The accused killer of New York jogger Karina Vetrano was in court Monday, and a videotaped confession detailed the violent final moments of Vetrano's life as her family listened and sobbed, the New York Post reported.
Chanel Lewis, 21, calmly confessed to killing Vetrano on Aug. 2, 2016 in a video that was played during a pre-trial hearing Monday to determine if it will be admissible as evidence. Police claim Lewis killed the 30-year-old woman while she out running in Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach, Queens.
The attack was brutal. Lewis reportedly broke her teeth and kept beating her until she lost consciousness, then strangled her. He told police, “I was mad; I saw red.”
Lewis said he grabbed Vetrano as she ran by him and that she clawed at his face as he hit her five times, rendering her unconscious.
“She didn’t yell. She was finished,” Lewis reportedly said in the video. “I finished her off, I strangled her. She fell into the puddle and drowned. I got up and wiped off the blood. And she was calm, she was in the pool [of water]. It was like all the way over [her face].”
Before he confessed, Lewis told a detective that he was sorry for what he did and that he wanted to change his life. He insisted that he did not sexually assault Vetrano, even she was found with her jogging shorts pulled down.
“I didn’t do any of the stuff they said, sexual assault and stuff like that,” he told cops, the Post reported.
In the video, Lewis also seemed to think that even though he had admitted to killing Vetrano, he would be able to go on with his life and not face jail time.
“I can straighten out my stuff?” he asked the prosecutor. “Well you’re the DA right? Where do we go from here? Is there a restitution program or something?”
Lewis was asked why he attacked Vetrano, and he gave the perplexing response: “Because a guy moved into [his] house and the neighborhood.”
The victim’s father, Philip Vetrano, said he felt “a lot of anger” and that he lashed out at Lewis’ relatives before he and his family left court in an unmarked police car, the Post reported.
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"His family left the room," Philip Vetrano said. "They couldn't listen to his confession. We know where the coward got his cowardliness from. The truth hurts. It's pathetic. It's just so tomorrow they can say their offspring is not guilty."
Lewis’ family did not answer questions, the Post reported.
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