NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A 58-year-old Virginia man was arraigned on Monday in the 1992 death of a 15-year-old girl found naked and strangled in her Queens home.
Jerry Lewis of Shawsville, Virginia, was arraigned on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree.
According to the charges, on May 7, 1992, Lewis strangled Slade using her bra.
She was found by her mother in a bathroom shared by two apartments in their multi-family home in Far Rockaway.
Lewis and others had been in the adjoining apartment, which used the same bathroom, the night before the murder.
Lewis and Slade did not know one another, officials said.
There was a break in the case when District Attorney Katz’s office and the NYPD last year requested that the New York City Medical Examiner’s office test for DNA under the victim’s preserved fingernail clippings which resulted in DNA evidence that linked Lewis to the crime.
The investigation also included multiple witness interviews and extensive searches of records.
"Any mother’s worst nightmare is to survive a child. To lose a child in such a horrific way causes unimaginable pain," District Attorney Katz said. "Not knowing who committed the crime compounds the suffering. In the end, we hope to achieve justice for Nadine and bring closure and some measure of solace to her bereaved mother."
Lewis is set to return to court on June 7. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison.
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