Man convicted in 1979 killing of 6-year-old
NEW YORK — Nearly four decades after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished on the way to his school bus stop, a former convenience store clerk was convicted Tuesday of murder in a case that influenced American parenting and law enforcement.
The jury verdict against Pedro Hernandez gave Etan’s relatives a resolution they had sought since May 1979 and gave prosecutors a conviction that eluded them when a 2015 jury deadlocked.
“The Patz family has waited a long time, but we’ve finally found some measure of justice for our wonderful little boy, Etan,” said his father, Stanley Patz, choking up.
“I am truly relieved, and I’ll tell you, it’s about time. It’s about time.”
Hernandez, who once worked in a shop in Etan’s neighborhood, had confessed, but his lawyers said his admissions were the false imaginings of a man whose mind blurred the boundary between reality and illusion. On the earlier jury, the lone holdout against conviction cited the mental health issue as a major reason for his stance.
This time, the jury concluded Hernandez had a psychiatric disorder but hadn’t imagined killing the boy, one member said.
“We decided he has an illness … but that didn’t make him delusional,” said Michael Castellon, a construction company attorney. “We think that he could tell right from wrong. He could tell fantasy from reality.”
Hernandez, 56, showed no reaction on hearing the verdict, but his lawyers said he planned to appeal. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 28.
“In the end, we don’t believe this will resolve the story of what happened to Etan back in 1979,” said lawyer Harvey Fishbein.
Etan became one of the first missing children ever pictured on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance has been designated National Missing Children’s Day.
And his disappearance helped tilt parenting to more protectiveness in a nation where many families had felt comfortable letting children play and roam alone. As Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi put it when the trial opened last fall, Etan “will forever symbolize the loss of that innocence.”
The long-awaited verdict had one prosecutor quoting the Bible — “justice shall you pursue,” Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann said.