A decades-old murder case involving the disappearance of a young boy is heading toward its third trial after a New York judge refused to throw out charges against the accused killer.
Pedro Hernandez, 65, will face trial again for the abduction and murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who vanished while walking to his school bus in 1979. The defendant has remained in custody since authorities arrested him in 2012, and he’s scheduled to return to court in June for a status hearing. Officials have not announced when the trial will begin.
The little boy disappeared during a short two-block journey to catch his school bus on the first morning his mother allowed him to make the trip alone. Etan’s case gained national attention as one of the earliest missing children featured on milk cartons, and the date he went missing, May 25, later became National Missing Children’s Day.
Judge Michele Rodney rejected defense arguments that prosecutors took too long to bring charges against Hernandez and that extensive media attention over the years would prevent him from receiving a fair trial.
“The court will carefully work, together with the parties, to ensure that jurors are selected who promise to be fair and to consider only the evidence and the law, despite what they have learned about the case from the media,” Rodney wrote.
Neither Hernandez’s defense team nor prosecutors provided statements following the judge’s decision.
At the time of Etan’s disappearance, Hernandez worked as a 19-year-old employee at a neighborhood convenience store, but he didn’t emerge as a suspect until 2012. Investigators received information that Hernandez had previously told acquaintances he had killed a child or young person in New York.
Following seven hours of police questioning and before being informed of his Miranda rights, Hernandez admitted to strangling Etan in the store’s basement after luring him inside with the promise of a soda. After being read his rights, Hernandez repeated his confession on camera, telling investigators: “Something just took over me.”
Defense attorneys have argued that Hernandez’s statements represent the delusions of someone with mental illness and intellectual disabilities who became confused and tormented by a widely publicized crime that occurred near his workplace.
The legal proceedings have stretched across multiple years and trials. Hernandez’s first trial in 2015 concluded without a verdict when jurors couldn’t reach agreement, while a second trial in 2017 resulted in a conviction. However, a federal appeals court later reversed that guilty verdict, ruling that the trial judge improperly handled a jury inquiry about evaluating Hernandez’s confessions.
Manhattan prosecutors have committed to pursuing the case again while simultaneously asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Hernandez’s conviction. The Supreme Court has not indicated whether it will review the case.
