The parents of slain Queens jogger Karina Vetrano held a dramatic press conference Tuesday during which they publicly thanked jurors for convicting killer Chanel Lewis at his retrial.
“As a representative of my daughter … I thank the jurors. From the bottom of our souls and hearts, I thank them,” mom Cathie Vetrano said, holding a framed photo of her daughter outside the family’s Howard Beach home. “Today is a day where grieving can begin for me — the mother.”
On Monday, the jurors returned a guilty verdict on all four counts that Lewis faced after just five hours of deliberation. A previous attempt to convict him ended in a mistrial last year when jurors told Judge Michael Aloise they were deadlocked.
Jury foreman Brian Morrissey told The Post on Tuesday that the case was a “slam-dunk,” and Vetrano’s dad, Philip, agreed.
“Of course it was,” the father said. “There was more evidence here, more truthful hard evidence here probably than any case ever, other than a videotaped crime.”
Still, a second juror told The Post that some members hesitated to find Lewis guilty on sex abuse — but felt pressured to deliver a speedy verdict.
A juror told the Queens Daily Eagle that jurors asked to see Lewis’s confession tape Monday night but were denied due to a technological problem.
Lewis is expected to be sentenced April 17, but Vetrano’s dad said his fate is already sealed.
“He is definitely going to get what he deserves not only here but in a very short while. Some time down the road, he’s gonna meet Karina again, and this time he’s not gonna bushwhack her. And this time, she’s gonna have [Christian archangel] Gabriel on one side of her and [archangel] Michael on the other — and on his way down, she’s gonna take care of him for good.”