Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Killers Amongst Us: (Part 4) Gorgeous Queens jogger Karina Vetrano murdered the one day dad stays behind.

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Killers Amongst Us: (Part 4) Gorgeous Queens jogger Karina Vetrano murdered the one day dad stays behind. · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:04
Speaker 1: Hi, guys, Nancy Grace here, Welcome back to Killers amongst us,
0:08
Speaker 1: the production of iHeartMedia and Crime Online. We are investigating
0:19
Speaker 1: the disappearance of a beautiful young girl, Corina Patronto, who
0:23
Speaker 1: goes missing in broad daylight while jogging in a popular park.
0:28
Speaker 1: Corina's dad, Phil joins us this week, as does Newsday
0:33
Speaker 1: reporter Tony de Stefano. Also with US renowned psychologist doctor
0:37
Speaker 1: Robbie Ludwig and detective Steve Lampley. Also in the house
0:42
Speaker 1: doctor Tim Gallagher, the medical examiner for the State of Florida.
0:47
Speaker 1: We pick up the investigation police trying to piece together
0:51
Speaker 1: evidence and potential DNA without a match. What will be
0:57
Speaker 1: the key to solve Corina's brutal murder? Will that clue,
1:04
Speaker 1: that critical clue be a long forgotten note by an
1:09
Speaker 1: awful duty cop one emergency? Um, it looks like a kid.
1:16
Speaker 1: There's a bombing a house, Nancy Grace, Killers, unlit stas
1:25
Speaker 1: you ameber backyards, back yard? What's the location? Howard being
1:31
Speaker 1: in New York right now, He's sitting on the curb.
1:34
Speaker 1: He definitely don't blow there, Okay? Is the black white
1:37
Speaker 1: Hispanic agent. He's black American white sweatshirt, black pants with
1:42
Speaker 1: the hood I'm sorry, what call is the shirt white
1:46
Speaker 1: white sweatshirt, hoodie, white sweatshirt and a white sweashirt and
1:51
Speaker 1: the hoodie or the hoodie, sweashirt, white white hooded sweatshirt. Okay, pants,
1:57
Speaker 1: black pants, and now he's in the front of the house,
2:00
Speaker 1: in the out of the backyards place. It looks like
2:04
Speaker 1: he's a crowbar on the floor something. Somebody, my neighbor.
2:09
Speaker 1: He had told me that he was walking around yesterday,
2:11
Speaker 1: so he was also the yesterday und yesterday. Yes, I'm
2:16
Speaker 1: definitely going to make ano. You are hearing the voice
2:19
Speaker 1: of Angelo Canino, who lives in the neighborhood at Howard Beach,
2:24
Speaker 1: and calls him when he sees a suspicious person trying
2:27
Speaker 1: to break into a home. But that person had been
2:31
Speaker 1: spotted before wandering around with a crowbar in his hand,
2:36
Speaker 1: looking in windows. Finally, all the tips, all the police work,
2:42
Speaker 1: all the forensics, and it boils down to a neighbor
2:47
Speaker 1: seeing a guy walking around in the neighborhood with a crowbar.
2:53
Speaker 1: That guy raises the suspicion of police and he's apprehended.
3:00
Speaker 1: With me right now. Karina's father, Phil Vatronto Newsday reporter
3:05
Speaker 1: Tony DeStefano, psychologist, doctor Robbie Ludwig and forensic expert with
3:11
Speaker 1: Bare Bones consulting Karen Smith, Phil Vatronto. As a matter
3:15
Speaker 1: of fact, Angelo Ganino lives not too far from you
3:20
Speaker 1: at all. Do you think this guy Chanel Lewis had
3:25
Speaker 1: walked by your home? Andy Little lives about one hundred
3:28
Speaker 1: and fifty foot away, and he has told me that
3:32
Speaker 1: he saw him walking down my block also, and other
3:36
Speaker 1: people have told me, so it's a good possibility that
3:39
Speaker 1: he saw Karina before, and I believe he was waiting
3:45
Speaker 1: for her, you know, to Tony DeStefano, Newsday reporter, So
3:49
Speaker 1: they get this guy who's basically a loiterer in the neighborhood.
3:53
Speaker 1: People that see him, they know he doesn't live there
3:55
Speaker 1: because they're not that many homes there along the Howard
3:59
Speaker 1: Beach area, and the ones that are there, everybody knows
4:01
Speaker 1: each other. It reminds me of our neighborhood growing up, Tony.
4:05
Speaker 1: I mean, there were only four houses when I grew up,
4:07
Speaker 1: and we all knew who they were. I could tell
4:08
Speaker 1: you right now. It was our house, Beverly Wilson's house,
4:13
Speaker 1: her father's house. And let's say there was one more
4:18
Speaker 1: that would have been the Matthews. We knew all of
4:21
Speaker 1: them same thing here. So when they see this guy
4:24
Speaker 1: walking around with the crowbar, everybody goes, hey, who's hey?
4:27
Speaker 1: You know Lewis and his walks stood out, as mister
4:30
Speaker 1: Garno noted, he was doing things that raised his suspicions,
4:35
Speaker 1: and of course he called the cops Quel nine one one,
4:39
Speaker 1: and that started the ball rolling, you know, just to recap,
4:45
Speaker 1: they didn't arrest, you know, Lewis that day. They simply
4:48
Speaker 1: took his information. They didn't see him doing anything wrong
4:52
Speaker 1: the police at that point, but they had his name
4:55
Speaker 1: in somebody's memo book, so later on this would raise
5:01
Speaker 1: questions and officer Lieutenant Russo's mind his recollections about this
5:06
Speaker 1: fellow loitering in the neighborhood. So this is a crucial break,
5:10
Speaker 1: Tony to Stephano, you are absolutely correct. And what's so
5:14
Speaker 1: amazing Karen Smith with me, with her law enforcement background,
5:18
Speaker 1: forensic expert with Beer Bones Consulting, did you hear what
5:21
Speaker 1: Stefano just said. Did people see this guy loitering and
5:25
Speaker 1: it didn't even rise to a police report? The police
5:28
Speaker 1: officer just wrote it down as a memo in a notebook,
5:32
Speaker 1: and thank god that he did, right, Yes, we did.
5:38
Speaker 1: We called them field investigative reports. They're not official police reports.
5:42
Speaker 1: But if we saw a suspicious person around, let's say,
5:45
Speaker 1: an armed robbery or something like that, and they just
5:47
Speaker 1: didn't look right, we could stop them. We could get
5:49
Speaker 1: their information on what's called an fire a field investigative report.
5:52
Speaker 1: It's not filed. You keep it in your filebook. You
5:55
Speaker 1: turn it into your sergeant at the end of the
5:57
Speaker 1: day and it just goes into a file. And those
5:59
Speaker 1: are used a lot of the time to weave down suspects.
6:02
Speaker 1: We use them all the time, Nancy. And what's so
6:05
Speaker 1: amazing and frankly a miracle. Miraculously this happens. They see
6:11
Speaker 1: the guy Lloyd Ring walking around with the crowbar. They
6:13
Speaker 1: know he doesn't live there. It's not even a police
6:16
Speaker 1: report because he didn't catch him doing anything technically wrong,
6:20
Speaker 1: all right, So they write it down as a memo
6:23
Speaker 1: and it's in somebody's notebook. Time passes and then as
6:28
Speaker 1: Tony to Stephano and Neuesday points out accurately, listen to
6:31
Speaker 1: Lieutenant John Russ and I'm one way the emergency, suspicious trail,
6:38
Speaker 1: a sufficious amen or male like pizza mel you only
6:41
Speaker 1: in a single mile? Am in? They're wondering? Okay, wait,
6:46
Speaker 1: matt um certain what is the address of the emergency?
6:49
Speaker 1: Or close the corner of one sixty four uh huh
6:53
Speaker 1: Avenue and a seventh Street? How wild? Okay? So it's
6:58
Speaker 1: one sixty four Avenue? And what was the other street?
7:01
Speaker 1: Stir in the OFN three eight seven Street? And is
7:06
Speaker 1: he in front of a certain location or bill? No,
7:08
Speaker 1: he's walking around if you're walking around the block? Okay,
7:11
Speaker 1: Hold on one second, So on one sixty fourth in
7:13
Speaker 1: eighty seven street, and this is in Queens, correct, And
7:16
Speaker 1: you said Howard Beach okay, so, and he's a suspicious
7:19
Speaker 1: person just walking back and forth around the block. Here
7:22
Speaker 1: is looking in yards around different blocks to blow himself.
7:25
Speaker 1: And with that one phone call, Chanelle Lewis is apprehended.
7:32
Speaker 1: Was it a hunch or was it months and months
7:35
Speaker 1: of searching and then suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye,
7:40
Speaker 1: in one twist, every thing changes. Listen to this. Now,
7:48
Speaker 1: while you're in the park, does something happened? Yes? What
7:52
Speaker 1: happened while you're in the park? Punk just girl jog
7:57
Speaker 1: in it? You know, one thing left to another loocause
8:03
Speaker 1: we'll get some other situation. All right, Well the girl
8:06
Speaker 1: that was jogging? Was she buy yourself or with anybody else?
8:09
Speaker 1: By herself? Um? What does he look like? What was
8:12
Speaker 1: he wearing? Was going a especially uncause you went? You
8:16
Speaker 1: got a tank top? Maybe? Okay? What kind of pants?
8:20
Speaker 1: I want? Were they long or short? Do you remember?
8:25
Speaker 1: Remember they long pants or short pants? Okay? Um? And
8:30
Speaker 1: was he was he jogging? Was she coming from the
8:33
Speaker 1: same direction that you came from when you entered the park?
8:35
Speaker 1: We got out the direction? It's okay. And when you
8:38
Speaker 1: first saw her? Where were you? Were you in the
8:40
Speaker 1: grass or were you're on the trail on the trail?
8:42
Speaker 1: All right? And were you moving or you were you
8:45
Speaker 1: standing still? I was moving? Toto too? Music? You were
8:49
Speaker 1: you were walking or jogging? Walking? Walking? Are you were
8:53
Speaker 1: walking towards her? Was walking towards? And then let's side
8:58
Speaker 1: to side and then anything that's there? You were hearing
9:01
Speaker 1: this guy who ostensibly had done nothing but loitering and
9:05
Speaker 1: potentially breaking into a home. Lieutenant Russo's memory was jogged
9:09
Speaker 1: as they all racked their brains and tried every investigative
9:13
Speaker 1: tool possible to solve the case. You know. To doctor
9:17
Speaker 1: Robbie Ludwig Psychologists, joining me from her Facebook live program
9:21
Speaker 1: in Times Square, Doctor Robbie Ludwig, I say, there's no
9:25
Speaker 1: such thing as hunches. We think they're hunches, but they're
9:29
Speaker 1: really born off thousands of years of evolution of things.
9:34
Speaker 1: Our body. Our body is like one big radar unit
9:37
Speaker 1: picking up on smells, things you hear, gestures, looks, sounds
9:43
Speaker 1: that other people may make. Just it's the slightest thing.
9:47
Speaker 1: And we call it a hunch because we don't really
9:49
Speaker 1: know where the idea comes from. But this is one
9:52
Speaker 1: heck of a hunch. Yeah, this is incredible. I mean,
9:55
Speaker 1: it is amazing police work that took place here. I'm
10:01
Speaker 1: truly amazed. And it just underscores the importance of when
10:05
Speaker 1: you see something, say something, because when something doesn't seem right,
10:11
Speaker 1: it certainly is worth pursuing and following up on. And
10:15
Speaker 1: so that's what this bystander did. He saw something that
10:20
Speaker 1: seemed unusual, that seems suspicious, and it turned out that
10:25
Speaker 1: it really solved the case. But as it also turns out,
10:28
Speaker 1: Robbie are right, the bystander happened to be a cop,
10:30
Speaker 1: and cops smell trouble. Also, I'm going to point out
10:35
Speaker 1: that Phil Viatronto was a long time firefighter, so he
10:40
Speaker 1: was like a brother to these police officers and they
10:43
Speaker 1: were just working twenty four seven to help him. Before
10:52
Speaker 1: I go any further, I want to ask you, Pheil,
10:56
Speaker 1: do you mind hearing what Channel Lewis is about to
11:02
Speaker 1: say twenty times already? Nancy, I know, I know it verbatim,
11:06
Speaker 1: so no, I don't mind. You know, I just love
11:10
Speaker 1: you and your wife so much and I do not
11:13
Speaker 1: want to be part of hurting your feelings at all.
11:15
Speaker 1: You can't. And what you were talking about earlier about hunches.
11:20
Speaker 1: I got that intuition when I was sitting on the
11:22
Speaker 1: couch and I call it intuition, and you're right, it
11:26
Speaker 1: is a primal, well you can call it a some
11:34
Speaker 1: kind of mechanism that we had when we were close
11:39
Speaker 1: to being animals, and you have to trust your intuition.
11:43
Speaker 1: And ever since that moment, I always trust my intuition
11:47
Speaker 1: because that's what it is. It goes back to wherever
11:50
Speaker 1: it goes back to. But it is an an instinctive
11:54
Speaker 1: ability that we once had and now we disallow it.
11:57
Speaker 1: You know, you said, it's so much better than I did. Hey,
12:00
Speaker 1: with all that in mind, take a listen to Janelle
12:05
Speaker 1: Lewis and when you grabbed her? What happened then start
12:09
Speaker 1: hitting arrow and stuff like that? All right? Now? Um,
12:13
Speaker 1: did you hit it with both hands? Probably? Yeah? All right?
12:18
Speaker 1: And what part of her body to hit with your hands? Any? Everybody?
12:24
Speaker 1: Her face? Just a face? All right? About how many
12:27
Speaker 1: times did you hit her in the face? On five?
12:31
Speaker 1: All right? Was he standing when you started to hit her?
12:34
Speaker 1: Or was he on the ground? He was on the ground, okay,
12:38
Speaker 1: So did she When did she fall to the ground
12:40
Speaker 1: after you grabbed her? All right? Now, when she fell
12:44
Speaker 1: to the ground, was he lying in the path or
12:46
Speaker 1: was he off the path the pathway? When when she
12:51
Speaker 1: when she fell to the ground and you were hitting her,
12:54
Speaker 1: was he on the pathway or was he off the
12:56
Speaker 1: pathway on the pathway? All right? You are here Chanelle
13:01
Speaker 1: Lewis describing how he came upon Karina Vatranto and started
13:09
Speaker 1: beating her. And I noticed, and I've noticed this over many,
13:15
Speaker 1: many years of interrogating suspects, reading their confessions, watching their confessions,
13:22
Speaker 1: they'll go right up to the moment, the critical moment,
13:26
Speaker 1: ie the time of the gunshot, at the time of
13:28
Speaker 1: the rape, the time of the robbery, and somehow at
13:31
Speaker 1: that moment everything kind of gets vague. They've got perfect
13:34
Speaker 1: memory up till right then. I noticed he was saying
13:37
Speaker 1: he started hitting her and quote stuff like that, and
13:41
Speaker 1: then his voice trails off. Take a listen to this.
13:45
Speaker 1: Did she say anything at all? Well? Did she screaming,
13:52
Speaker 1: I'm sorry? Can put book? What are you clubbing her
13:55
Speaker 1: mouth at all? No? Okay? Um? The tooth that broke?
14:01
Speaker 1: Was it like in the front, the top of the bottom?
14:03
Speaker 1: Do you remember? Okay? How long would you say you
14:07
Speaker 1: were hitting her for? About? How how long in time?
14:10
Speaker 1: I mean, no thing about farmings? Five minutes? All right?
14:14
Speaker 1: And did you do anything else to it besides hitter?
14:18
Speaker 1: Did you put her hands on any other part of
14:19
Speaker 1: her body, m up, around her neck or anything? Yeah?
14:26
Speaker 1: The sorry? Yeah? Did you put her hands on ack
14:30
Speaker 1: or around the neck? Okay? Do remember? Was it one
14:33
Speaker 1: hand in both hands? Well? Both? All? Right? Then? How
14:38
Speaker 1: long did you have your hands around her neck? Okay?
14:45
Speaker 1: Did you squeeze her neck when you had your hands
14:47
Speaker 1: around her neck? Yeah? Yeah, okay, you don't remember but
14:52
Speaker 1: how long though, Okay, it was mad at it incident.
14:56
Speaker 1: You were mad about an incident. Okay, we're gonna get
14:58
Speaker 1: to that in a little bit or right. I just
14:59
Speaker 1: want to find what happened, really mad about an incident.
15:02
Speaker 1: He had never met Karinava Toronto in his life. Now.
15:07
Speaker 1: I was listening very carefully, but Tony to Stephano Newsday reporter,
15:12
Speaker 1: they're talking about Karna's tooth, her teeth being broken. But
15:18
Speaker 1: when they asked, did you hit her in the mouth?
15:20
Speaker 1: Did he say no? It's hard to tell from you know,
15:24
Speaker 1: some of that mumbling and low voice where he had
15:27
Speaker 1: indicated that her tooth broke, that's clear from you know,
15:31
Speaker 1: from the from the tape. Um he seemed to indicate
15:36
Speaker 1: to me that you know, he had he had hit her. Uh,
15:41
Speaker 1: certainly in the mouth and face. We had a broken
15:44
Speaker 1: we had a chip tooth that we know of from
15:46
Speaker 1: the autopsy. Uh. So it becomes you know, there's a
15:50
Speaker 1: lot that he says that he doesn't say, you're it's
15:55
Speaker 1: a little vague. Yeah, at the moment of the critical moment,
16:00
Speaker 1: he seems to veer off. Do you notice that Phil
16:03
Speaker 1: the Toronto Yes, he tried First of all, he never
16:07
Speaker 1: admitted to the sexual assault because he admitted to murdering her,
16:13
Speaker 1: hemitted to strangling her, but he wouldn't admit to the
16:17
Speaker 1: sexual assault. I didn't touch her there. I didn't touch
16:20
Speaker 1: her anybody or else. And I think he's a lot
16:23
Speaker 1: smarter than people think he is. What kind of top?
16:27
Speaker 1: What kind of pants? I mean, he knew damn well
16:30
Speaker 1: that she was wearing shorts because he pulled them down. Yeah,
16:34
Speaker 1: he he doesn't. He kind of brings himself away from
16:39
Speaker 1: the situation as much as he could and just admitting
16:43
Speaker 1: to certain things. I want to clarify for everyone. She
16:47
Speaker 1: was raped. She was raped. He was convicted of rape.
16:54
Speaker 1: So why do I keep hearing he didn't finish a
16:57
Speaker 1: sex attack, He raped her and he was convicted of right.
17:00
Speaker 1: H Nancy if fightmag interject, this is county. Yes, Yes,
17:05
Speaker 1: it wasn't as defined in New York as rape. It
17:08
Speaker 1: was a sexual aggravated sexual abuse. Uh uh and that
17:15
Speaker 1: you know there is a legal distinction, and I'm sure
17:17
Speaker 1: you can, you know you can, you can appreciate that.
17:20
Speaker 1: But there was sexual trauma on Koreana. Okay, So we
17:26
Speaker 1: keep saying that she was not he didn't finish a
17:29
Speaker 1: sex attack. They did get DNA and he did sex
17:33
Speaker 1: attack her. Listen, when you lived here in the grist
17:37
Speaker 1: what we were close to long? What was the status
17:44
Speaker 1: of her clothing? I was I was clothing full off?
17:48
Speaker 1: Pulled off? Yeah? Okay? What was pulled off? I felt closed?
17:52
Speaker 1: Her shirt, her pants, her pants? What about his shirt? Sure?
17:56
Speaker 1: Stinking was still at still made me me? Okay? Then
18:00
Speaker 1: when you say her pants were pulled off, were they
18:02
Speaker 1: totally off or with a half on a half off?
18:04
Speaker 1: What were they kind of half off? Okay? Um? Were
18:09
Speaker 1: they down or up? I mean her pants club lay down? Okay?
18:15
Speaker 1: What about her underwear? Maybe it was down't okay? Did
18:20
Speaker 1: you um touch her in any way her her her
18:27
Speaker 1: her vagina, or her anus at all at all? Okay?
18:31
Speaker 1: Well we know that to be completely false. What is
18:35
Speaker 1: it to doctor Robbie Ludwig? Now we need a shrink.
18:39
Speaker 1: He will admit to beating her, that her teeth were broken,
18:43
Speaker 1: that he attacked her over some previous incident. That's very vague.
18:48
Speaker 1: But when it gets down to how did her pants
18:50
Speaker 1: get pulled down? And we know the damage done to
18:54
Speaker 1: her private parts, We know all about that from the
18:57
Speaker 1: medical examiner's report, but that he won't admit to. What
19:02
Speaker 1: is that? I wonder what sex means to this killer.
19:06
Speaker 1: You know, it's one thing to be a murderer. That
19:09
Speaker 1: almost sounds very macho, right, You're strong, you're macho, you're powerful,
19:15
Speaker 1: you're the king of your own world. But sexual assault
19:19
Speaker 1: may mean something different to him. And actually it could
19:23
Speaker 1: have been the whole trigger for the murder, that he
19:26
Speaker 1: was sexually excited by this woman and by women in general.
19:32
Speaker 1: And you know, this primal urge took over that he
19:36
Speaker 1: had some shame and guilt about because I am guessing
19:40
Speaker 1: this is somebody who nobody wanted to have sex with.
19:43
Speaker 1: So there in lies some problem with him, and on
19:48
Speaker 1: some level he knows it and feels ashamed about it. Well,
19:51
Speaker 1: if I may interject, Championsai, Okay, he has a mommy issue.
19:56
Speaker 1: The reason he wouldn't admit to the sexual assault because
20:01
Speaker 1: his mother would be ashamed of that. And we know
20:05
Speaker 1: that because he has a mother issue, and that is
20:08
Speaker 1: the reason he would not take complete because he could
20:12
Speaker 1: never admit in front of his mother what he had done.
20:16
Speaker 1: And I didn't want to say too. I just want
20:18
Speaker 1: to say too that you know it's very interesting that
20:22
Speaker 1: we have a rapist killer who has mommy issues because
20:25
Speaker 1: I imagine the original rage towards women stems from his mother.
20:30
Speaker 1: But if he was ashamed to admit to rape in
20:35
Speaker 1: front of his mother, then he also has internalized that
20:39
Speaker 1: shame in himself. Sadly, that shame did not stop him
20:43
Speaker 1: from behaving in this impulsive way, because I think he
20:47
Speaker 1: just had primal urges that he couldn't stop himself from
20:51
Speaker 1: and that could have contributed to the murder as well.
20:53
Speaker 1: To Peel, the Toronto Karina is a dad with us, Phil,
20:57
Speaker 1: what do you mean, how do you know about the
20:58
Speaker 1: mommy issues and what exactly do you mean by that? Well,
21:01
Speaker 1: we know for a fact that his mother was a
21:06
Speaker 1: very dominating, domineering person, and you know, even when he
21:12
Speaker 1: was arrested, her response was, God didn't give me no killer.
21:16
Speaker 1: And yet that's true, God didn't give give her a killer.
21:20
Speaker 1: He was made and he had issues and his issues
21:24
Speaker 1: were not addressed. He was on medication until he got
21:29
Speaker 1: out of high school and then he was just allowed
21:32
Speaker 1: to roam the streets. He had no job, no friends,
21:35
Speaker 1: no girlfriend, and he lived with his mother and he
21:39
Speaker 1: used to as in the defensive summation. He used to
21:45
Speaker 1: rub his mother's feet and definitely had mommy issues and
21:51
Speaker 1: female is very very strong rage issues about women. Wow,
21:56
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just a JD. Juris doctorate, just a lawyer.
22:01
Speaker 1: You would need like a whole team of psychiatrists flown
22:06
Speaker 1: in from Prague, Okay to figure this thing out. But
22:11
Speaker 1: I do know that rage at one woman in your
22:15
Speaker 1: life can turn into it can be projected on other women.
22:21
Speaker 1: And I don't understand it, but I know that it's
22:24
Speaker 1: true because I've seen it so many times. And the
22:28
Speaker 1: rage he and it's not about sex, It's about anger
22:34
Speaker 1: and rage, and that's exactly what he unleashed on Carina.
22:39
Speaker 1: The Toronto with me now the medical examiner for the
22:43
Speaker 1: State of Florida, doctor Tim Gallagher, a renowned medical examiner.
22:48
Speaker 1: Dotor Gallagher, thank you for spending time with us. You know,
22:54
Speaker 1: as testimony came out in trial, family members actually had
22:58
Speaker 1: to cradle hold Karina's mother, Kathy while the medical examiner
23:06
Speaker 1: reviewed autopsy photos regarding the extensive bruising, the injuries, the
23:13
Speaker 1: lacerations on her daughter Karina's body. Her teeth were knocked
23:21
Speaker 1: out of her mouth, her neck, was bruised with the
23:29
Speaker 1: imprint of fingerprints. She was strangled so tightly she was
23:36
Speaker 1: truly truly brutalized. You have studied the autopsy of Karina Vatrono.
23:44
Speaker 1: Autopsies are very, very detailed, doctor Gallagher. What have you
23:48
Speaker 1: learned about the injuries Karina Vatrono sustained? Well, I learned
23:52
Speaker 1: that she received potentially fatal injuries to her neck area,
23:57
Speaker 1: most likely in the form of strangulation. The tissue around
24:02
Speaker 1: her neck, the musculature, and the blood vessels have been
24:08
Speaker 1: broken and deeply injured, to the point where it appears
24:14
Speaker 1: as though she met her death via strangulation. Well, we
24:17
Speaker 1: know that her injuries were so severe that it was
24:21
Speaker 1: first believed she had been murdered by quote multiple assailants.
24:28
Speaker 1: There were there were so many injuries to her. Now,
24:33
Speaker 1: let me understand, how do they determine the cod cause
24:38
Speaker 1: of death was by asphyxiation, strangulation, manual strangulation. Well, the
24:44
Speaker 1: cause of death is always a product of elimination. People
24:46
Speaker 1: only die four different ways. You could die of natural disease,
24:50
Speaker 1: you can die of an accident, you can die of suicide,
24:55
Speaker 1: or you can die of homicide. If you were able
24:59
Speaker 1: to rule out that she died as a result of
25:01
Speaker 1: an accident. And as you can rule out she died,
25:05
Speaker 1: she did not die of natural disease or suicide. That
25:10
Speaker 1: would leave homicide. And in order to substantiate a diagnosis
25:15
Speaker 1: of homicide, there must be fatal injuries on the person
25:19
Speaker 1: that occurred as a result of being assaulted by another person.
25:26
Speaker 1: So those are the types of injuries that we key
25:28
Speaker 1: in on when we've eliminated the other possibilities. The senior
25:33
Speaker 1: medical examiner, doctor Margaret Preel, conducted the autopsy, and she
25:40
Speaker 1: did that just twelve hours after Carina was murdered. How
25:45
Speaker 1: could the medical examiner figure out that she had only
25:49
Speaker 1: been dead twelve hours? How do you come up with
25:52
Speaker 1: that exact number? Well, it's not an exact number. It's
25:55
Speaker 1: often arranged and it is determined by the amount of
26:00
Speaker 1: a decomposition when a body. When somebody dies, they immediately
26:05
Speaker 1: start to decompose, and a trained medical examiner can tell
26:10
Speaker 1: by the amount of decomposition approximately when the cause of
26:16
Speaker 1: death was I'm sorry, when the time of death occurred.
26:19
Speaker 1: What were your learning is that Carina suffered so many injuries,
26:24
Speaker 1: including a large, extensive abrasion on her right, but a
26:29
Speaker 1: career end, a laceration to her vagina, bruising around her neck,
26:38
Speaker 1: burst blood vessels across her face, teeth knocked out. How
26:45
Speaker 1: how do you get a laceration to your vagina, Doctor Gallagher?
26:52
Speaker 1: Typically in an assault case that is a result of
26:56
Speaker 1: a sexual attack, you would not only have to find
27:00
Speaker 1: a laceration to the vagina, but you would also have
27:03
Speaker 1: to find contusions or black and blue marks, so to speak,
27:07
Speaker 1: around the pubic area and on the inner thighs, and
27:10
Speaker 1: these would support a diagnosis of sexual assaults. I found
27:16
Speaker 1: something very curious. Her cause of death is strangulation. But
27:21
Speaker 1: the medical examiner, doctor Priole, says that Karina's hair was wet.
27:28
Speaker 1: Her hair was wet, She was not drowned. Her hair
27:33
Speaker 1: was wet. However, her neck was marked with linear scratches.
27:42
Speaker 1: Could this be a sign that she scratched herself with
27:45
Speaker 1: her own nails while trying to pry her attacker's hands
27:51
Speaker 1: off her neck. That is an absolutely vital piece of
27:55
Speaker 1: information in this case. One of the most difficult things
28:00
Speaker 1: a medical examiner can do is try to distinguish a
28:04
Speaker 1: strangulation from a suicide. These linear marks on her neck
28:11
Speaker 1: are most likely from her own fingernails, and if samples
28:16
Speaker 1: of DNA were taken from under her own fingernails, you
28:19
Speaker 1: might find that it is her skin that is under
28:23
Speaker 1: the fingernails as well as maybe another the skin of
28:29
Speaker 1: maybe her attacker. Well, I would think so, doctor Gallagher,
28:31
Speaker 1: because if she is scratching herself trying to pull his
28:34
Speaker 1: hands off of her, then I would imagine his DNA
28:39
Speaker 1: his skin is under her nails as well. You know,
28:42
Speaker 1: she's a tiny, tiny woman. She's only four eleven. She
28:46
Speaker 1: only weighs around one hundred and ten pounds. When she
28:49
Speaker 1: was found, her sports bra was pulled down to reveal
28:53
Speaker 1: her breasts. Her underwear and shorts were rolled around her
28:59
Speaker 1: left thigh and pulled off her right leg. And I
29:04
Speaker 1: believe her attackers sex attack on her, resulting in her
29:10
Speaker 1: right tennis shee being found elsewhere because her underwear and
29:15
Speaker 1: shorts have been rolled down the left thigh and completely
29:19
Speaker 1: pulled off the right leg. Would you agree or disagree?
29:22
Speaker 1: I would I would agree. You know, even though it's
29:25
Speaker 1: a sexual attack, typically they are signs of somebody dominating
29:30
Speaker 1: over somebody else and then taking their clothes and tossing it,
29:34
Speaker 1: perhaps in a fit of anger or perhaps in a
29:38
Speaker 1: show of domination, is quite common on scenes like these.
29:42
Speaker 1: The medical examiner, doctor Priole, also described Karina's vagina and
29:51
Speaker 1: her anus. Her we're end both bruised inside and out,
30:02
Speaker 1: as the medical examer says, consistent with an object being
30:06
Speaker 1: inserted into her vagina and her anus? How do you
30:13
Speaker 1: determine that, doctor Gallagher? And let me warn everyone listening
30:17
Speaker 1: right now, this is very very difficult conversation and testimony.
30:24
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Gallagher. It is so typically what you would
30:28
Speaker 1: think was the object the assailants penis or was it
30:33
Speaker 1: an inanimate object that he had with him were found
30:35
Speaker 1: near the site. An inspection of the inner portion of
30:40
Speaker 1: the body, the insides of the body, If it reveals
30:45
Speaker 1: that the object had gone into the vagina, through the
30:50
Speaker 1: uterus and up into the abdominal cavity, that would be
30:56
Speaker 1: most likely an object that was inanimate, as though not
31:01
Speaker 1: his penis, for instance, not a penis, and the same
31:05
Speaker 1: would go for the anal area. If the portion of
31:11
Speaker 1: the colon over there is torn is perforated, that is
31:17
Speaker 1: most likely an inanimate object rather than being that of
31:21
Speaker 1: the assailants penis. The brutality with which she is attacked,
31:29
Speaker 1: horribly beaten. It's it's overwhelming. As a matter of fact,
31:36
Speaker 1: at trial, jurors actually had to turn away from these photos.
31:44
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, with all of these injuries to
31:47
Speaker 1: create a vitranto's body, how in the world could a
31:50
Speaker 1: medical examiner isolate the cause of death as to as
31:55
Speaker 1: being strangulation, manual strangulation, not asphyxiation such as smothering, not
32:01
Speaker 1: ligature strangulation such as with a rope or a pair
32:05
Speaker 1: of stockings, but manual strangulation amidst all of these injuries. Well,
32:10
Speaker 1: number one, I really have to show appreciation for the
32:14
Speaker 1: New York City Office of the Medical Examiner. They do
32:17
Speaker 1: wonderful work, and we try to model the high standards
32:21
Speaker 1: that they set in our offices in Florida. Right, But
32:27
Speaker 1: then we have to remember that the cause of death
32:32
Speaker 1: and the manner of death is an opinion, is an
32:34
Speaker 1: opinion of the medical examiner based on all the facts
32:37
Speaker 1: that they were able to gather during the case. And
32:42
Speaker 1: so in the medical examiner's opinion, the most likely cause
32:47
Speaker 1: of death based on the degree of injury was in
32:54
Speaker 1: the neck area, and in her opinion, that is the
32:58
Speaker 1: immediate cause of death. According to police insiders, they believe
33:05
Speaker 1: that Carina was punched multiple times with a fist in
33:12
Speaker 1: the face. What would be consistent with that theory that
33:17
Speaker 1: you have observed in autopsy, There's a couple of things
33:21
Speaker 1: taken the entire body into totality. There had to be
33:25
Speaker 1: at one point where she was taken off of her feet,
33:28
Speaker 1: and she does have an injury to her face, and
33:31
Speaker 1: she has those linear abrasions on her buttocks, So it's
33:34
Speaker 1: totally possible she may have been attacked initially by a
33:38
Speaker 1: punch to the face that threw her on the ground
33:41
Speaker 1: and gave her a bit of road rash on her
33:44
Speaker 1: buttock cheek. Other things that would I would be able
33:50
Speaker 1: to find would be broken bones in her face. We
33:53
Speaker 1: would do a procedure called a face dissection and where
33:58
Speaker 1: we would use our instruments to remove much of the
34:02
Speaker 1: skin and soft tissue around the face and look for
34:05
Speaker 1: broken bones, especially the cheek bones, the nose bone, i'side,
34:10
Speaker 1: the nasal bone, and then bones of the jaw to
34:13
Speaker 1: see if they were injured during the punching attack. With
34:17
Speaker 1: the punching attack to this four foot eleven, one hundred
34:21
Speaker 1: and ten pound woman attack to the face. Would the
34:28
Speaker 1: injuries to Karina's face be consistent with her perpetrator straddling
34:36
Speaker 1: her a knee on each side, on top of her,
34:39
Speaker 1: and repeatedly punching her with fists to her face. Is
34:44
Speaker 1: she lie there defenseless? You can't rule that out, Nancy,
34:48
Speaker 1: And you know many many scenarios are possible, and without
34:52
Speaker 1: a direct witness, it's impossible to determine what exactly happened.
34:56
Speaker 1: But certainly that is within the realm of possibility. As
35:04
Speaker 1: I am talking to a renowned medical examiner for the
35:07
Speaker 1: State of Florida, doctor Tim Gallagher. This is why people cry,
35:16
Speaker 1: they get physically sick during murder trials when they are
35:21
Speaker 1: confronted with this type of evidence. I remember so many
35:25
Speaker 1: times when I would leave the medical examiner's office, which
35:29
Speaker 1: I would visit for every single homicide case I tried.
35:34
Speaker 1: I would just sit in the parking lot trying to
35:39
Speaker 1: compose myself after what I have been told. Because you
35:45
Speaker 1: hear Gallagher and I talking about this so clinically, but
35:49
Speaker 1: we are talking about a beautiful young girl, just the
35:54
Speaker 1: light of her parents' life, the apple of their eyes,
35:59
Speaker 1: and we were talking about her face being beaten to
36:03
Speaker 1: mush and distortion of her vagina and her anus. It's
36:10
Speaker 1: about anger and rage and that's exactly what he un
36:16
Speaker 1: leased on Karina the Tronto listen. At some point before
36:20
Speaker 1: she went into the waters, he had stopped moving. Is
36:22
Speaker 1: that right? She's not moving before her face went into
36:25
Speaker 1: the water? Correct? All right? Did? Um? I'm sorry? Kind
36:30
Speaker 1: of did it? Kind of? Did? All right? What could
36:33
Speaker 1: you tell us he was breathing or not? What do
36:36
Speaker 1: you say be the last question? Could you tell us
36:38
Speaker 1: she was breathing on the other one? Oh before that?
36:41
Speaker 1: I said no, At some point before she went out,
36:43
Speaker 1: she stopped moving and you said kind of right, this
36:47
Speaker 1: is that after the after the water? Well, that's when
36:50
Speaker 1: when you when she went when you put her in
36:52
Speaker 1: the water, was she still moving? Theme? Develop? What's she moving? Theme?
36:56
Speaker 1: After that? She wouldn't move? Okay, did you fall in
36:59
Speaker 1: the water when you first threw it to the ground
37:01
Speaker 1: or when you're on the ground with her hiding her,
37:03
Speaker 1: did she like kind of moved towards the water. It
37:05
Speaker 1: was more like the strong leash and then she moved
37:07
Speaker 1: into the water. So say after you had your hands
37:10
Speaker 1: on her neck that she went the water? Right? Um?
37:15
Speaker 1: And what did you do then after that that she
37:21
Speaker 1: was the sling there and then I'll go to my
37:24
Speaker 1: ankles and then picked up back far back and putting
37:27
Speaker 1: the bushes. Okay, look, can you just describe to me,
37:30
Speaker 1: like how you moved to a little what part of
37:32
Speaker 1: the body were you holding when when you moved her?
37:34
Speaker 1: Thank you on the hats. Do you hear that feel
37:37
Speaker 1: of a toronto? She went into the water, And remember
37:41
Speaker 1: at the very beginning feel when you told us something
37:45
Speaker 1: led you to that precise spot. You saw one piece
37:50
Speaker 1: of grass broken or bent over, and something inside a
37:54
Speaker 1: voice inside to go that way. You found her and
37:58
Speaker 1: her hair was wet, Remember you told me that, And
38:02
Speaker 1: now we know how how her hair got wet. But
38:06
Speaker 1: did you hear him say she went in the water.
38:09
Speaker 1: She didn't walk over to the water and stick her
38:11
Speaker 1: head in the water and a mud puddle he put
38:14
Speaker 1: her in there? Uly exactly. Hassock was wet also, and
38:20
Speaker 1: it was bewildering too. The police like, why was a
38:23
Speaker 1: hair wet? Why was hassock wet? And it was a
38:26
Speaker 1: puddle like thirty foot away, a small little puddle, and
38:31
Speaker 1: they surmised that she must have been dragged through the puddle,
38:34
Speaker 1: you know, and we know she didn't drown because there
38:36
Speaker 1: was no water in her lungs, so she did not
38:39
Speaker 1: walk and fall into the puddle. Now she did not
38:41
Speaker 1: quote went into the puddle exactly. You know, we were
38:46
Speaker 1: talking earlier about Tony to Stefano from Newsday was talking
38:50
Speaker 1: about how he would not admit in front of his mother.
38:54
Speaker 1: You know, Karen Smith, Frensy expert, you know who. This
38:56
Speaker 1: reminds me of Scott Peterson because he stuck to his
39:01
Speaker 1: story no matter what. And I was there in the
39:04
Speaker 1: courtroom and he would turn around and look at his
39:07
Speaker 1: mother all the time, all the time. Jackie was her name,
39:13
Speaker 1: and he could not admit. I got mad and I
39:17
Speaker 1: strangled her because he would have probably got a voluntary
39:20
Speaker 1: on that and get twenty years to serve out in
39:22
Speaker 1: ten but he wouldn't do it. Now he's on death row.
39:26
Speaker 1: Karen Smith, how many times have you seen somebody not
39:28
Speaker 1: be able to admit in front of their mother or
39:30
Speaker 1: their family? They did it any times. This is not unusual.
39:34
Speaker 1: You know, there's certain suspects out there that light still
39:37
Speaker 1: said have mommy issues. I don't know what the stems from.
39:41
Speaker 1: I don't know what the psychological analysis is behind it.
39:44
Speaker 1: But I've seen it. You've seen it. It's not unusual
39:46
Speaker 1: emancy at all. Take a listen to what Chanel Lewis
39:49
Speaker 1: tells police. So you would dragging her by the hands
39:52
Speaker 1: on the arms, right, and when you dragged her, was
39:55
Speaker 1: was he facing down on to the ground or facing
39:58
Speaker 1: up to this guy? Oh? Facing off? Okay? And when
40:02
Speaker 1: it just rank her too? Somewhere of the pathway, off
40:06
Speaker 1: the pathway, what's on the side of the pathway, bushes, trees, grass,
40:12
Speaker 1: some kind of trees, I mean, some weird love foam.
40:17
Speaker 1: It's called weed and leaves. Wait and lead. Look about
40:20
Speaker 1: how high would you say it was? Was it high
40:22
Speaker 1: or like about eight feet somebody that it's like higher
40:26
Speaker 1: than your head when you're standing. Is that consistent the
40:30
Speaker 1: over tronto with where you found her pretty much exactly? Yeah, yeah,
40:36
Speaker 1: off the path about thirty feet And like I said before,
40:43
Speaker 1: it just started out as one weed bent over and
40:46
Speaker 1: I went in. The trail got more and more matted,
40:50
Speaker 1: until where I found her there was a five or
40:54
Speaker 1: six foot round area that the weeds were completely matted
40:58
Speaker 1: and flattened down. So it is my belief that that
41:05
Speaker 1: is where the biggest total qualification took place, and that
41:12
Speaker 1: is where he killed her. Now, the question is why
41:16
Speaker 1: now you said that you did this because you had
41:20
Speaker 1: some anger? Is that right? All right? Um? Can you
41:25
Speaker 1: tell me about that anger? Because you know, I used
41:28
Speaker 1: to live in a different address and I currently live
41:31
Speaker 1: right now right And then there was sometimes d this
41:35
Speaker 1: man that comes around there. He played that a lot
41:39
Speaker 1: of music and carry a lot of friends around there,
41:41
Speaker 1: and didn't like it because I feel unsafe, comfortable, and
41:44
Speaker 1: I like my beast private and peaceful. And you just okay,
41:51
Speaker 1: what place was this that you used to live in
41:52
Speaker 1: a different place, a place where it was the same
41:54
Speaker 1: neighborhood but a different street, was at Logan Street and
41:58
Speaker 1: there was someone there who ain't who got you? Ain't?
42:00
Speaker 1: Do you remember who that was? Do you remember who
42:06
Speaker 1: that was? Well? What you want to see? Okay, I
42:18
Speaker 1: don't get it? What did you hear that? Tony de
42:21
Speaker 1: Stephano Newsday reporter. He was asked about why he was angry,
42:26
Speaker 1: In other words, why did he pick out Karina pa
42:28
Speaker 1: Toronto of all people assault her and murder her? And
42:32
Speaker 1: he says he's angry about a guy in his neighborhood
42:35
Speaker 1: playing loud music. That was one of the stranger parts
42:38
Speaker 1: of this case. There seemed to have been something going
42:42
Speaker 1: on in either his home or in Ja the immediate
42:47
Speaker 1: neighborhood that got him angry and made him feel insecure. Well,
42:54
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I'm angry right now. I'm angry because
42:58
Speaker 1: John David and Lucy got a comment on their report
43:01
Speaker 1: card that they talked during band Now, John David, maybe, yes,
43:05
Speaker 1: Lucy never, I know that did not happen. Yeah, I'm
43:08
Speaker 1: mad about it, but I'm not going to go attack
43:11
Speaker 1: some soccer mom in the car pool and strangler and
43:14
Speaker 1: Draguto the bushes. We hope, we hope that. So this
43:18
Speaker 1: is totally bogus. Why is he saying this? I think,
43:24
Speaker 1: you know, this may have been a triggering event, but
43:27
Speaker 1: I think what that may have really done is just
43:30
Speaker 1: sent him away from the neighborhood into the park where
43:36
Speaker 1: other things were taking over. When he met came in
43:39
Speaker 1: contact with Karina, which whether's anger or sexual frustration towards women,
43:45
Speaker 1: anger towards women, sexual frustration. Maybe there was a woman
43:50
Speaker 1: at the root of his anger and this was his
43:53
Speaker 1: way of striking out. In any case, he did, you
43:56
Speaker 1: know in the evidence showed that he did it. Well,
43:58
Speaker 1: I think his total bait s. I believe Phil Vatronto,
44:03
Speaker 1: this is all BS trigger schmaker Nancy. I don't believe
44:08
Speaker 1: that incident ever happened. I do not believe that is
44:12
Speaker 1: true because we have his cell phone. We tracked his
44:16
Speaker 1: cell phone, and he left his home around one one
44:20
Speaker 1: pm that afternoon, and he walked deeper into Brooklyn. He
44:24
Speaker 1: walked by the water, he walked down towards Howard Beach.
44:27
Speaker 1: He didn't get into Howard Beach till about five o'clock.
44:30
Speaker 1: So if he was enraged four hours of walking, that
44:34
Speaker 1: rage probably is going to dissipate. So I don't believe
44:38
Speaker 1: his excuse. Well again, Phil, I'm just a trial lawyer, okay,
44:43
Speaker 1: But I know this. He did not attack this beautiful girl,
44:49
Speaker 1: Karina Vatronto on the inside and the outside because some
44:53
Speaker 1: guy is playing loud music. He attacked her because he
44:56
Speaker 1: hates women and she was an outlet for his rage.
45:00
Speaker 1: And right now he's looking for the boogeyman. Wow, it's
45:03
Speaker 1: not really my fault. It's this guy's fault because he
45:06
Speaker 1: played loud music. That's what he's doing. He's transferring blame.
45:10
Speaker 1: Probably himself to somebody else. Listen, had you ever gone
45:14
Speaker 1: to that park like before this date? Would you go
45:16
Speaker 1: there on occasion? Or yeah? Sometimes when I was when
45:20
Speaker 1: I get angry and stuff out there? How many times
45:22
Speaker 1: would you say you've been there before, to the park,
45:26
Speaker 1: like several times? More than three or four times? Yeah? Okay?
45:31
Speaker 1: Would you always go into the park by that trail? Yeah?
45:35
Speaker 1: All right? And would you always walk or there would
45:37
Speaker 1: other ways to get there? I always walk? Would you
45:41
Speaker 1: walk the same route? Sometimes? Doesn't little, sometimes you're a
45:46
Speaker 1: different route? Okay? Did um, did you ever go there
45:49
Speaker 1: with someone else, with friends or anything? No? No, okay?
45:54
Speaker 1: Did you ever one on while you were in that area?
45:56
Speaker 1: Did you ever once get spoken to by police in
45:58
Speaker 1: the area, like for this avenue stopped points by the police.
46:05
Speaker 1: How long before this was that? A couple of months? Agoo?
46:09
Speaker 1: Couple of months before the August second? Let me ask
46:12
Speaker 1: you one question to Donnie to Stephana Newsday reporter. The
46:19
Speaker 1: DNA found on Karinavatronto's body, did it match to Channel Lewis. Yes,
46:29
Speaker 1: the DNA the trial evidence showed from the cell phone
46:37
Speaker 1: and from Corina's neck area matched. It was a very
46:44
Speaker 1: robust sample and it did match. There was also a
46:49
Speaker 1: DNA found under her fingernails, which through a different probability
46:54
Speaker 1: analysis also was found to have been a match. So
46:58
Speaker 1: they had matches three ways in this case, two very
47:05
Speaker 1: very robust samples, and this fingernails stuff, which was also
47:12
Speaker 1: very very convincing. Phil Vatronto Tony de Stefano gave me
47:16
Speaker 1: the professional newsday reporter answer, Phil Va Tronto Qarna's dad
47:21
Speaker 1: did the DNA taken from Corrina's body and her cell
47:25
Speaker 1: phone match Channel Lewis. It was an exact match, and
47:30
Speaker 1: the metal Google examiner they made statistics and it would
47:34
Speaker 1: take nine the population of nine Earth planets for it
47:41
Speaker 1: not to be him. It was one in seven trillion
47:46
Speaker 1: that it wasn't that it could be anybody else, one
47:49
Speaker 1: in seven trillion likelihood that it could possibly be anybody else.
47:56
Speaker 1: So you've got a confession detail, confession plus overwhelming DNA
48:04
Speaker 1: right stunting. In the murder trial of a jagger from Queens,
48:07
Speaker 1: New York, a judge declaring a mistrial by hung jury
48:11
Speaker 1: following just thirteen hours. The jury deadlocked in the case.
48:15
Speaker 1: With DNA evidence and the confession tape, the jurors, seven
48:18
Speaker 1: women and five men, sending a note to the judge
48:21
Speaker 1: telling him they could not agree on whether twenty two
48:23
Speaker 1: year old suspect Channel Lewis was guilty of killing thirty
48:27
Speaker 1: year old Katrina Vatranto two years ago. We are split,
48:30
Speaker 1: they wrote. It doesn't seem that we can make progress.
48:33
Speaker 1: We feel that we have exhausted all of our options.
48:35
Speaker 1: Late Tuesday night, the jury asking to review evidence photos
48:39
Speaker 1: of Vitronto's injuries, and rewatching Lewis's confession tape. On that tape,
48:43
Speaker 1: Lewis seemed telling police that he was upset with a
48:46
Speaker 1: neighbor and that when he came across Vitronto in a
48:48
Speaker 1: secluded section of the park, he quote just lost it,
48:51
Speaker 1: saying he beat and strangled her but did not mollust her.
48:54
Speaker 1: Lewis's defense attorney's arguing the crime scene was corrupted and
48:58
Speaker 1: that Lewis's confession was wrongly up and should not have
49:01
Speaker 1: been admissible on the trial. His attorney say Lewis only
49:04
Speaker 1: confessed because he wanted to go home after waiting hours
49:07
Speaker 1: in an interrogation room. What a mistrial with DNA, stating
49:13
Speaker 1: it's a one in seven trillion likelihood, the possibility that
49:20
Speaker 1: it's not him. It matches him from her neck, from
49:24
Speaker 1: her body, from her cell phone, he confesses in detail,
49:30
Speaker 1: he's there in the neighborhood. Everything fits, and there's a
49:36
Speaker 1: mistrial field the Toronto. You were in the courtroom when
49:39
Speaker 1: the mistrial was announced. What went through your mind and body?
49:45
Speaker 1: I was already concerned that something was going wrong. You know,
49:52
Speaker 1: I've seen studying and surprising verdicts before, like the O. J.
49:56
Speaker 1: Simpson not guilty okay, and I handful of others of
50:01
Speaker 1: that ilk, of that magnitude, Robert Blake, this is one
50:06
Speaker 1: of those Channel Lewis mistrial. Your heart had to be
50:13
Speaker 1: absolutely broken fill the Toronto, to wait two years for
50:18
Speaker 1: this moment and then to have the rug pulled out
50:21
Speaker 1: from under you and then have to go through this again.
50:25
Speaker 1: It was tortuous. Were we felt like the day she died,
50:31
Speaker 1: like it was all happening all over again. That's how
50:35
Speaker 1: badly we felt. Yeah, we were stunned. I mean the
50:38
Speaker 1: world was stunned. I could not believe it. But I
50:41
Speaker 1: got to tell you something, Phil During the jury deliberations,
50:45
Speaker 1: when it went on past X number of hours, I
50:48
Speaker 1: started getting really worried. And I still have the texts
50:52
Speaker 1: that you and I were sending back and forth after
50:55
Speaker 1: the court day, and as the hours went on, I
51:01
Speaker 1: really started getting worried. Now a lot of prosecutors, hey,
51:05
Speaker 1: I've gotten to miss trial before I got one. And
51:08
Speaker 1: it's because in the opening statement I called the defendant
51:11
Speaker 1: a pimp, which he was, but he was not charged
51:14
Speaker 1: with being a pimp. He was charged with child sex
51:16
Speaker 1: trafficking and child rape. Well, I got a mistrial, and
51:20
Speaker 1: a lot of people, including the prosecutors in this case,
51:23
Speaker 1: could have just taken a cheap play. Went well, you know,
51:26
Speaker 1: got screwed up. Let's take a cheap plea and cut
51:28
Speaker 1: our losses. Oh no, oh no. I had that guy
51:32
Speaker 1: re indicted for the same felonies plus a misdemeanor charge
51:36
Speaker 1: of pimping. And I did it all over again and
51:39
Speaker 1: called him a pimp an opening statement with impunity. Now
51:43
Speaker 1: in this case, the prosecutor said, okay, let's just let
51:45
Speaker 1: him play ten years on voluntary and get this thing done.
51:48
Speaker 1: Oh no, oh, absolutely not. They went back to trial.
51:55
Speaker 1: Did you agree with that decision to take it back
51:58
Speaker 1: to trial to a second trial field the Toronto I
52:04
Speaker 1: pleaded to have it done. Yes, I implored the prosecution.
52:11
Speaker 1: I was. I wanted that. I was not going to
52:16
Speaker 1: see him get off easy, making that very difficult decision
52:22
Speaker 1: to take it back to trial and not take a
52:26
Speaker 1: cheap plea, you know the old saying one in the
52:29
Speaker 1: hands worth two in the bush. Mmmmm. They went back
52:33
Speaker 1: to the bush. They went back to the battleground. The
52:47
Speaker 1: thunderous reaction from the VA Toronto side of the courtroom
52:50
Speaker 1: was unmistakable when the jurors delivered a guilty verdict on
52:54
Speaker 1: each of the four counts against Channel Lewis. The twenty
52:57
Speaker 1: two year old was retried after the first court case
53:00
Speaker 1: ended in a hung jury. Lewis is now a convicted murderer,
53:04
Speaker 1: found guilty of killing and sexually assaulting Karnava Toronto as
53:07
Speaker 1: she went out for a jog near her Howard Beach
53:09
Speaker 1: home in twenty sixteen. You're hearing CBS two reporter Valerie
53:13
Speaker 1: Castro reporting that verdict. Listen to this. Today is a
53:17
Speaker 1: day where grieving can begin. Clutching a photo of her
53:24
Speaker 1: beautiful daughter, Carina, Kathy and Phil Vitranto speaking from the
53:28
Speaker 1: steps of their Howard Beach home. I thank the jors
53:33
Speaker 1: from the bottom of our souls and hearts. I thank them.
53:38
Speaker 1: Less than twenty four hours ago, the jury returned a
53:40
Speaker 1: guilty verdict against twenty two year old Toel Lewis. I
53:49
Speaker 1: sat for two and a half years listening to the
53:54
Speaker 1: most disgusting details of my daughter almost horrendous death and moments,
54:05
Speaker 1: last moments of her life at the hands of a
54:09
Speaker 1: savage demon. And it has nothing to do about what
54:14
Speaker 1: color he is or who he is. Vatranto, referring to
54:19
Speaker 1: a last minute anonymous letter alleging racial profiling not admitted
54:23
Speaker 1: at the trial. As for their daughters so cruelly taken
54:26
Speaker 1: from them almost three years ago, nobody will ever forget
54:30
Speaker 1: our daughter Karina, I mean Cyby. She's magical, She's special,
54:35
Speaker 1: She's an angel. You know your voice speaking about her
54:39
Speaker 1: being special and magical and an angel. I think about
54:44
Speaker 1: that so often, vill Vatrano. Chanel Lewis guilty of murdering
54:52
Speaker 1: jogger Karina Vatranto after a dramatic retrial cheers in the courtroom.
55:00
Speaker 1: Justice being served over two years after her brutalized body
55:05
Speaker 1: was found on that lonely jogging trail. Justice, wait a minute,
55:14
Speaker 1: even now, Defense teams are trying to get that verdict reversed.
55:22
Speaker 1: But in this moment, in this moment with Chanelle Lewis
55:27
Speaker 1: behind bars to fill the Toronto, Phil, tell me when
55:35
Speaker 1: you wake up in the morning, as you go through
55:37
Speaker 1: your day, as you put your head on the pillow
55:40
Speaker 1: at night, I believe Karina communicates with you. Definitely tell
55:46
Speaker 1: me about that. I mean in her own way and
55:49
Speaker 1: the ability that angels can, and she is an angel,
55:53
Speaker 1: and that has proven just by the fact that we're
55:55
Speaker 1: she didn't get talking about her, and the fact that
55:59
Speaker 1: it went world why, I mean instantly, it went viral instantly.
56:06
Speaker 1: You know. I have friends now that they've made that
56:08
Speaker 1: from come from other countries, and everybody in the world
56:14
Speaker 1: knows about Karina Vatrano. Now that's why I say she's special,
56:18
Speaker 1: because that doesn't happen. That's not normal. You know, a
56:21
Speaker 1: little girls get killed every day. But when Karina was murdered,
56:26
Speaker 1: the whole world was mourning for her. And yeah, she
56:31
Speaker 1: does communicate with me in her own way, and I
56:35
Speaker 1: think about her all the time every day, but I
56:39
Speaker 1: never think about him ever. Phil, I want to tell
56:42
Speaker 1: you something. Every morning, as you know, I get out
56:45
Speaker 1: between four to forty and five get everything ready for
56:48
Speaker 1: the twins, and you know, I'll start working early so
56:51
Speaker 1: I can try to be done by the time they
56:53
Speaker 1: get out of school. But since you and I've been
56:56
Speaker 1: talking so in depth about Karina, when I go out
57:00
Speaker 1: in the morning, I load up my beat up minivan
57:03
Speaker 1: with all their stuff they have to take, whether them
57:05
Speaker 1: their books, their backpacks, their snacks, their soccer and their
57:08
Speaker 1: volleyball stuff. All that is still dark, and I've found
57:12
Speaker 1: a new star I've never seen before. It's kind of
57:15
Speaker 1: gold and it twinkles. And for some reason, every time
57:20
Speaker 1: I see that, say five o'clock in the morning, I
57:23
Speaker 1: think about Corina Vatronto. She's been weighing so heavy on
57:27
Speaker 1: my mind. I just want to thank you for everything
57:33
Speaker 1: you've done, not only for us here at Quake, but
57:37
Speaker 1: for every life that you've touched, every life that Corina
57:41
Speaker 1: is touching through you. Your fight for familial DNA to
57:45
Speaker 1: be allowed, and in the end it wasn't even used
57:48
Speaker 1: in this case, but you have opened up a door
57:52
Speaker 1: for so many people, so many crime victims. So I
57:55
Speaker 1: want to give our closing thought to you. Fill Vatronto.
57:59
Speaker 1: I'm just an instrument everything I've done, I've done for Koreana.
58:06
Speaker 1: I am an instrument of her to be used for good,
58:12
Speaker 1: and I try to do that. You know, the familiar DNA,
58:15
Speaker 1: the scholarship funding. There's a lot of things that we
58:17
Speaker 1: do in her name, and that's the only thing that
58:27
Speaker 1: gives me any kind of I'm not gonna say pleasure,
58:30
Speaker 1: because I have no pleasure, but it gives me an
58:34
Speaker 1: ambition to keep going and to do more good. I
58:39
Speaker 1: don't know where it's going to stop. I probably never
58:42
Speaker 1: going to stop, but you know, I'd like to get
58:45
Speaker 1: the familiar DNA testing in other states. There's only eleven
58:48
Speaker 1: states that do it. And by the way, the only
58:52
Speaker 1: reason that came about was because of Tony. Tony get
58:54
Speaker 1: the final He wrote the article that I picked up
58:57
Speaker 1: on and I just ran with it. Techs Smith, Doctor
59:00
Speaker 1: Robbie Ludwig, Tony DeStefano, Field Vatranto, and Carina Vatranto, who
59:09
Speaker 1: means so much to so many of us. Nancy Grace
59:15
Speaker 1: signing off, goodbye friend,