{"id":140150,"date":"2026-02-20T16:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140150\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T16:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:53:08","slug":"judge-denied-motion-to-vacate-conviction-in-karina-vetrano-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140150\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge denied motion to vacate conviction in Karina Vetrano murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens judge shot down a bid to vacate the conviction in the murder of Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano<\/a>, claiming allegations that an \u201cimproper racial dragnet\u201d was used to track down a suspect didn\u2019t play a direct role in the killer\u2019s apprehension.<\/p>\n

In court papers released late Thursday, Queens Supreme Court Judge Michael Aloise denied a motion to vacate the conviction of Chanel Lewis and order a new trial in the Vetrano murder.<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 attorney Ron Kuby alleged his client was linked to the killing after the NYPD used an unapproved lab to do racial phenotyping testing on evidence recovered from Vetrano\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

The testing conducted by Parabon NanoLab determined that the killer was of African descent and \u201cled to a sweep of minority suspects prior to the testing of (Vetrano),\u201d Kuby\u2019s motion claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow this racial dragnet led specifically to Chanel Lewis\u2019 door remains unknown; the fact that it did and that it was withheld is newly discovered, and undeniable,\u201d the court papers allege. \u201cImportant questions remain about the reliability of DNA phenotyping and the methodologies employed by Parabon NanoLabs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KarinaKarina Vetrano<\/p>\n

Court papers cited\u00a0a 2019 story in the Daily News<\/a>\u00a0reporting 360 Black and Hispanic men previously questioned by police in Howard Beach \u201cwere harassed, surveilled and swabbed on questionable consent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe arrest was immediately mythologized as dogged police work and good luck,\u201d Kuby told The News in 2023 after filing his motion to have the conviction vacated. \u201cThe DA\u2019s office and the police worked very hard to to make this look like it had nothing to do with race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually when white people insist the the prosecution of Blacks has nothing to do with race, it\u2019s always about that thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aloise disagreed, claiming that, even if the racial dragnet allegations were true, Lewis\u2019 wasn\u2019t considered a suspect in Vetrano\u2019s murder until \u201csix months\u201d after the phenotype testing was conducted.<\/p>\n

Citing evidence brought out in trial, Aloise said NYPD Det. Lt. John Russo remembered seeing Lewis in the area where Vetrano was murdered a few days before the killing and that \u201che had odd behavior and odd attire for the weather on those dates,\u201d which led to them questioning him as a suspect and getting his DNA, which matched the evidence left at the crime scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout sworn allegations connecting the defendant\u2019s testing and arrest to the Parabon report, the defendant cannot establish that the report was specifically utilized in any way in the apprehension of this defendant and cannot establish a legal basis for his claim that he was illegally targeted as part of a racial dragnet,\u201d Aloise noted, dismissing Kuby\u2019s motion.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Police Department detectives escort Chanel Lewis, center, from the NYPD\u2019s 107th Precinct stationhouse on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017, in Queens. (James Keivom \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Vetrano, 30, was sexually abused and killed as she went jogging in a park near her Howard Beach home<\/a>\u00a0on Aug. 2, 2016, with Lewis\u00a0convicted and sentenced<\/a>\u00a0three years later to life without parole.<\/p>\n

According to testimony at his trial, Lewis\u2019 DNA was found on the victim\u2019s body. His first prosecution ended with a hung jury before his conviction on April 1, 2019.<\/p>\n

Critics of Virginia-based Parabon say\u00a0private labs receive less scrutiny than public labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Friday \u201cthe evidence of Chanel Lewis\u2019 guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong all the other evidence presented at trial, the DNA evidence was credited by the jury and showed the presence of the defendant\u2019s DNA on the victim\u2019s neck and cell phone,\u201d Katz said. \u201cThe profile is so rare that it is expected to be found in 1 in 6.8 trillion people. We continue to be prepared to litigate any challenges related to this conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChanelChanel Lewis found guilty of Karina Vetrano murder. The New York Daily News’ front page on April 2, 2019.<\/p>\n

Kuby said he plans to appeal Aloise\u2019s conviction, noting that the judge should have granted a hearing before rendering a decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur motion was denied because we couldn\u2019t prove our claim of a racial dragnet. But the court made sure of that because we could not a hearing,\u201d Kuby said, noting that the Queens DA\u2019s office has insisted the claim of a racial dragnet\u00a0\u201cis speculative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they have never denied the existence of a racial dragnet \u2014 just that it was speculative,\u201d Kuby said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens judge shot down a bid to vacate the conviction in the murder of Howard Beach jogger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":["post-140150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}