Virginia man convicted in brutal 1992 strangling of Far Rockaway teen after DNA breakthrough
Queens, NY – A 61-year-old man from Virginia has been convicted in the decades-old murder of a 15-year-old girl found strangled in the shared bathroom of a Far Rockaway apartment — a cold case cracked by DNA evidence nearly 34 years later.
Jerry Lewis, of Shawsville, Virginia, was found guilty Tuesday of second-degree murder in the death of Nadine Slade, a teenager discovered unconscious by her mother inside the bathroom of their multifamily home on May 7, 1992. The conviction followed a nearly two-week trial in Queens Supreme Court and just three hours of jury deliberation.
Slade’s body was found with a bra tightly wrapped around her neck and twisted using a can opener. An autopsy determined the cause of death was ligature strangulation, with signs of a struggle and DNA preserved under her fingernails.
The shocking discovery was made when the victim’s mother returned from her job as a school bus driver and found her daughter inside the shared bathroom. Investigators learned that Lewis had been inside the adjacent unit the night before with several other people. Though he had no known connection to the victim, DNA collected at the scene would later prove pivotal.
In 2022, the Queens District Attorney’s Cold Case Unit and NYPD Cold Case Squad requested advanced testing of Slade’s fingernail clippings. The newly developed DNA profile matched Lewis, who is a registered sex offender. He was interviewed in March 2023 during a parole visit and arrested two months later.
Queens DA Melinda Katz announced the conviction, crediting the persistence of her office’s Cold Case Unit and the NYPD for pursuing justice in the long-unsolved homicide. Lewis is scheduled to be sentenced on February 17 and faces 25 years to life in prison.
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Key Points
- Jerry Lewis was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1992 strangulation of 15-year-old Nadine Slade
- The cold case was solved using re-tested DNA evidence from the victim’s fingernail clippings
- Lewis, a registered sex offender, was arrested in 2023 after DNA linked him to the crime
