QUEENS, NY – A Virginia man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the decades-old killing of 15-year-old Nadine Slade, a Far Rockaway girl brutally strangled in 1992, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Tuesday.
Jerry Lewis, 60, of Shawsville, Virginia, was convicted of second-degree murder last month following a two-week trial before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder, who handed down the sentence earlier today. The case was revived after preserved DNA evidence from the crime scene was re-tested, leading investigators directly to Lewis more than three decades after the slaying.
On the morning of May 7, 1992, Slade’s mother returned home from work as a school bus driver to their apartment on Nameoke Avenue in Far Rockaway and discovered her daughter unresponsive in the shared bathroom. The teenager had a bra tied tightly around her neck, twisted with a can opener found nearby.
Investigators later determined Lewis had been inside the adjacent apartment the night before the killing. The bathroom, shared between both units, became the scene of a violent struggle. DNA collected from under the victim’s fingernails remained crucial to solving the case.
DNA breakthrough ends 34-year search for justice
In 2022, the DA’s Cold Case Unit, working alongside the NYPD Cold Case Squad, requested new forensic testing of the preserved evidence. The analysis produced a DNA profile matching Lewis, who was already listed as a convicted sex offender. Detectives interviewed him during a routine parole visit in March 2023, and he was arrested on May 1 of that year.
“This conviction delivers long-awaited justice for Nadine Slade and her family,” DA Katz said. “We will never give up on our victims. The science caught up with the killer, and today’s sentencing brings closure that’s been 34 years in the making.”
- Jerry Lewis, 60, sentenced to 25 years to life for 1992 murder
- DNA evidence linked the convicted sex offender to the crime
- Cold case solved through efforts by Queens DA’s Cold Case Unit and NYPD
Cold case closed as justice finally delivered for Nadine Slade.