to be remanded and to return to court on July 13, 2017. Lewis has been held without bail since his arrest in February 2017.
District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, Ms. Vetrano was jogging alone in Spring Creek Park in the Howard Beach section of Queens County at approximately 6:00 p.m. on August 2, 2016, when she was attacked by Lewis who sexually abused and strangled her. Ms. Vetrano’s body was discovered by her father and the police later that day lying in a marshy area, approximately fifteen feet from a trail near 161 Avenue and 78 Street in the park.
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