Hello, assholes, we are back from fall break and believe it or not, this is plus 78. Yes, so I decided to go ahead and stop consuming the news, it was really starting to irritate me. It was really starting to bother me. And I would find myself getting angry at things for absolutely no reason. Totally got off of social media as well. I think it's probably pretty healthy. There's something very toxic about constantly connecting with the rest of the world and finding out just how horrible people are all over it.

Angry, bitter, resentful, hateful people just waiting to take a swing at you. So they're going to stay off for quite a bit longer. It's kind of nice out here. Ignorance is bliss, as they say. And I think I'd rather be oblivious. But luckily for you, sort and scale is not going anywhere. This next story is about someone getting very, very angry and how poorly they handled it. It's a cautionary tale, like many of the stories we tell here and an example of who you don't want to be.

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60 year old retired firefighter Phil Vitrano is a proud New Yorker. He grew up in the Big Apple, raised his family there and was even a first responder to Ground Zero on 9/11. For him, all seemed normal on August 2nd. Twenty sixteen, another sunny summer day as he enjoyed his retirement at home in Howard Beach, a middle to upper class neighborhood in the borough of Queens. That afternoon, his thirty year old daughter, Carina Vitrano, invited him to go jogging through Spring Creek Park, as they had many times before this particular day, however, Phil had a backache and decided against going for a run.

But this didn't discourage Carina. She was an avid runner and it was a beautiful day. He was going for a jog with or without him. Phil knew his daughter's jogging trail that it was known to occasionally attract vagrants he expressed concerned about her going alone. I don't think it's a good idea, he told her. But Carina was being Korina after all. She'd run this same trail by herself many times before. Don't worry, Daddy, she said before leaving, I'll be OK.

But worry would begin to set in when late afternoon turned to evening and Katrina had still not returned from her jog, Phil called her cell phone, no answer. Then he called again and again and again. Still no answer and no return call. What Phil didn't know is that Carina was unable to answer her phone and she would never be coming home again. Anger, we've all felt it, whether it's a short lived annoyance, a full on rage or somewhere in between, but how we manage our anger is different for everyone.

Some people manage their anger by counting to 10 or perhaps taking a moment to focus on your breathing. Others go to the gym and lift weights or punch a punching bag. Some people repeat a mantra to calm themselves down, while others talk to a therapist or take anger management classes. Whatever the method, managing your anger is more important than you realize, because when something makes us angry and we don't deal with it, it can manifest and lead us to taking out our anger on other people that had nothing to do with what made us angry in the first place.

In psychology, this is known as displacement, where more specifically displaced aggression. And the interesting yet scary thing about displaced aggression is that it is a defense mechanism and it usually occurs unconsciously. Let's pretend your boss yelled at you for something that wasn't your fault and they just won't listen to reason. Venting your frustration at that point on them could get you fired. So you hold on to your anger until you get home where you find yourself almost without realizing it, snapping at your spouse or your children or even your pet at some minor irritation that they've caused.

This scenario is an example of displaced aggression. When all your frustration is built to a near breaking point and a small, unrelated action tips it over, unleashing a disproportionate outpouring of anger. We've all been guilty of this behavior at some point in our lives to varying degrees. But for most of us, it's not really a big problem. We can apologize for our brief, angry temper if we need to and move on. But can displaced aggression cause someone to do something that they cannot apologize for, something that they can't take back, something violent?

Could displaced aggression caused someone to murder a complete stranger? Unfortunately, as you'll soon learn, the answer is yes, I'm an angel full of purity. I am an angel yearning for maturity. I'm an angel. His wings are so wide, ready to take flight. I am an angel with a dark side. This is Carina Vitrano reciting a poem she wrote called The Paradox in the 2013 short film with the same name, I'm an Angel.

Smile is genuine. I am the sinner whose wild, feminine aura draws her closer to provocative situations. I am an angel, was a victim of your unreasonable expectations. I am the sinner who meditates manipulations.

I am an angel whose love is dedicated and a girl who is in dire need of love on Carina's Instagram BuYeo, she described herself as a thrill seeker and daydreamer, but was quite obviously much more than that born July 12th, 1986. She grew up and lived in Queens, graduating from the same high school as her father. She was thankful for the close bond that they shared. When a photo taken of her father on his sixtieth birthday, Carina posted the caption, I'm so blessed to have a father I could call my best friend.

Carina earned her master's degree in speech pathology in 2015 from St. John's University and worked in Manhattan as a speech pathologist assisting children with autism. Karina liked to travel and enjoyed the ocean, posting pictures and videos online of herself vacationing in different countries and tanning on the beach. Oh, and she loved butterflies. As you heard previously, Garino was also an aspiring writer and maintained an extensive personal online blog. She titled A Collection of Conversations, Contradictions and Poetic Conflicts.

In one of her posts titled My One and Only, she writes about the love of her life, the love that she would never get to meet.

I wonder what he looks like, his style, how his voice sounds, the shape of his teeth, his eyebrows and fingers, what our apartment will look like when we decorate it together, how our fights will play out, and how our fucking will feel. I wonder what he majored in and where he wants to travel. His favorite childhood memory, favorite movie band, candy and ice cream flavor. I wonder what secret he's kept. Never feeling secure enough to share with anyone and tell me.

I wonder how. I'll know when and where I'll meet him. Most of all, I wonder what his name is. At 30 years old, by all accounts, Karina was a lively young woman with hopes, dreams and deep self reflections, intelligent, kind, artistic and quite a looker. I mean, pretty stunning, actually, with a beautiful smile and perfect teeth. That's one of the things she took pride and most. Carina had a lot going for, and one thing she was particularly known for was being a fitness fanatic.

As a child, Karina received surgery on her legs and was told by a doctor that she may never be able to run again despite this early setback through sheer determination.

She became an avid runner and could be found jogging on a near daily basis. But on August 2nd, 2016, in the early evening, Carina would lace up her running shoes and say goodbye to her father, Phil Vitrano, and head out for a jog for the very last time when Carina didn't answer his repeated phone calls. Phil knew that something was very wrong. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you just know something is wrong.

His concern turned into panic. He quickly contacted his close friend, John Cassidy, who at the time was an NYPD police officer. And an official search was launched to locate Carina, having knowledge of the jogging trail and surrounding terrain. Phil accompanied and assisted police with the search. Only a few hours later, Phil would find his daughter facedown in a marsh just 15 feet off the jogging path. She was covered in dirt, blood, bruises and scratches in the wet marsh, Phil wailed and hollered, my baby, my baby, he cried as he held his daughter in his arms.

Police rushed to his aid, but there was nothing anyone could do. Hill's daughter, Karina Vitrano, was dead. And this young woman came home from work the full day and put on her right attire. She grabbed her iPhone. With earbuds. Said, see you later. Her mother and father and went out early afternoon. Was wasn't even darker up when this young lady left her home sometime after five p.m. on August 2nd of 12 and 16.

She didn't even travel for less than a mile away from where she was born and raised.

You wouldn't want to go into a place that you would come to know during the course of this trial as appropriate for Spring Creek Park runs alongside the Jamaica Bay shore line between the neighborhoods of Howard Beach, Queens, and Spring Creek, Brooklyn, in New York City, a massive nature preserve known to the locals as the weeds. It is full of extremely tall and dense vegetation, and only a small portion of it is open to the public for recreation, which includes jogging trails.

It is there inside that preserve in broad daylight, about a mile away from her home. If the unthinkable happened. The unimaginable happened. This young, attractive. Vibrant, full of life, young lady. Was viciously and savagely attacked. She was thrown to the ground by herself, who, along with eight to nine inches taller than her and 40 to 50 pounds heavier than her, he grabbed her. I threw her to the ground. She was caught by surprise, her attacker.

He punched her over and over again to her face. Vladimir eyes bruising, her face, punching a mouth, watering her teeth, breaking fractured, cracking her front teeth. He beat her. She struggled. She tried to get away. She could he straddled on top of police his knees like a tattoo on her chest. And he placed both of his hands around her neck and he choked her. At some point during this brutal, senseless and vicious attack, this perpetrator pulled down her sports bra, exposing her bare breasts.

At some point during this attack, he removed the running shorts and padded. From one leg, leaving it only unlocked, fully exposing her genitalia. She struggled. But to no avail. As he sat on top of already put his hands around her neck, both of his hands, and he screamed and squeezed and he squeezed, he choked her until she couldn't resist anymore. He choked her until she couldn't struggle and. He choked up, just she couldn't breathe anymore.

An autopsy performed on Carina's body concluded that she was raped and died from strangulation, her death was ruled a homicide.

We begin tonight with the murder mystery in Queens. Police combing the area around a jogging trail for 30 year old Carina Vitrano was found sexually assaulted and strangled. Today, the reward for information in the case raised to ten thousand dollars.

Tonight, the police are going through the victim's social media accounts. They're analyzing her cell phone records and they're checking on the movements of local sex offenders. And they're literally hacking their way through a federal park trying to pinpoint the clue that could help them find the killer.

The search for Carina's killer would turn out to be lengthy and frustrating. The NYPD did indeed comb through Carina's phone records, social media accounts and the tall weeds where she was found. The problem was none of it provided a definitive answer as to the identity of her killer or even likely suspects after clearing Carina's family, friends and boyfriends. Police had no choice but to assume that this was a random attack and a crime of opportunity which made the prospect of solving the case especially daunting.

Needless to say, Karina's parents were distraught and angry. But unlike their daughter's killer, they directed their anger exactly where it belonged. The whole entire world knows what a pathetic, puny, weak piece of filth that you are. This is cancer survivor Kathy Vitrano speaking to her daughter's killer at a press conference whose identity at the time was still unknown. Soon we're going to have a face to the dickless piece of garbage that you are. And above and beyond you all, you know that my daughter was a force to be reckoned with and I guarantee you, I guarantee you, you mother fucker, that you will be reckoning with that for us, not only for the rest of your pathetic life, but for the rest of eternity as you fucking burn in hell.

Hell hath no fury like an angry New York City mother that you've pissed off. The mid-August highs had given way to more moderate temperatures. And on this sunny day, approximately two weeks after Katrina, Vitrano was battered and beaten. Corpse was found face down in the marsh of a public park. Her family was still desperately seeking justice. The NYPD, along with the Vitrano family, have been hard at work, hanging posters, making media appearances and canvassing neighborhoods for leads by going door to door in hopes that someone had information that could help.

They have also set up a tip line and before an arrest would be made, the reward money for information leading to Carina's killer would top two hundred thousand dollars, most of which would come from a go fund me page established by the Vitrano family and friends. The money that we seek to raise here is to supplement the 20000 dollar reward currently offered by the NYPD. While we greatly appreciate the help of the police, Howard Beach is a community not known for sitting back while other people work on our behalf.

Karina has become the daughter of the entire community and we are committed to seeing justice served in her memory. We need your help in bringing this vicious animal to face the most severe punishment allowable by law. In its desperation to find answers, Karina's dad, Phil Vitrano, makes an extraordinary offer directly to the killer as the cameras roll on yourself.

And I will make sure that reward money goes to the person of your choice, your sister, your brother, your mother. It's a life changing. You will be caught. So take advantage of that. Despite everyone's best efforts, no one would turn themselves in, and for months there would be no solid leads. Then, two months after the murder, police are called when a man by the name of Matthew Fox is spotted running naked through the park where Carina was found.

You heard that right? He was running through the park completely naked. Upon his arrest, he began screaming. The father did it and I have nothing to do with it. But again, this would prove to be a dead end. When police cleared the naked man as a suspect in Carina's murder, the NYPD had only one avenue left to pursue DNA. When Carina's autopsy was performed, the same male DNA was found on her neck, under her fingernails and on her cell phone where we were finding this brutal killer who killed her.

NYPD is doing an excellent job. I mean, they're breaking their butt every day, especially lead detective. Every day Holly goes home. This because of the location and the few. I mean, it was no witnesses. I mean, it is the only evidence we have is DNA.

But again, a roadblock would present itself when law enforcement wouldn't be able to find a DNA match in any database for months, including the FBI's national database, CODIS, the male DNA profile on Carina's body and cell phone matched no one.

This prompted the Queens district attorney, as well as the Vitrano family, to seek legal approval for familial DNA testing, which would enable law enforcement to identify criminal suspects through their relatives.

Phil Vitrano is now going down a new path, one that he believes could lead to a big break and finding his daughter's killer. Familial DNA testing is allowed in nine states, but not New York. In Karina's case, the killer's DNA from the scene didn't match anyone in the databank. Familial DNA searching goes deeper, using special software to look for a similar, not exact match, indicating the suspect could be related to someone in the system.

Familial DNA testing is a fairly new technique, and in twenty eighteen it was used to identify and apprehend the Golden State killer, Joseph D'Angelo, a California burglar, serial rapist and serial murderer that had remained elusive for over four decades.

The Korina Vitrano murder case would play a large part in New York State's eventually approving law enforcement's use of familial DNA testing. But police would identify her killer before they could use this technique.

I one on one with emergency countermeasures. If for suspicious male, a suspicious man or male like he's a million years single male. I'm in London. OK, all right. What is the address of the emergency of High Street corner of 160 Fourth Avenue and Eighty Seven Street HALABY.

This is NYPD veteran Lieutenant Commander John Russo calling 911 one to report a suspicious male in Howard Beach, Queens.

Not a suspicious piece of mail, a suspicious man, and there's a suspicious person just walking back and forth around the block, looking in jars around different blogs to find self. It's just now he's wandering around the block, just walking up and down the block with a hood on which is stopping at five different houses, not asking for help, but in fact, he's going back the same way, same numerous times. I'm a police officer. The he lives in the backyard.

I'm just at the help is already on the way. I just have a few more questions. But it's not a it's not a certain amount of has just reporting a suspicious person. OK, and what is the description. Is he black, white, Hispanic, Asian. He's a dog, is Hispanic. So his males are skinned and you he's wearing a black and white tracksuit is correct. He's wearing black black cross black and black and white.

Wouldn't it be grand if reports like this were taken seriously? I mean, wouldn't it just be grand if we could have some process for dealing with creepy ass weirdos that are obviously suspicious and clearly up to no good rather than all that constitutional civil rights nonsense?

This call was placed on Memorial Day, May 30th, 2016, two months before Carina's murder.

At the time, Lieutenant Commander Russo was tasked with overseeing all active investigations in the city.

He was actually a resident of Howard Beach, and when he placed the call, he was off duty. Russo would later explain at trial that he had never seen this person in his neighborhood before, and because they were dressed in long sleeves with their hood up during especially warm weather, he was concerned that a burglary had or was about to take place. The day after this 911 one call, Lieutenant Commander Russo received an alert of a suspicious man wearing a hooded sweatshirt in the same area of Howard Beach.

When Russo arrived at that area, he saw the same man he had reported the day before. So he called the local police precinct. When officers arrived, they didn't make an arrest, but they did question the man taking his date of birth and his name. He was twenty year old Chanelle Lewis. To say that Lewis was somewhat of an odd duck would be an understatement.

Unemployed and living in the basement of a three story house in East New York, Brooklyn, with his mother and two sisters, he graduated from Martin Després High School in Rockaway Park, Queens, and was thought of as a quiet loner with few friends by his neighbors to look at Lewis with his lanky frame and often confused expression that suggests some kind of mental impairment.

You probably wouldn't suspect he was the type of person that would brutally beat sexually assault and strangle a woman to death. Nonetheless, Lieutenant Commander Russo recalled the encounter months after Carina's murder, and he instructed NYPD officers to locate Lewis, questioned him and obtain a DNA sample. When asked, Lewis volunteered his DNA and two days later, police realized that they'd found their match.

Morning, everybody. My name is Chief Robert Boyce, the chief of detectives in New York City. This is a very good day for justice in New York City. Yesterday evening, Janelle Lewis, twenty year old male, resides in East New York, was taken into custody in connection with the August seven, 2006, murder of Carina. The trial will be closed after an extensive six month investigation during which over 250 leads will receive in the public. And over 700 investigative reports were prepared and numerous DNA files searched.

Detectives were able to identify Lewis as the suspect in this case. A follow up investigation developed forensic evidence linking him to the crime.

Six months and two days after Carina's death, Channell Lewis was arrested on February 4th, 2017, and charged with second degree murder. The following day, he would speak to Queen's assistant district attorney Peter McCormack, about to be reading your rights after that.

If you agree to speak with me, you may if you wish to make a statement and answer questions about an incident that occurred on August 2nd, 2016.

At this point, Channell Lewis would be read his rights. He would agree to talk to investigators and waive his right to have an attorney present, which, as we've said before on the show, is something that you should never do. If you're guilty, don't talk to police. If you're innocent, don't talk to police. All right.

So why don't we start with. So I think it was a Tuesday evening on August 2nd, twenty sixteen to remember that day and that evening. All right. And where were you at that time? It wasn't going away and spent even more. OK, by Gateway and Spring Creek, more fog park. All right, why do creeps always mumble when inside the park? Yeah, OK. And was anyone with you or were you by yourself? By myself.

All right. About what time did you get to the park? About five o'clock. All right. And how did you get to the park? From what street? From you know. Oh yeah. About four miles from where? The Bell Parkway entrances to the park. All right. And what kind of park is this? What does it look like inside of the trees? Grass, pansies, like large grass, high grass by their own trails in the park.

Mm hmm. OK, and we want to tell you, when the grass on the trail, while giving a stammered answers to the ADA who is can be seen occasionally reaching into a shirt collar and under a shirt, oddly rubbing his chest over and over again. Now, while you're in the park, did something happen? Yes. What happened while you were in the park? I think it's going to jog in it. One thing led to another because some other situation.

All right. Well, the girl that was jogging was seen by herself or with anybody else, by myself. And you're walking towards her and was walking towards and then left side to side. And then one thing led to another. When you first saw her, though, were you walking towards her in the same direction? So when you first saw her, you thought, it's OK and she was jogging. You said all right. When she got next to as you as she was running in you walking.

What happened that. US, a situation where angry and then hidden. Did you catch that twice? Now Lewis has mentioned a previous situation that made him upset. Remember that? It'll be important later. Where did you hit her? In the face, in the face, in the mouth before you hit her? Did you grab her out? Jesus hit her right away. Kind of grab her first, grabbed her then like, how did you grab it?

What part of her body did you could you grab a story before the incident? What did you grab her before you started hitting or what was the first thing you did was to hit her? What was the first thing you did OK? And how did you grab her? It's OK with both hands. OK, and what everybody did, you grabbed you remember her shoulders, her waist or neck to remember. I was like, OK, you were on the shoulders.

And then when you grabbed her, what happened then I started and stuff like that. All right. Well, did you hit it with both hands? Probably. All right. And what part of her body with your hands? But her face just a just a face like when she fell to the ground and you were hitting her. Was he on the pathway or was he off the pathway on the. So when you were hitting her in the face, was he face up or face down to save face?

So did you say anything at all now that she screamed to go, I'm sorry, I was broke, but when you cover her mouth at all, you know, OK, the truth of what was it like in the front the top of the bottom, you remember. Look, how long would you say you were hitting her for? About how long a time I. And if you're following along and you realize that Channell Lewis has just calmly told investigators that he spent five minutes punching this poor woman in the face, breaking and cracking her perfect teeth in the process, like a child that's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Channell Lewis proceeds to recount all the details of his disgustingly evil deeds.

Did you do anything else to her? Besides, did you put her hands on any other part of her body? Up around her neck or anything in the woods. I'm sorry. He put in a running neck dilemma, was it one hand or both hands? Both. Both. Then how long do you have your hands around her neck? Oh, no. OK, then you squeeze her neck when you had your hands around the neck. Yeah, yeah, OK, you know, I wonder how long the president knew man about an incident.

OK, we're going to get to that in a little bit or I just want to find out what happened right after admitting to investigators that he strangled this woman, Lewis again refers to some incident that occurred beforehand, something that set him off, an incident that had nothing to do with Karina Vitrano. In fact, Lewis had never even met her before. So what was it?

What could have happened that was so horrible it would make Lewis angry enough to commit a brutal, violent murder? Now, you said that you did this because you had some anger, is that right? All right. Can you tell me about that anger? I used to live in a different address, and I currently live right now. And I knew sometimes this man comes around the. You play that loud music and carry a lot of friends around you and then make it feel unsafe.

And I like my place private and peaceful. And there was someone there who got you angry to remember. Well, that was. Do you remember who that was? Chanel's infantile mind is eager to provide a reason for his violent criminal behavior, but when asked about inconsequential details such as a person's name, who, by the way, has absolutely nothing to do with this case, he decides to hold back that particular person. You never tell us who he is.

But did he make you angry that day on August 2nd, the Tuesday we make music by his friends and we just love all this kind of stuff.

If you didn't hear that the incident Lewis was referring to the incident that led to this man's inhumanly violent rage and the sexual assault and murder of an innocent young woman is that his neighbor had friends over and they were playing loud music. That's it. The aggravation of a noisy neighbor caused him to murder a woman he had never met before with his bare hands. I mean, I kind of get it. I used to have Ecuadorian neighbors, but still more than likely, this wasn't the only thing that Lewis was angry about, nor was it the only factor that led to his violent homicidal behavior.

But who the hell knows why anyone does anything? The entire point of the field of psychology is to attempt to explain human behavior. But one hundred and forty one years after Vilhelm vaunt laid the building blocks of introspection, that would become the basis of this soft science. We're still no closer to being able to fully understand why people do what they do, or, more importantly, to predict what someone will do, given a set of similar or identical circumstances.

After his arrest, the media did a lot of digging into Lewis's past, and what they found wasn't especially surprising. However, it did provide some insight into this young man's mental state. At fifteen years old, Lewis was a student at the High School for Medical Professions in Brooklyn. It was there that he asked a teacher's aide what would happen if he brought a knife to school and he expressed a desire to stab all the girls. Police were called and Lewis was taken into custody as an emotionally disturbed person.

He was evaluated at Kings County Hospital and then released a month later. Police were called to the school yet again when Lewis threatened a female student. And again, Lewis was taken into custody, evaluated and then released. What a great system we have here in America. Eventually, Lewis transferred to Martin to pour as high school a private school for students with emotional and behavioral issues. According to his schoolmates, Lewis was often bullied by male and female students to which he would respond by smirking and then walking away.

So while it was a noisy neighbor, that would ultimately be the last straw. Lewis's frustration had been apparently building for some time. And on a sunny summer day in Spring Creek Park, that frustration would come pouring out. The mere sight of a beautiful young woman jogging alone unleashed and enraged Chanelle Lewis, who brutally beat, sexually assaulted and strangled Carina Vitrano to death.

Was he still moving when you had your hands around her neck? Oh, yeah. And she jumped into the water. OK, well, when you had your hands around the neck, was seeing on the ground or standing up on the ground, face up or face down. All right. And then how did her face go in the water, strangled her name and then put a face on the ground, you know, and you put it down. She fell in the water and then my heart is beating.

So wash off the blood, OK? What's you remember? You can show me your right hand, right? Did she fall in the water when you first through to the ground or when you're on the ground with her hitting? Or did she like kind of move towards the water and strangulation and then she went to the water. So after you had your hands on the neck that she would go, all right. And what did you do then? After that?

She was just fine and a lot of ankles and I think fell back from falling back in the bushes after her face is in the water and you pick her up and you drag her into the weeds. Does she move at all at that point or make any more noises? You know, at what point did she start moving and making any sounds when she was under water, under the water, as she was under the water before right before you put her in and she was under water holding onto the water at that point.

And all of this was the scene of the place when you left there in the grass. And we were close to long enough for what was the status of her clothing. I was I was going to pull off. Pulled off. Yeah. OK, what was pulled off her clothes, her shirt, her pants. What about it, sir? I think it was still made. Me me. OK, and when you say her pants were pulled off or they totally off were they half a mile and a half or what.

Were they kind of OK when they down. Up I mean her pants down. OK, what about her underwear. It was down. OK, did you touch her in any way hurt. A little. OK, we've seen this behavior before haven't we, a perpetrator that's all too willing to admit to killing an innocent person. But oh heavens no, I didn't rape her. Lewis's denial of sexually abusing Carina conflicted with the autopsy. In case you were wondering, it revealed evidence consistent with sexual abuse, including lacerations to her vagina and contusions to her anus.

But denial or no denial, police had a matching DNA profile that linked Lewis to the murder.

And a full murder confession, you might assume at this point. Case closed. Well, not quite. Not at all, actually, there's anything you want to say to us before we wrap this up. Where do we go from here? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. OK, we'll see you anyway. I mean, this is in the. Yes, I know that Tony. Tony is somewhere else, right?

Yeah. Later on. OK. All right. So you know what's going to happen from here? Well, we'll see. You know. We'll see. OK, restitution.

Oh, it's difficult to make out.

But at the end of his interview with investigators, Lewis asks the ADA what happens next and he inquires about a possible restitution program. Again, the childlike mentality of this man thinking he's going to go off to some camp where they're going to make them all better and release them back into the wild after he's literally raped and killed someone. There's no question that at the time of this interview, Lewis did not realize the severity of the situation he was in. And the restitution program that he was facing was life in prison.

At some point, though, he must have realized what awaited him if he pled guilty to this crime. And despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Lewis would ultimately plead not guilty to murder and sex abuse charges, denying any involvement at all with the incident. The case against him would go to trial on November 5th, twenty eighteen over two years after Carina's murder. This trial was misdirected and three of the trial is dead.

She was also with us and is fortunate enough to find herself in a secluded, isolated location with this defendant. The defendant found himself next to Korina, the trial on this 10 foot wide. He told investigators that when he saw Career Woman, he didn't say a word. He claimed there was no confrontation whatsoever. He says he just saw it.

He told investigators that he swore to the ground and then he punched her repeatedly in the mouth and then he broke her teeth.

He told investigators he placed his hands around her neck and that he finished his work by strangling her to death. During this investigative process. Detective Bales will tell you that she had a medical legal investigator that creates a place carrying his hands in plastic bags in an effort to try to make sure there was no forensic evidence that would have been lost from the transport of Korea from the scene to the medical examiner's office, where she would ultimately have to undergo dignity's at all times.

The more I try to tell you that she clipped Karina Vitrano fingernails and she close those fingernail clippings in individually sealed packaging and sent them to the office of the chief medical examiner forensic biology lab for possible DNA testing. They were able to develop a DNA profile from the defendant's DNA swab. And she will tell you there was one in our six point eight trillion people. The chances of that profile ever being seen again. One is six point eight trillion.

There are six point eight million people on the face of this earth and it never happened.

In fact, she will tell you that is the equivalent of about 90 planet Earths, 90 planet earths, one in six point eight dollars trillion. That's how accurate DNA evidence is. In addition to Lewis's confession and indisputable DNA evidence, prosecuting attorney Brad Leventhal would place Lewis at the crime scene through cell phone records showing that Lewis's phone pinged near Spring Creek Park around the time of the murder. He would also present the jury with hospital records, which showed Lewis was treated for a bruised right hand at SUNY Downstate Hospital in Brooklyn the day after Carina's murder.

If you recall, Lewis told investigators during his confession that he injured his hand during the attack.

Finally, the prosecutor would use Lewis's Internet search history to show that Lewis researched Miranda rights, arraignments, felony convictions and familial DNA testing after news broke that the state of New York was seeking its legal approval in relation to the Vitrano murder case. Likewise, he would call NYPD computer crimes detective Jose Rivera to the stand, who testified that Lewis's cell phone contained two pictures of Korina Vitrano, along with a photo of her crime scene pulled from an online news article.

Karina's parents, Phil and Kathy Vitrano, were present at trial, and they both testified.

But when the gruesome, bloody photos of Katrina's dead body were shown to the jury, it was too much for them and they had to leave the courtroom. Likewise, when Chanel Lewis's murder confession was played for the jury, his mother, Vayda Lewis, couldn't handle it. So she left the courtroom as well. On November 20th, twenty eighteen, Chanel Lewis's trial came to an end and the result, to say the least, was unexpected.

The stunned parents of Korina Vitrano walked out of the courtroom, followed by relatives, some of them crying after hearing the judge declare a mistrial by reason of a hung jury in a case that made. Headlines across the country, the jury deciding the fate of Channel Lewis on the murder charge deliberated a day and a half before saying they were hopelessly deadlocked.

Remember what I was saying about human behavior despite the confession, despite the DNA, despite the 90 planet Earths, when you put 12 human beings in that jury box, you never know what's going to happen.

And in this case, what did happen was that they failed to agree that the sky was blue and the oceans were wet. Justice would have to wait.

Despite overwhelming evidence, the hung jury and subsequent mistrial would mean that the heartbroken Vitrano family would be subject to yet another round of emotional torture and the pursuit of justice for their departed loved one, Karina Vitrano. Chanelle Lewis would remain in jail until his retrial, which began March 12th, 2019. In front of a brand new jury, the prosecution would lay out its case all over again in painstaking detail, hoping that this time they would return a sane decision.

And on April 1st, 2019, after five hours of deliberations, they would do just that.

We, the jury, find the defendant guilty. Janelle Lewis was found guilty on all four counts against him, one count of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and one count of sexual assault, Mr. Lewis.

And the other thing was his last month in Lewis channel, Lewis has maintained his innocence.

He was represented by the Legal Aid Society. And at both trials, his attorneys would argue that Lewis's confession was coerced and that his diminished mental capacity made him vulnerable to aggressive police interrogation, which, to their credit, is something we've seen happen many times before in our judicial system and even covered at length here on certain scale. From the Central Park five to the West Memphis Three and many others, the United States judicial system is no stranger to coerced confessions, and police departments across this country deserve every ounce of scrutiny that they get as it relates to their interrogation tactics, especially in cases where the suspects are young with a history of mental problems.

Furthermore, Lewis's attorneys would challenge the DNA evidence, suggesting that it could have been transferred if Korina Vitrano and Channell Lewis touched the same surface. Of course, they would have had to touch the same surface with all the different parts of her body that had his DNA on them and her cell phone would have had to touch that same surface to. Lewis's attorneys would also argue that Lewis's Internet searches on familial DNA were circumstantial and happenstance and that none of Lewis's blood or fingerprints were found at the crime scene, despite Carina's apparent vigorous and violent attempts to fend off her attacker.

The media had also jumped on board to the defense of Channell Lewis. An article in the New York Times criticizes investigative procedures and describes the DNA search for Carina's killer as a race biased dragnet. It appears that some lives matter more than others to periodicals such as this. To further complicate this case, just before closing arguments at the retrial, Lewis's defense team received a detailed letter from an anonymous person claiming to be a police officer. The letter alleges that the prosecution withheld evidence favorable to the defendant, which constitutes a Brady violation you see during a trial.

The prosecution has to turn over any exculpatory or impeaching information and evidence that is material to the guilt or innocence of the defendant.

The term comes from the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland. In any case, a Brady violation is grounds for a mistrial.

This letter included a claim that at the start of the investigation, the NYPD was searching for two jacked up white guys from Howard Beach, a detail that the defense team was never made aware of, along with a claim that the DNA found on Carina's body and cell phone were a result of secondary transfer.

Lewis's attorneys requested a Brady hearing, arguing that the prosecution did not turn over information about alternative suspects.

The prosecution denied this and argued that the reliability of the letter couldn't be verified by the court due to its anonymous nature. And its claims about the DNA evidence indicated an obvious agenda to derail the trial. Ultimately, the judge ruled in favor of the prosecution, denying the motion for a Brady hearing. And as you might expect, Lewis's mother and members of the community also insist that Lewis is innocent, a position that they maintain to this day.

He's not a monster. He's a God fearing, loving, kind person.

But you're telling me that a woman who out jogging of all the people in the universe, she could have bumped into Chanel while jogging?

Absolutely can happen. And DNA experts said it can't happen.

The DNA, we believe, was planted in addition to his family. There are a lot of people on the Internet that believe Channell Lewis to be innocent. There are many independent news websites that sway in that direction. And if you search YouTube for videos on the case, you'll find an endless stream of comments from people that are absolutely convinced of Lewis's innocence, some of them with theories of their own. Don't you just love those amateur Web sleuths out there?

You'll find everything from theories that Kareem. His murder was a mafia related hit as a result of her father's gambling debt, or that the defendant in the courtroom wasn't Chanel Lewis at all, but was in fact an impostor. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. People are absolutely batshit, but most insensitive and heinous of all. The majority of these online comments ignorantly point the finger at Karina's father, Phil Vitrano, accusing him of murdering his own daughter.

So let's get this out of the way. For anyone who thinks that something fishy is going on with this case, it is not suspiciously convenient that a retired New York City firefighter would call his NYPD friend when his daughter goes missing. If anything, it makes logical sense. If your family member were missing and you had a close friend that was a high ranking police officer, wouldn't they be the first person you'd think to call? In addition, it's not suspiciously convenient that Fill the TRUTA would assist police with the search of his own daughter and then find her body near the jogging trail that they would often use to go running together.

Phil found his daughter because he knew where she would be going. And finally, it's not suspiciously convenient that Lieutenant Commander John Russo would recall his nine one one call about a suspicious person when the Vitrano murder case began to grow cold. Both incidents occurred in Howard Beach, Queens, and given that police had little else to go on at the time, there was no reason not to follow up. Another argument often used to suggest Lewis's innocence is that Korina Vitrano was visibly physically fit and would have been able to overpower the somewhat scrawny looking Chanelle Lewis.

In reality, though, Korina was four foot 11 and weighed one hundred and twelve pounds. Lewis is five nine and at the time of his arrest weighed about one hundred and fifty five pounds. That makes him nearly a foot taller than her and about 40 pounds heavier. It's not a stretch at all to believe he was capable of overpowering Korina. If Channell Lewis is innocent and any reasonable person that has looked closely at this case will tell you that's a big if.

But if he is indeed innocent, then there is no question that the result of this case is a horrible miscarriage of justice, not only for Lewis, but also for Korina Vitrano. However, the evidence is clearly stacked against Lewis and the likelihood of his innocence is very slim. 90 planet Earth's slim. What seems to confuse people most about Lewis's case is the motive. It doesn't make any sense. He told police that he was angry because his neighbor was playing loud music and that's what drove him to murder a complete stranger.

What's important to remember is that Lewis was not consciously choosing to express his angry emotions in that way. Something completely unrelated to his previous frustration triggered his violent outburst. That's how displaced aggression works. This does not excuse his behavior. As adults, we are responsible for our anger and if need be, we must develop coping skills before our anger gets out of control and hurts somebody. We can't act like the child who gets angry at their parents, then goes to school and beats up a classmate, or like Chanelle Lewis, who got angry at his neighbor and then strangled an innocent woman to death.

Karina Vitrano knew this. She had her own method for dealing with anger and frustration, which she expressed in her online blog.

These little microscopic things that I let bother me, parking tickets and unanswered text the guy who didn't put his blinker on. I let these things consume me. It's all these pathetic pieces of my everyday life that will give me so much grief. And then I put my running sneakers on. I plug my headphones into my ears. I hit the pavement and it all goes on mute.

Carina's outlet for anger and frustration was running. And on a sunny summer day in Howard Beach, Queens channel, Lewis's inability to find his own healthy outlet for the same emotions made it so that she would never run again. Nearly three years later, after Lewis's convictions on April twenty third, twenty nineteen, Karina's father, mother and sister would give their impact statements to the court.

We begin to imagine the pain and the anguish of finding the baby Libby next fall and involved knowing she's dead, unable to tell what to say to protect her as any father wanted to.

That monster killed four people and I will be seventeen thousand sixty one, as in heaven, just willing to die to be commander again. The Christmas and New Year. Happy Birthday is no worse than life. No more smiles, no more happiness. Those are all taken by that convicted murderer rapist, Chanel Lewis.

I have no doubt at all that you are fully and completely capable to comprehend everything that I am about to say to you. That is an expression you show is merely a reflection of your detached and resolve. You've proven over and over again you are very clever and capable man Schneller with contacting and complaining to news reporters boasting about your front page notoriety. Your songs are tunes, especially those made after you are voluntarily submitting your DNA, particularly revealing of your resourcefulness, knowing your secrets to be exposed as an alleged God fearing man, I would remind you that very sick you laid your lodestone hand on a child of God, my daughter, my anything daughter.

You rejected the Holy Spirit and carried out the work of Satan, the angels and the Devils dance your as you proceeded to torture and impose the most brutal and merciless slaying of my beautiful baby.

So repulsive idea that left to be further desecrating in the song by bugs animals like a snake, you slithered away into the night with your secret and your wounded hand.

Your Honor, I fully appreciate this opportunity to publicly address the court and express the impact inflicted upon me and my family and feel that my treasured daughter Corrine and Francesca returned after racking my brain. Cancer is an effort to verbalize the devastation created by the monster, the convicted sexual abuse and murder of Chanel. And I've concluded it is impossible for me of words to hide that vastness of these tribulations. Like grief counselors have told me that grief includes losing part of oneself.

But, your honor, I lost all myself to state how the brutal murder of my sister Katrina has impacted my life is nearly impossible now.

Lewis killed my beautiful, innocent, insightful, gentle sister, even after enduring countless court dates to trials, heinous accusations against my family and a circus of a defense I could not accept my baby sister. Instead, Your Honor, Chanel Lewis showed my sister no mercy. And I ask that the court show him no mercy.

Shortly after their impact statements were read, Justice Michael Alois spoke to the court and Shanelle Lewis before passing down his sentence.

I've been personally involved in the criminal justice system virtually my entire life, and I got to say, quite honestly, that sometime. It's difficult not to become jaded or even sometimes numb, not only will we collectively see on virtually daily basis, but a case like this kind of dispels the fallacy that as long as we can find ourselves to our neighborhood and do what we do on a daily basis in the presence of our loved ones and our neighbors were somehow safe in the not too distant future, you're going to wake up and be by yourself very, very lonely.

But I will say one thing when you do and if you do come to that decision in June inside a cage, that's a guarantee with respect to murder in the first degree since this court is that you spend the rest of your life in jail without any possibility of parole, in addition to the life sentence, without the possibility of parole, the judge added 32 years in prison for the second degree murder charges and sex abuse charge.

As Lewis was let out of court, chance of justice for Channell were shouted across the courtroom and then quickly faded away. The Legal Aid Society has filed an appeal on Lewis's behalf to, quote, secure Mr. Lewis the justice that he deserves, unquote. As far as I'm concerned, he's living out that justice right now by spending the rest of his life in prison. That does it for this free preview, thank you for joining us. If you liked this episode and have not done so already, consider joining.

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