What there is to know
- A Virginia man was charged and arraigned Monday with murder in the 1992 death of a 15-year-old girl who was found naked and strangled in her Queens home, the local district attorney’s office said.
- Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Jerry Lewis, 58, of Shawsville, Va., has been charged with second-degree murder in the 31-year-old cold case.
- The murder charge Lewis faces relates to events that took place on May 7, 1992. Prosecutors say that was the day Lewis strangled Nadine Slade with her own bra.
NEW YORK — A Virginia man was charged and arraigned Monday in the 1992 murder of a 15-year-old girl found naked and strangled in her Queens home, the local district attorney’s office said. .
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Jerry Lewis, 58, of Shawsville, Va., has been charged with second-degree murder in the 31-year-old cold case.
The murder charge Lewis faces relates to events that took place on May 7, 1992. Prosecutors say that was the day Lewis strangled Nadine Slade with her own bra.
Slade, a teenager, was found by her mother in the bathroom shared by two apartments in her multi-family home in Far Rockaway.
Prosecutors say Lewis and Slade did not know each other, but Lewis and others were in a nearby apartment, using the same bathroom, the night before the tragic murder.
A twist in the cold 1990s case came when Katz and New York City police requested DNA testing of Slade’s preserved fingernail clippings from the city medical examiner’s office.
The results of this DNA evidence linked Lewis to the murder.
“A mother’s worst nightmare is to outlive a child. Losing a child in such a horrific way causes unimaginable pain. Not knowing who committed the crime makes the suffering worse. Ultimately, we hope to get justice for Nadine and bring peace and some comfort to her bereaved mother,” Katz said.
Lewis is due back in court on June 7. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison.
Information from Lewis’ attorney was not immediately available.