It took more than 30 years, but dogged detectives cracked the case of a murdered 15-year-old Queens girl found naked and strangled with her own bra.
A Virginia man, who once lived in an apartment next to the victim’s in a Far Rockaway building, was indicted by a grand jury and arraigned Monday on a second-degree murder charge for the 1992 slaying of Nadine Slade, who was discovered dead by her mother.
The arrest of defendant Jerry Lewis, 58, brought welcome and long-overdue news for Nadine’s relatives after decades of unresolved grief.
“We’re just glad he got caught,” the victim’s brother told the Daily News.
He looked on in Queens Criminal Court along with his sister and two of her children. The sister kept her head down, cried and closed her eyes.
Lewis was convicted in 2015 of forcible sodomy in an attack on an 88-year-old Queens woman, according to a source, and the predator registered as a sex offender with the Virginia State Police in 2021.
Lewis also served time in state prison for attempted murder, robbery and drug possession in the years after the teen’s slaying as her killing remained an open homicide case.
Investigators caught a break in the cold case after Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office and the NYPD last year requested that the city Medical Examiner’s office test for DNA under the victim’s preserved fingernail clippings.
The test resulted in DNA evidence that linked Jerry Lewis to the crime, officials said.
The investigation also included multiple witness interviews and extensive searches of records.
Lewis lived with others in the adjoining apartment, which used the same bathroom as the unit where the victim’s family was staying the night before the murder, officials said. He and Nadine did not know one another, according to officials.
“Any mother’s worst nightmare is to survive a child,” Katz said. ” To lose a child in such a horrific way causes unimaginable pain. 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, 58, of Shawsville, Va., was ordered held without bail and is due back in court June 7. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
Lewis appeared in handcuffs, wearing a pea green sweatsuit and a blue surgical mask pulled below his nose.
Judge Kenneth Holder noted the defendant has a long list of aliases.
“How did we pick Jerry Lewis?” the judge asked.
“That’s my name,” the alleged killer called out. “I don’t even know what’s going on.”
He pleaded not guilty.
“This case here goes back to May 7, 1992,” Holder said to prosecutors.” What happened?”
They recounted the gruesome details of the case. Lewis lived in a two-family home on Birdsall Ave. near Beach Channel Drive and Nadine’s family sometimes stayed in the other apartment. The teen was found by her mother naked and strangled with her bra in a bathroom shared by both apartments.
During the attack, Nadine put up a fight and last year, DNA found under her fingernail clippings was linked to her neighbor, prosecutors said. She bravely and inadvertently secured crucial evidence during the struggle that eventually helped catch her killer, officials said.
A relative of the victim recalled happy family moments before tragedy struck.
Days before the attack, Nadine’s aunt took the girl and her sister on a trip.
“We had just come back from Mississippi,” the aunt said. “We just got back and we were all happy. And I do recall my mother calling and telling me Nadine was murdered. I was shocked because we were all happy.”
She said their faith was rewarded.
“I really thank God that he’s bringing this to a close,” the aunt said. “I am praying for that person. He needs help. I pray for him and for the family.”
Justice, she said, was a long time coming.
“I believe the police were doing their best to find this person,” said the aunt. “You can’t bring a life back.”
