DNA proof ties intercourse offender to chilly case homicide of NYC teen strangled by her personal bra
A intercourse offender with a prolonged rap sheet was arrested in Virginia for the homicide of a Queens teenager after chilly case detectives discovered DNA proof beneath the sufferer’s fingernails that linked him to the killing, officers stated Tuesday.
Jerry Lewis, 58, of Shawsville, Virginia, was arraigned Monday for the Could 7, 1992 killing of 15-year-old Nadine Slade, who was discovered bare and strangled along with her personal bra inside the toilet of her household’s Far Rockaway residence, Queens District Lawyer Melinda Katz stated in a press release.
Lewis is a profession prison who served six years in jail after he was convicted in 2015 of breaking into an 88-year-old lady’s residence in Queens and sodomizing her at knifepoint, in line with jail data.
Detectives advised The Submit they broke open the fossilized chilly case by requesting DNA testing on preserved fingernails clipped from the woman’s physique.
“We had been simply digging by outdated murder instances and noticed that [the Slade murder] had some forensic potentialities,” Det. Donnamarie Mazza of the town’s chilly case squad advised The Submit.
The outcomes matched Lewis’s DNA, Mazza stated.
So she traveled to southwestern Virginia to interview him. Lewis was about to be picked up for a parole violation — police within the Outdated Dominion had twice arrested him for allegedly beating his live-in girlfriend, Mazza stated.
Nonetheless, he spoke freely to the New York Metropolis detective for almost 4 hours, she stated.
He fought extradition, however authorities ultimately introduced him to the Large Apple on April 28, the place he was charged.
Queens Supreme Court docket Justice Kenneth Holder ordered Lewis to return to courtroom on June 7, the discharge stated. If convicted of the second-degree homicide cost, he could possibly be imprisoned for 25 years to life.
He’s being held on the Eric M. Taylor Heart on Rikers Island, data present.
“Any mom’s worst nightmare is to outlive a baby,” Katz, the district lawyer, stated in a press release. “To lose a baby in such a horrific means causes unimaginable ache. Not understanding who dedicated the crime compounds the struggling.”
“In the long run, we hope to realize justice for Nadine and produce closure and a few measure of solace to her bereaved mom.”
Mazza would possibly agree.
“Her mother says she hasn’t slept by the night time in 31 years,” the detective stated. “Their lives don’t go on — they’re nonetheless caught in that day.”
