Trial In Queens Jogger's Murder Ends With Deadlocked Jury

QUEENS, NY — The trial of the Brooklyn man accused of killing the Queens jogger Karina Vetrano ended with a deadlocked jury Tuesday night, according to the man's lawyers and news reports.

Judge Michael Aloise declared a mistrial in the case of 22-year-old Chanel Lewis after the jury told him it could not reach a verdict after about a day and a half of deliberations, news reports say.

"As we have said since day one, this case is far from conclusive and the jury’s deadlock proves this," the Legal Aid Society, which represented Lewis, said in a statement. "The death of Karina Vetrano is tragic and our hearts go out to her family, but the rush to criminalize our client is not the answer nor is it justice."

Lewis was reportedly arrested early last year, as DNA evidence linked him to the August 2016 murder and sexual assault of Vetrano, whose beaten body was found by her father in a marshy part of Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach.

Prosecutors reportedly alleged that Lewis confessed to murdering Vetrano in a fit of rage. But the East New York man's lawyers argued police rushed the investigation and squeezed the confession out of him, news reports say.

Prosecutors plan to retry Lewis, who is due back in court on Jan. 22, the New York Post reported.

(Lead image: Mourners carry the casket of Karina Vetrano from St. Helen's Church following her funeral in the Howard Beach section of Queens in August 2016. Steven Sunshine/Newsday via AP, File)