Friday, 19 Apr 2024

‘I was screaming in the street’: Mom of slain jogger relives tragedy

The mother of slain Queens jogger Karina Vetrano did her best to keep her composure Tuesday as she relived for jurors the awful moment she learned her daughter had been murdered.

“I just remember I was screaming in the street,” said Cathie Vetrano, who did not testify at the first trial of accused killer Chanel Lewis, which ended with a hung jury.

“I was screaming in the street and an ambulance tried to put me in because I just had surgery. I saw my husband coming down the block and we just grabbed each other crying,” Cathie said.

She and husband, Phil Vetrano, who discovered his daughter’s mangled body on a running path near their Howard Beach home hours after she was killed, were inconsolable, she said.

“[Phil] came down the block. We grabbed each other and were just crying,” she said.

The mom also described her harrowing attempts to reach her daughter before the family confirmed their worst fears.

“It was unusual that Karina was gone that length of time,” she said. “It was unusual that she wasn’t answering her phone. I started dialing her from my home phone. I really don’t know how many times. I kept pressing redial. It could have been five times. It could have been 20 times.”

Vetrano, who once shouted, “Now your nightmare begins” at Lewis in court during a hearing, mostly kept her cool during a day on the stand — except when defense lawyers flubbed her daughter’s name.

“Excuse me, her name is Karina,” Vetrano snapped after Lewis lawyer Robert Moeller twice misidentified her late daughter as Katrina.

Prosecutors are re-trying Lewis after their first attempt ended in a mistrial when a seven-woman, five-man jury announced it was deadlocked after just 13 hours of deliberation.

Opening statements were Monday, and Tuesday was Cathie’s first time taking the stand in either trial.

The brave mom briefly broke down in tears when she was shown a photo of her girl.

“That’s my beautiful baby,” she said, her voice quavering.

Before her testimony, Vetrano was seen sitting in the court room with a cross on her lap and her palms facing up as she silently mouthed what appeared to be a prayer.

Lewis’ mother was in the other end of the courtroom reading a Bible.

Moeller objected to Cathie’s testimony as unnecessary, but Justice Michael Aloise, who also presided over the first trial, allowed her to speak after giving a small caveat to the jury.

“You are going to hear emotional testimony. Emotional testimony is not a substitute for evidence. Just understand it is what it is,” he cautioned.

Vetrano was found strangled and sexually assaulted on a jogging path near her Howard Beach home in 2016.

Lewis admitted to the killing in a videotaped confession, and his DNA was found on Vetrano’s body, according to investigators.

His lawyers, however, have said the confession was coerced and the genetic evidence is unreliable.

Lewis, who is cooling his heels on Rikers Island, is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse.

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