THE mother of murdered jogger Karina Vetrano screamed at the man who ‘admitted to killing her daughter' after seeing him for the first time in court.

Cathy Vetrano shouted “now your nightmare begins” at Chanel Lewis, 20, while the suspect appeared before Queens Criminal Court on Sunday.

She attended court with her retired firefighter husband Phil along with dozens of relatives and friends.

Tragic Karina was raped and murdered while jogging in Spring Creek Park in the New York borough on August 2 last year.

Before watching Lewis being arraigned, Cathy reportedly branded the suspect “savage” and a “demon”.

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Police have allegedly claimed that Lewis has made ‘detailed’ confessions about strangling Karina, reports the New York Daily News.

Cops arrested the suspect after matching his DNA to traces found under the victim’s fingernails.

The NY Daily News reports that Lewis, who was staying with his father at the time of the crime, was 'angry' before he left for the park where the murder took place.

Earlier it was claimed Lewis once said he "wanted to stab all the girls" at his school, it is reported.

The 20-year-old is alleged to have warned a teaching assistant of his violent wishes in 2011, a police source told The New York Post.

The sources said Lewis had warned he wanted to "bring a knife to school to stab all the girls".

The allegations come just a day after Lewis' father called his son a peaceful and “very humble kid” who was more likely to be the victim of violence.

Former school principal Richard Lewis said of his son Chanel's murder arrest: “It’s extremely surprising.

“Chanel would never have gone to do what they say he has done. He’s never had a fight in his 20 years.

“He’s a humble kid. He’s a very humble kid.”

Chanel, 20, ended up in hospital last year after a gang of muggers whacked him with a piece of wood, his father told the New York Post. Later he was mugged again by the same thugs.

Jobless Chanel, who planned to work in social services, has no previous convictions.

But he had a "hatred" for women and attacked Karina at random in a lethal rage, sources claim.

A law enforcement source told the New York Daily News: “He doesn’t have a criminal record but he’s had previous incidents in which he has expressed a hatred for women.

"He’s thought of hurting women or attacking women. He’s expressed a deep-seated aggression towards women. But it was nothing he’s ever acted on.”

He was linked to the cold case when an officer remembered he was caught lurking suspiciously in the area three months before petite jogger Karina, 30, was found strangled and raped in a park in Queens, New York, last August.

Officers arrested Chanel Lewis over the weekend and he has since been charged with the "extraordinarily brutal crime" after reportedly making a detailed confession.

His DNA was also found under Karina's fingernails from where she scratched him, prosecutors said.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Curtis said: “The victim was out for a jog less than one mile from her house and was attacked, savagely beaten and strangled to death.”

“This defendant admitted to attacking the victim, admitted to beating her, to strangling her and dragging her body into the weeds.

"DNA links this defendant to scene of the crime.”

After he was charged Karina's heartbroken mum Cathy said: "The demon must get his justice. We will see to it."

Dad Phil, who found her body, said: "I'm not going to say it is a good day but we can move forward now.

"We know who did this."

Karina's last moments were caught on CCTV as she went on her regular 5pm run in Spring Creek Park in the Howard Beach area of Queens on August 2.

Her ex-fireman dad Phil raised the alarm when his daughter did not return home and was with cops when her body was discovered at around 10.30pm later that evening.

Police believe she was punched in the face before being dragged into the park, raped and strangled.

Police had been using CCTV footage of the young woman's last moments to hunt down the mystery man who used to jog “four or five days a week” on the same trail as Karina.

Cops said Karina's teeth were smashed before she was strangled and her jogging bottoms had been pulled down.

They said a used condom was found near where the jogger was attacked.

In a sitdown interview with XPIXChannel 11, her devastated father said he had a premonition something wasn't right soon after his daughter left that evening.

The avid jogger would usually run the trail with her father, but on the evening of her murder she went alone as her dad, Philip Vetrano, was recovering from an injury.

In an interview on The Dr. Oz Show in December, Mr Vetrano revealed the “bad feeling” he had on the day his daughter was murdered.

He said: “She asked me to go for a run and I said I couldn’t go.

“And about 25 minutes later I got a bad feeling. I knew something was wrong. Like something was wrong.”

Karina was a keen poetry fan and writer and said of herself she had a “beautiful” but “chaotic” life.

After news of her death hit social media, tributes poured in for the fitness fanatic from friends as well as those who did not know her personally.

One tweeted: “RIP KARINA. I am heart broken, mortified.

“You were amazing and full of life.”

During Thanksgiving last month, Mr Vetrano said that while everyone was celebrating the holiday season, he wouldn’t be doing the same this year.

“We’re not going to celebrate. There’s nothing for me to celebrate,” he told the New York Post.

“We have a grandchild, only seven months old, who was only two months old when Karina, you know, died.

“There’s going to be trigger days, I’m sure, Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries. They’re going to be harder than normal, but normal is hard.”

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