Friday, January 30, 2015

Decades After Etan Patz's Disappearance, Murder Trial Begins - New York Times




Stanley Patz, the father of Etan Patz, who disappeared 35 years ago in SoHo, and Shira Patz, right, Etan's sister, arrived at New York City Supreme Court on Friday. Michael Appleton for The New York Times




The murder trial against a man accused of killing Etan Patz — a missing-child case that rattled New York City and forever changed the way American parents regarded the security of their children — finally began on Friday.


Before an overflow crowd that included the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who was seated two rows behind Etan’s father and sister, a prosecutor began laying out the path that led the police to arrest the man, Pedro Hernandez.


Etan was 6 years old when he vanished on May 25, 1979, while walking from his apartment on Prince Street to a bus stop two blocks away.


Mr. Hernandez, who worked at a bodega close to where the boy was last seen, would confess that he had killed a child to a church group and others in the early 1980s, a prosecutor said during opening statements on Friday.


Mr. Hernandez was described by the prosecutor as a person wracked with guilt who told his ex-wife, a friend and a church group about his crime, but withheld some information.



“The defendant feels tremendous guilt and he wants to unburden himself but he doesn’t want to get caught,” the prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, said.




Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, on Friday, the first day of the murder trial for Pedro Hernandez, who is accused of murdering Etan. Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Mr. Hernandez, 53, of Maple Shade, N.J., was arrested in May 2012 on a tip from one of his family members, who told the police Mr. Hernandez had talked about killing a child in the late 1970s. Picked up at his home, Mr. Hernandez broke down and confessed after a six-hour interrogation by three New York detectives.


Twelve hours later, he repeated the confession to a senior prosecutor in Manhattan. Both statements were videotaped and they form the heart of the people’s case against Mr. Hernandez.


Defense lawyers argue those statements were fictional stories, spun by a compliant man with a history of mental illness and a low IQ. They intend to call expert witnesses to testify Mr. Hernandez has trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality.


The defense, which is expected to deliver its opening statement later on Friday, also plans to introduce evidence suggesting another man was responsible for Etan’s death: Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child molester who knew the boy’s babysitter and was a longtime suspect in the case.


Prosecutors have said they have no scientific testimony to buttress their case. Etan’s body was never found. But they have said they will call Mr. Hernandez’s first wife and one of his childhood friends, who will both testify he made similar admissions in the early 1980s about having killed a child in New York City.


But prosecutors acknowledge the state’s case depends heavily on the jurors deciding the confessions are reliable and prove Mr. Hernandez’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. They say the defense has exaggerated Mr. Hernandez’s mental disabilities.


Mr. Hernandez was a teenage store clerk at a bodega at West Broadway and Prince near the spot where Etan was last seen alive. It was the first time his parents had allowed him to go to school on his own; he had a dollar to buy a soft drink.


On the videotapes, Mr. Hernandez tells investigators he lured Etan into the basement of the bodega with the promise of a soda, then throttled him from behind, squeezing his neck until he lost consciousness.


Then, Mr. Hernandez said, he wrapped the boy, still alive, in a thick garbage bag, put the bag in a cardboard box and carried it two blocks away, leaving it with some trash in an alley.


“I don’t know why I did it,” he said toward the end of the second interview with a senior prosecutor, Armand Durastanti. “I tried to stop, but I couldn’t stop. My legs were jumping. I was nervous and I did it and I’m sorry I did it.”


Etan became one of the first missing children featured on milk cartons. His parents helped shape legislation that created a nationwide framework for addressing such cases, and the anniversary of his disappearance became national Missing Children’s Day.


And among Mr. Hernandez's personal belongings, Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon, said on Friday, was a picture of Etan.




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